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Reform Judicial Confirmations, Bush Says

Posted on: Monday, 6 October 2008, 18:00 CDT

Judges are meant to administer law not make it and the Constitution is not a living document but one that endures, U.S. President George Bush said Monday.

Bush shared his views on the role of the courts and the need to reform the way judicial appointees are treated by the Senate during his appearance at the Ashbrook Center, an American civics and history institution in Cincinnati.

Bush said he always believed "America needed judges who believed that the Constitution means what it says" and who exercise judicial restraint.

The Senate had confirmed 61 circuit court judges and 261 district court judges as of Monday, a White House fact sheet indicated. Bush asked that the Senate consider judgeships during the lame duck session.

The sometimes-bitter nomination process in the Senate has prompted some lawyers asked about judicial nominations to "politely decline because of the uncertainty, delay and ruthlessness that now characterizes the confirmation process," Bush said. Nominees shouldn't have to wait "years for the up-or-down vote the United States Senate owes them," he said.

Also, the "American people expect their elected officials to do the job of screening judicial nominees," rather than a legal association, the president said.

Finally, Bush said, the nominating process should be "as free of partisanship as possible."

Source: United Press International

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