This could have serious implications for Emerson if this nomination goes through. I suggest we write whomever it is that decides whether this guy is approved and tell them no.
http://www.sunspot.net/content/cover/story?section=cover&pagename=story&storyid=1150340205223
Clinton says senators prejudiced toward Hispanic lawyer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Clinton criticized Texas' two Republican senators yesterday for seeking to block his nomination of a Hispanic lawyer to a federal appeals court.
Sens. Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison said Enrique Moreno of El Paso, Texas, a Harvard-educated lawyer in private practice since 1981, lacked the necessary experience to sit on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Clinton said in a statement that claim was "unconscionable." He noted that Moreno won the top rating from the American Bar Association, which evaluates and reports on the professional qualifications of people being considered by the president for nomination to federal judgeships.
As Clinton left the White House en route to Arkansas yesterday, he was asked by reporters if he thought the senators opposed Moreno because he is Hispanic.
"There are only two conceivable alternatives. That or they just don't want to confirm any judges unless they are right-wing ideologues," Clinton said. "It may be that they just want to use this opportunity to seize control of the judiciary again."
Gramm and Hutchison, in a letter last week to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which reviews judicial nominations, cited the unqualified rating that a Texas judicial advisory group had given Moreno.
The group, a nonpartisan collection of Texas attorneys, voted 10-5 against the nomination.
"It would be fair to summarize the views of those recommending against confirmation that Mr. Moreno simply had not achieved the level of experience necessary to be fully engaged and effective on a court one notch below the United States Supreme Court," wrote Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican.
A spokesman for Gramm and Hutchison, asked to respond to Clinton's comments, said their letter "speaks for itself."
Neither Gramm nor Hutchison is on the committee, so they urged Hatch to reject the nomination. If the nomination were to reach the full Senate, the two senators could use a parliamentary procedure to delay a vote indefinitely.
The senators said they told Moreno of their opposition.
"We have conveyed our personal regret that it will not be possible for this nomination to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to go forward," they wrote Hatch.
Moreno, in a statement, said he was grateful to be nominated.
"I have been blessed with the support and encouragement of many people," he said. "I am especially grateful and proud of my community's support of my nomination."
Originally published on May 7 2000
------------------
Thane (NRA GOA JPFO SAF CAN)
MD C.A.N.OP
tbellomo@home.com
http://homes.acmecity.com/thematrix/digital/237/cansite/can.html
www.members.home.net/tbellomo/tbellomo/index.htm
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances there is a twilight when everything remains
seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all
must be most aware of change in the air - however slight -
lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
--Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
http://www.sunspot.net/content/cover/story?section=cover&pagename=story&storyid=1150340205223
Clinton says senators prejudiced toward Hispanic lawyer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Clinton criticized Texas' two Republican senators yesterday for seeking to block his nomination of a Hispanic lawyer to a federal appeals court.
Sens. Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison said Enrique Moreno of El Paso, Texas, a Harvard-educated lawyer in private practice since 1981, lacked the necessary experience to sit on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Clinton said in a statement that claim was "unconscionable." He noted that Moreno won the top rating from the American Bar Association, which evaluates and reports on the professional qualifications of people being considered by the president for nomination to federal judgeships.
As Clinton left the White House en route to Arkansas yesterday, he was asked by reporters if he thought the senators opposed Moreno because he is Hispanic.
"There are only two conceivable alternatives. That or they just don't want to confirm any judges unless they are right-wing ideologues," Clinton said. "It may be that they just want to use this opportunity to seize control of the judiciary again."
Gramm and Hutchison, in a letter last week to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which reviews judicial nominations, cited the unqualified rating that a Texas judicial advisory group had given Moreno.
The group, a nonpartisan collection of Texas attorneys, voted 10-5 against the nomination.
"It would be fair to summarize the views of those recommending against confirmation that Mr. Moreno simply had not achieved the level of experience necessary to be fully engaged and effective on a court one notch below the United States Supreme Court," wrote Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican.
A spokesman for Gramm and Hutchison, asked to respond to Clinton's comments, said their letter "speaks for itself."
Neither Gramm nor Hutchison is on the committee, so they urged Hatch to reject the nomination. If the nomination were to reach the full Senate, the two senators could use a parliamentary procedure to delay a vote indefinitely.
The senators said they told Moreno of their opposition.
"We have conveyed our personal regret that it will not be possible for this nomination to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to go forward," they wrote Hatch.
Moreno, in a statement, said he was grateful to be nominated.
"I have been blessed with the support and encouragement of many people," he said. "I am especially grateful and proud of my community's support of my nomination."
Originally published on May 7 2000
------------------
Thane (NRA GOA JPFO SAF CAN)
MD C.A.N.OP
tbellomo@home.com
http://homes.acmecity.com/thematrix/digital/237/cansite/can.html
www.members.home.net/tbellomo/tbellomo/index.htm
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances there is a twilight when everything remains
seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all
must be most aware of change in the air - however slight -
lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
--Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas