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  • April 25, 2013

    Ongoing Obstruction in Senate Rekindles Calls for Filibuster Reform

    by Jeremy Leaming

    Last year, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took to the Senate floor to bemoan his Republican colleagues’ ongoing use of the filibuster to block or greatly delay the president’s nominations to executive branch agencies, the federal bench, and to defeat consideration of legislation.

    Reid then praised some of the senators who have been pushing for filibuster reform, such as Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). The plan, in part, would force senators to work harder to sustain a filibuster. Merkley calls it a “talking filibuster.” In a press release, Merkley explains how his proposed changes would blunt the use of the filibuster. (Sen. Merkley is one of the featured speakers at the 2013 ACS National Convention in June.)

    As it stands now Republicans have crafted a new norm of requiring a supermajority to end debate and allow up-or-down votes on legislation and nominations. The compromise gun bill was killed because of this new norm, though some wobbly pundits suggested the president was at fault. Indeed the late Bob Edgar blasted the use of the filibuster as essentially shutting the place down and his group lodged a lawsuit to force reform of the procedural tool.

    At the start of the 113th Congress, Merkley and other senators urged a simple majority vote to change the Senate’s rules on the filibuster. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), said “a revolution has occurred in the Senate in recent years. Never before was it accepted that a 60 vote threshold was required for everything. This did not occur through Constitutional Amendment or through a great public debate. Rather, because of the abuse of the filibuster, the minority party – the party the American people did not want to govern – has assumed for itself absolute and virtually unchecked veto power over all legislation, any executive branch nominee, no matter how insignificant the position, and over all judges, no matter how uncontroversial.” 

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    Tags:
    Judicial Nominations, filibuster, filibuster reform, Fix the Senate Now, Sen. Harry Reid, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Tom Harkin
  • April 24, 2013

    Confirming Eighth Circuit Judge, Sen. Leahy Blasts Effort to Hobble D.C. Circuit

    by Jeremy Leaming

    If you’re one of the president’s nominees to the federal bench it helps to have a signficant connection to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

    Jane Kelly, an assistant public defender in Iowa, nominated in January to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit was today confirmed to the federal appeals court 96 – 0. She was nominated by President Obama in January. She is the second woman and first public defender to serve on the Eighth Circuit. Both state senators, Grassley and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) worked closely to move along the nomination.

    But of course most nominees do not have the sort of backing Kelly received. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in a press statement lauding the confirmation, again noted that on average the president’s appeals court nominees “wait 132 days for a vote in the Senate, compared to just 18 days” for Obama’s predecessor. 

    Regardless of uninformed or brain-addled pundits who argue Obama is at fault for the judicial vacancy crisis or for filibusters of certain pieces of legislation, the reality is that Senate Republicans led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-K.Y.) have stuck to agenda of obstruction. In the case of the federal bench, Senate Republicans have put aside the concerns of Americans who should and need to be able to rely on an efficient court system for political machinations.

    Sen. Grassley, who supported Kelly, saying she is “well regarded in my home state” is also leading an effort to limit the president’s ability to fill vacancies on the 11-member U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The D.C. Circuit is one of the nation’s most important federal appeals courts, hearing complex litigation often focusing on high-profile constitutional concerns. Patricia Wald, who served on the D.C. Circuit for 20 years, wrote for The Washington Post that the Circuit “hears complex, time-consuming, labyrinthine disputes over regulations with the greatest impact on ordinary American lives: clean air and water regulations, nuclear plant safety, health-care reform issues, insider trading and more.”   

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    Tags:
    Other courts, Judicial Nominations, Caitlin Halligan, filibuster, Jane Kelly, Patricia Wald, President Obama, Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Patrick Leahy, senate obstruction, U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
  • April 24, 2013

    Senate Committee Struggles with Constitutional Principles and Drone Warfare

    by Jeremy Leaming

    A Senate panel sought to shed some light on America’s drone war, which according to various reports by human rights groups has killed thousands of people, many civilians, in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and possible other sites abroad. The drone program launched during the administration of George W. Bush and escalated by the Obama administration has been shrouded in secrecy, and laden with controversy.

    But increased coverage of civilian casualties of the drone strikes have helped spur more interest in the use of Reaper and Predator drones to hunt and kill suspected terrorists. Also a leaked “white paper” apparently summarizing a lengthier document produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), caught widespread attention for its strained analysis to provide the president legal cover for approving the killing of U.S. citizens overseas who are suspected of having connections to al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

    Before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee this week, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) described the hearing, as the first-ever, to “address the use of drones in targeted killing” and said that the DOJ had provided him with the full OLC memos on the targeted killings of American citizens overseas. He noted, however, that he wished the administration would provide all legal documentation on targeted killings involving non-Americans as well. (Click on image for archived webcast of hearing.)

    At the outset, Durbin noted the president’s powers as Commander in Chief are constrained by the U.S. Constitution’s other principles, such as the protections of liberty, including due process. “At times in over the course of history our rules of law have been abused; when this occurs it challenges America’s moral authority and standing in the world.” Durbin also noted that civilian casualties related to the drone strikes can undermine the administration’s efforts to conduct an ongoing war against terrorism.

    Human rights groups and at least one of the committee’s witnesses suggest that the nation’s moral authority and standing have already been compromised by the drone war.

