In the rest of the world, May 1st is Labor Day, however in the US, it’s Law Day. In 2002, President Bush released this proclamation about Law Day, saying, among other things:

“Our forefathers imagined a well-qualified judiciary put in place through a dynamic and constructive interaction between the executive and legislative branches of Government. Under our Constitution, the President selects individuals for nomination to the Federal judiciary and the Senate provides its advice and consent. In all cases, both branches of Government strive to make certain that only men and women of the highest intellect, character, integrity, judgment, and experience are appointed to serve our Nation and its citizens in these critical positions.”

Now, given this list of blocked judges (a scant 7 out of hundreds nominated), how many of them fit the qualification of being able to “render decisions that are based upon the law and facts of each case, without regard for popular opinion or political or other extraneous pressures?”

As I was searching for more information about these folks, I found the Department of Justice’s own website for Judicial Nominations. For example, on the page for Priscilla Owen, several links are provided to documents supporting her nomination (and none contesting it). The contradictory nature of these documents would be amusing if it weren’t so awful – for example, one justifies Owen’s unconstitutional stance on abortion by citing the percent of the population in Texas that supports the procedure. Fortunately, our rights are not determined by a majority vote (and especially not a majority vote in Texas).

As a side note, if the administration is so concerned with the public opinion and majority rule, why aren’t they listening to polls like this?

Aside from the appalling idea that Senate Republicans may exercise their “nuclear” option and push the nominees through, I was pretty surprised that there are documents from organizations like Concerned Women for America posted on the Department of Justice website without any disclaimer or counter-opinion. This group gave their America Patriot Award to Jesse Helms for his “fights against liberalism, abortion, and the homosexual agenda.” Can I post a rebuttal on the DoJ site? I gave Jesse Helms an award, too, but it didn’t have the word “patriot” in the title…