2004-09-21

Senate Rejects William Myers

by Jack Dalton

Yesterday the U.S. Senate rejected William G. Myers for a permanent seat on the 9th U.S. District Court. Myers, if you remember, was one of the two that Bush installed on the courts by executive order during a congressional recess a few months ago. The other being Charles Pickering. I only hope that the Senate will use this same “sense” when it comes to some of the other Bush nominees.

The following is a news report by civilrights.org on the rejection of Myers by the Senate.

The Senate today rejected the confirmation of William G. Myers III to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Republican leadership’s effort to end debate and force a vote on the controversial nominee, which requires 60 votes, failed 44 to 53.

About 180 civil rights, environmental, and labor organizations had opposed Myers’ confirmation due to controversy over his past work as a longtime business lobbyist and former Solicitor General of the Department of the Interior.

“The Senate’s vote today against invoking cloture on Myers’ confirmation is a victory for the civil rights community and all Americans,” said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). “On behalf of LCCR and the communities it represents, I thank the senators who voted in support of a fair and independent federal judiciary.”

Myers was nominated in May 2003 and cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee along a party-line vote in April.

In a letter to senators in February, LCCR noted that in his role as solicitor general and as a private lobbyist for grazing and mining industries, “Myers [had] shown an alarming insensitivity to the heritage and traditions of Native Americans.” This was of “particular concern,” according to LCCR, because the Ninth Circuit presides over millions of Native Americans from more than 100 tribes.

A National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) 2003 resolution cites Myers’ “deep lack of respect and understanding of the unique political relationship between the federal government and tribal governments” as well as his “demonstrated inability to set aside personal bias to act in a neutral and objective manner.”

Civil rights advocates also were wary of Myers’ “states’ rights” agenda, which aims to limit federal protections of civil rights that many minority groups have relied upon.

Environmental groups oppose Myers’ confirmation based on amicus briefs he filed in support of an elevation of property rights over environmental protections.

I strongly urge one and all to read some of the reports on our courts, federal judges and those that Bush has, and is, nominating to sit on our courts. If our courts continue this current march toward ultra right wing ideology we as a nation will lose the only thing that stands between we the people and the “government” with its propensity for being a school yard “bully.”

Save our Courts has what is probably the best and most complete reports on the shift to the right of our federal courts by BushCo. I strongly urge one and all to read them and then take action. Contact the folks at Civil Rights.org or Save Our Courts.org and ask them what and how you may be able to save our federal courts from a severe turn to the right.