    Peter Bergen, with the New America Foundation, for example cited the significant escalation of the drone trikes and the public perception of those military actions in the places like Pakistan. “At this point, the number of estimated drone strikes from the Obama administration’s drone strikes in Pakistan – somewhere between 1,614 and 2,765 – is more than four times what it was during the Bush administration,” Bergen said in his written testimony before the committee.

    Addressing public perception of the drone war, Bergen later noted polling last year in 21 countries “found widespread global opposition to the CIA drone program. Muslim countries such as Egypt (89 percent) and Jordan (85 percent) expressed high levels of disapproval, while non-Muslim countries that are close American allies also registered significant displeasure with the program – Germany and France respectively polled at 59 and 63 percent disapproval.”

    Bergen, and another witness, Georgetown law school professor Rosa Brooks, however, highlighted that the number of civilians killed by drone strikes are hard to determine because of transparency. Brooks cited work by the New American Foundation, claiming that civilian casualties are “slightly lower” than those reported by human rights organizations.

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    Tags:
    Executive power, National security and civil liberties, Constitutional Interpretation and Change, drone warfare, drones, Farea al-Muslimi, Pakistan, Peter Bergen, Rosa Brooks, Sen. Dick Durbin, Yemen
  • April 23, 2013

    Social Justice Leader Bob Edgar Dies

    by Jeremy Leaming

    A renowned social justice leader Bob Edgar died today at age 69. Edgar was a U.S. congressman for 12 years, leader of the National Council of Churches and since 2007 the president and CEO of Common Cause. While in Congress, he served on the committee that investigated the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    Edgar, who the Religion News Service’s Adelle M. Banks reports died of a heart attack, was also a “bridge builder.” As head of the National Council of Churches he helped bring together an array of faith groups to advance social justice causes. “Early on,” Banks writes, “Edgar sensed that the venerable ecumenical agency was losing its public voice, and was one of the early supporters of Christian Churches Together in the USA, which brought the NCC’s mainline Protestant, Orthodox and black churches together with evangelicals and Catholics for the first time.”

    U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, worked with Edgar during his time in the Congress and noted that he was the “principal co-author of legislation that updated the G.I. bill following the abolition of the draft ….” Edgar, Conyers noted, also served on the Veterans Affairs Committee, where he worked to address concerns over the deployment of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, and of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.”

    Edgar led Common Cause a nonpartisan group devoted to ensuring Congress works efficiently and is accountable to citizens. Last year the group lodged a federal lawsuit against the use of the filibuster, which has been used primarily and with increasing frequency by Republican senators to scuttle judicial nominations and thwart popular legislation, such as modest measures to promote gun safety. Edgar in a press release about the lawsuit said the filibuster had been used to “pretty much shut the place down.” He noted that far too often it would take a supermajority or 60 senators to allow much of any action to occur.

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    Tags:
    Campaign finance, Democracy and Voting, Bob Edgar, Common Cause, filibuster, Rep. John Conyers, Robert Reich, social justice
  • April 23, 2013

    Congressional Lawmakers Ready Measures to Advance LGBT Equality

    by Jeremy Leaming

    Marriage equality as significant as it is should hardly be viewed as the crown jewel of the movement for LGBT equality.

    Nevertheless with the coverage given to the two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court -- both centering on marriage equality concerns -- one might be lulled into thinking that if and when government recognizes same-sex marriages in the same way it does opposite-sex marriages the nation will be so much closer to its lofty promise of equal rights. But such thinking would be as lazy as it is delusional.

    As noted here last year, Kate Redburn in a post for Jacobin’s blog blasted the obsession over marriage equality as being “designed to distract liberal consciences and give Democrats political cover to gut social services.” And then she went onto to note examples, such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision last year to gut funding for homeless shelters, noting that in NYC 40 percent of the homeless are LGBT youth. Redburn also remarked that only “the most privileged among us could possibly see the fight for the right to party [a wedding celebration] as a movement for social justice.”

    Besides, as this blog has noted, it is far from certain the Supreme Court controlled by right-wing justices will grant a sweeping victory for marriage equality anyway. (Instead it is possible the high court will toss Hollingsworth v. Perry, the challenge to California’s Proposition 8, on standing, and rule in U.S. v. Windsor  a major provision of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act encroaches on states’ rights or federalism grounds. Thus it is very likely the conservative Supreme Court won’t get near the question of whether laws that celebrate heterosexual marriages and denigrate same-sex relationships violate equal rights).

    But as money, time and energy are funneled into marriage equality, other groups and lawmakers are striving to move forward on other fronts for equality. For example, earlier this year, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) introduced legislation intended to ensure LGBT military families are treated in similar fashion to their straight counterparts.

    And later this week, congressional lawmakers will introduce other measures aimed at advancing equality, such as another effort to outlaw workplace discrimination against people because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. At the moment a little more than a dozen states ban employers from hiring and firing people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

    Reporting for the Washington Blade, Chris Johnson says members of both chambers will later this week introduce, once again, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act or ENDA. The bill was first introduced in 1994 and has languished in every Congress it was introduced. The measure if enacted would prohibit employers from hiring and firing people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. As Johnson, reports, however, the bill has been a work in progress and could still use some tweaks to block employers, including religious ones, from discriminating against the LGBT community in the workforce.

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    Tags:
    LGBT issues, Chris Johnson, Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, Ian Thompson, SDNA, Student Non-Discrimination Act
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