Subject: Don't let Cheney "go nuclear"

From: "Ben Brandzel, MoveOn PAC" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2005 17:29:09 -0800

Dear MoveOn member,

Tomorrow, March 10th, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the
nomination of mining and cattle industry lobbyist William Myers III for a
lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals--the second highest
court in the land. Myers is the first of 20 judicial nominees Bush has re-submitted
in his second term. All 20 repeat nominees were rejected last term by
Senate Democrats (as compared to the 204 judges they accepted) because these
nominees consistently sided with corporate special-interests over the
rights of ordinary Americans.

This time, Bush is ready to fight dirty to force these nominees through.
Dick Cheney has even threatened to use a parliamentary trick to eliminate
the centuries-old rule requiring judges to have broad support in the
Senate. This would effectively silence all 44 Democratic senators and the
173 million Americans they represent--the majority of the country.

With the first crucial vote on the first judge in less than a day, we're
launching a national campaign to let our senators know that we out here in
America are counting on them to hold the line on all 20 of Bush's
rejected, corporate judges, and beat back his dirty parliamentary tricks.

The first phase is this national petition that we will hand deliver to
your senators before the confirmation votes for the 20 judges. And tomorrow, 
MoveOn members will host over 1000 house meetings to create
local plans to save the judiciary. The courts we have for the next 30 years
may depend on your efforts in the next few weeks.

Please sign today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/?id=5191-86329-dYQ2hr87R9wkYAfQ3yP5OQ

To ram his nominees through, Bush is hoping to use a parliamentary trick the Republicans
refer to as the "nuclear option." For 200 years, if enough senators strongly objected
to a federal judge, they could use a filibuster to force more debate until
all their concerns were addressed. That's how Democrats blocked the worst
of these 20 judicial nominees last term. Actually changing the rule would require a 2/3 vote
of the Senate--and Bush doesn't have near that level of support.

So instead, Vice President Cheney has threatened to abuse his authority as
President of the Senate, and just declare that the right to filibuster
judges is null and void. If Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist can twist
enough arms to get 50 senators to support the ruling, the filibuster is
history. For the first time ever, one party would have complete control
over judicial nominations, all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Both parties in the Senate were given the power to approve or reject
judicial nominations because--above all else--judges must be trusted by
Americans on all sides to rule fairly. So why does Bush refuse to send a
few replacement nominees both parties can agree on? Why is he so intent on
smashing Democratic resistance to these and all future nominees? Because
while his presidency will be over in 4 years, the judges he appoints will
be on the bench for the rest of their lives. This is Bush's big push to
lock in his hard-right, corporate-friendly ideology for decades to
come--and that is exactly why we must not back down now.

The whole plot is set into motion tomorrow, with the committee vote on
William Myers. We must draw the line here, by stopping Bush's 20 repeat
nominees and standing up to the "nuclear option."

Please sign the petition today:

http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/?id=5191-86329-dYQ2hr87R9wkYAfQ3yP5OQ

Thanks for all that you do,

--Ben Brandzel, Eli Pariser and the whole MoveOn PAC Team
  Wednesday, March 9th, 2005

P.S. Here's a brief summary of just the first three of the 20 partisan
judges re-nominated by President Bush.

William Myers III has never been a judge and spent most of his career as a
lobbyist for the cattle and mining industry. [1] He has written that all
habitat conservation laws are unconstitutional because they interfere with
potential profit. [2] In 2001, Bush appointed him as the chief lawyer for
the Department of the Interior. In that role he continued as a champion of
corporate interests, setting his agenda in meetings with former employers
he promised not to speak with, and even illegally giving away sacred
Native American land to be strip mined. [3]

Terrence Boyle was a legal aide to Jesse Helms. As a judge, his signature
decisions have attempted to circumvent federal laws barring employment
discrimination by race, gender, and disability. [4] His rulings have been
overturned a staggering 120 times by the conservative 4th District Court
of Appeals, either due to gross errors in judgment or simple incompetence.
[5]

William Pryor Jr. served as Attorney General of Alabama, where he took
money from Phillip Morris, fought against the anti-tobacco lawsuit until
it was almost over, and cost the people of Alabama billions in settlement
money for their healthcare system as a result. [6] He called Roe v. Wade
"the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," and has
consistently argued against the federal protections for the civil rights
of minorities, lesbian and gay couples, women, and the disabled. [7]

Notes:

[1] "Unfit to Judge," Community Rights Council, 4/2/04.

[2] "Myers Troubling Legal Philosophy," People for the American Way.

[3] "Environmental Group Calls on Senate to Block Myers Nomination:
Ethical Problems and Anti-Environmental Activism Make Him Unfit for
Judgeship," Friends of the Earth, 2/5/05.

[4] "Federal Judge Terrence Boyle Unfit for Promotion to Appeals Court,"
People for the American Way, 2/23/05.

[5] "Eastern District of North Carolina Terrence Boyle Nominated to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit," Alliance for Justice.

[6] Eric Fleischauer, "Pryor Called a Tobacco Sellout," Decatur Daily
News, 10/30/02.

[7] Ann Woolner, "Bush Judicial Candidate Shows How Things Change,"
Bloomberg News, 5/16/03.

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