Coalition, Senators Oppose “Nuclear Option”
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, March 16 – Maine’s two senators should continue to oppose changes to Senate rules that would eliminate filibusters to block confirmation of federal judges, an ad hoc coalition said at two media events in Maine Wednesday.
The Fair and Independent Federal Courts Coalition is an informal group of organizations formed last year to monitor judicial appointments, inform citizens of the importance federal appellate court decisions can have for their everyday lives and encourage Senators Olympia Snowe (R) and Susan Collins (R) to uphold the right of the Senate to debate the appointments, said Sarah Standiford, executive director of the Maine Women’s Lobby, the founding member of the coalition.
“What many folks don’t understand is the vast array of areas where the federal court system can have an impact in our lives,” Standiford said, citing legal decisions by appellate court judges on such subjects as reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, disability rights and sexual harassment. “People from every walk of life in Maine should be concerned about this issue.”
About five people attended the Bangor event and about 20 attended the Portland event, those in attendance said. Representatives of women’s rights, health, labor, environment and other groups spoke at both events, which were held in front of the federal court buildings in both cities.
The coalition opposes the so-called nuclear option, which Republican senators have threatened to use to win approval of President Bush’s judicial nominees. Under current rules, 60 votes are required to break a Senate filibuster, under which opponents of legislation can prevent a vote by speaking for hours, if not days, and refusing to yield the floor-or merely threatening to do so.
Under the nuclear option, Republicans would object to the constitutionality of the filibuster, obtain a favorable ruling from the presiding officer-presumably Vice President Dick Cheney-and vote to uphold that ruling, a vote on which a simple majority of 51 would be sufficient, in effect, to end unlimited debate of judicial nominees.
With 55 Republicans in the current Senate, Bush’s court nominees would be likely to move through more easily. But Democrats, expressing fear that the nuclear option could stifle the voice of the minority forever, threatened Tuesday to all but shut down Senate proceedings.
Sen. Snowe, a moderate Republican who has long opposed use of the nuclear option, said she also was concerned about the impact a change could have on her party in the future.
“I believe that the ‘nuclear option’ is short-sighted and that Republicans should remember that some day we will again be in the minority and will want to have the filibuster available to protect our rights,” she said in a statement.
Sen. Collins spoke out definitively on the issue for the first time Tuesday.
“I am very concerned about the overuse of the filibuster, but I am also concerned that a rule change will further charge the partisan atmosphere to the point that we will not be able to conduct business,” she said in a statement.
Standiford said the coalition will continue its work with the two senators and plans to publish an advertisement in the Portland Press Herald next week signed by hundreds of local lawyers who are against use of the nuclear option.
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