A long-awaited and apparently amicable hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday should clear the way for Christine Arguello and Phillip Brimmer to fill two of the long-standing vacancies in our state’s overworked U.S. District Court.
That’s good news, considering a political deadlock had left just four full-time judges on Colorado’s federal benches. The resulting disorder in our courts has been severe.
But President Bush nominated three qualified candidates for three vacancies and they all deserved an up-or-down vote from the Democratic-majority Senate.
Shame on Sen. Salazar for losing touch with Colorado’s needs, and for forgetting his campaign promise to push for up-or-down votes.
Salazar should have worked with Democratic leadership, who no doubt want to wait for a new president before approving too many judges, for hearings on all three nominees — especially considering both Salazar and Sen.Wayne Allard agreed on the third nominee, Gregory Goldberg.
In an editorial last week, we asked Salazar to put the needs of Colorado first. But late last week, Allard, Colorado’s senior senator and a Republican, and Salazar, a Democrat, agreed to support both Arguello, a Democrat who served as chief deputy at the Colorado attorney general’s office under Salazar, and Brimmer, a Republican and an assistant U.S. Attorney.
The compromise left Goldberg out in the cold. He was the only one of the trio formally backed by both Salazar and Allard.
Allard was on record as supporting all three Bush nominees. But he had only turned in “blue slips” for Brimmer and Goldberg to Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy. Salazar, in turn, had only turned in blue slips for Arguello and Goldberg.
“Blue slips” are the Senate equivalent of the child’s game of “Mother may I?” Unless both home-state senators give that approval, the Judiciary Committee normally refuses to give nominees the courtesy of a hearing.
All judicial nominees should be entitled to a fair hearing in committee and an up-or-down vote on the floor of the Senate. But while we condemn the practice of allowing a single senator to blackball nominees, we also know that perversion of the Constitution’s “advise and consent” clause long predates Allard and Salazar.
Under the circumstances, we’ll take two out of three. There are 26 judicial nominations pending in the Senate, but just five received hearings Tuesday: the two Coloradans plus one nominee each from California, Utah and Florida.
Now, let’s hope the Senate confirms Colorado’s two nominees before it recesses early in October. The remaining vacancy and the occupant of an eighth judgeship Salazar hopes to win for Colorado will have to await a new president and a new Colorado senator in the next election.
If Democrats control the Senate and the White House, will Salazar then push for an up-or-down vote?
