Newt Gingrich Got It Right: The Battle Over the Courts

President Barack Obama's team is continuing the mistakes of prior domestic presidents in his federal judicial selections. He is seeking, as President Clinton did, in the name (and the illusion) of bipartisanship, to nominate experienced moderate judges.

This is a disaster. The Republicans know better and have known better for the last 30 years and that is why for the last three decades we have had conservative domination not only at the Supreme Court level but at the very important federal circuit court level.
Newt Gingrich had it right when even before the beginning of the Reagan presidency he urged the Republicans to use two major qualifications for the appointment of federal nominees. He wanted the nominees very, very young and very conservative. Experience, scholarship, reputation was thrown by the wayside. The Reagan administration nominated as appeals court judges men in the early 30's with little or no legal experience. Most of them were stacked on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals which has been, next to the Supreme Court, the most conservative judicial force in the country.

The judges' youth meant that they would be on the court for a very long time and profoundly influence the law for decades. Republicans carried this mantra through when it came to Supreme Court nominees.

Isn't it clear by now that bipartisanship is and always has been an illusion? Clinton's attempt to pacify and work with Republicans did not work. The "kind of signal" that Obama is giving is the wrong one.

Unless Obama's approach is changed, he will set administrative precedent for his Supreme Court nominees. He must learn from the judicial past. This is an area that unfortunately must be contentious - it's too political and important not to be. Merely because "the majesty of the law" is involved does not mean that it's not totally political.

Comments

[zest]

Republicans appointed politicians not judges; it's got to end sometime.

[twofish]

Newt is good at giving the Rethug game away. He does it because he wants everyone to see how clever he is.

He said, around the time of the Contract On America, that one of the objectives was "defunding the Left." Every time there's another attack on unions, PACs (a way people without a lot of money individually can make a difference in things like ballot initiative campaigns), etc, I think of this objective.

Actually, some Americans think the courts, especially the Supreme Court, are important. Unfortunately, those people are the righties, and they acted on their belief by voting for the most regressive politicians they could find, to appoint judges in their own image. And we are indeed stuck with them for another generation.

[billydog]

But.....but.....Republicans are the party that hates bias....you know, like liberal bias in the press and liberal bias in the Democ"rat" party that freedom fighter Rush Limbaugh is always crowing about. The GOP demands fairness, fairness, fairness.....uhhhhhhhhhhh, but don't ya dare bring back that Fairness Doctrine and force them to play fair!

[1differentdrummer]

Newt knew what he was talking about on this one, but quality, please.

[S-Mo]

Good Post.

[GardenerNorCal]

Aren't Judges charged with making judgements based on the law and objective fact? Then how does political ideology even factor into it?

[Osprey3]

Tell that to Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts!

[1differentdrummer]

Remember Bush v Gore?

[VideoHammer]

Are you serious?

[GardenerNorCal]

Just why is it a good thing to appoint unqualified young jurists (if you can call them that)? How do you know what they base their rulings on if it's not experience? Because you bought and paid for them? That makes it right? I don't think that's what our founding fathers had in mind when they set up our system of government with it's checks and balances. But there are always people like Gingrich that will play the system to their own benefit. That's why we are in the economic and political mess we are in today.

[taikan]

Give credit where credit is due. It was Ed Meese, not Newt Gingrich, who persuaded Reagan to adopt a policy of appointing young ideologues to the federal appellate bench. Also, it was not limited to the Fourth Circuit. For example, Reagan appointed Alex Kozinski, who currently is the Chief Judge in the Ninth Circuit, to the court when Kozinski was in his 30s.

[BBackSoon]

If we continue to deny a long term plan by the Right Wing we will once again have a single Dem president every 16 or 20 years.

Dems seem to think in 2 or 4 years and Repugs think in Decades.

Remember Roberts as Chief Justice. He will be there for 20, 30 or 40 years.

[SweetWilliam]

You hit the nail on the head.