Senate Ends Debate On Hamilton, Could Vote To Confirm This Week

Main Category: Abortion
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Article Date: 19 Nov 2009 - 5:00 PST

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The Senate on Tuesday voted 70-29 to allow debate on federal appeals court nominee David Hamilton, ending a GOP filibuster and setting up a final confirmation vote that could occur this week, Roll Call reports (Brady, Roll Call, 11/17).

Hamilton's confirmation has been stalled since June, when the Senate Judiciary Committee gave him a favorable recommendation to the Senate, the AP/Boston Globe reports. Conservatives then mounted a campaign against Hamilton, criticizing some of his past rulings on issues such as abortion rights. As a federal district judge, Hamilton struck down part of an Indiana law requiring women to make two trips to a clinic before obtaining abortion services, calling the law an undue burden on women's constitutional rights.

According to the AP/Globe, Tuesday's vote "warned Republicans that with only 40 senators, they are too outnumbered to prevent Obama from making major inroads into a judiciary that was populated over eight years with conservative judges chosen by" former President George W. Bush.

Hamilton's confirmation would not shift the ideological bent of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which receives cases from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Seven of the court's judges were nominated by Republican presidents, and Hamilton would be the fourth chosen by a Democrat (Margasak, AP/Boston Globe, 11/18).

Ten Republican senators voted to end debate and advance Hamilton's nomination. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, led the fight against Hamilton. Sessions said that his opposition was in part because of past Democratic filibusters of Bush nominees. "I believe this side cannot acquiesce into a philosophy that says Democratic presidents can get their judges confirmed with 50 votes, but if a Republican president … has to have 60 votes," he said. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that Republican opposition to Hamilton had "nothing to do with Judge Hamilton himself and everything to do with partisanship" (Vadala, CQ Today, 11/17).

Hamilton, who has served as a federal judge for 15 years, enjoys bipartisan backing, receiving strong support from his home state Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), as well as the endorsement of the conservative Federalist Society (Women's Health Policy Report, 11/17).

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