Burr, Dole pushing for hearing for N.C. judge

U.S. court nominee has waited nearly a year

By: By Sean Mussenden | MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: June 20, 2008

WASHINGTON

North Carolina's two Republican senators pressured Democratic leaders yesterday to schedule a confirmation hearing for a conservative North Carolina judge nominated for the federal bench almost a year ago.

Judge Robert J. Conrad was nominated by President Bush in July to fill one of four open slots on a federal appeals court that covers the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

"No individual should have their lives on hold for 338 days like Bob Conrad," Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said at a news conference. "It's time to lay politics aside and fill this very important vacancy."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an April letter to Burr and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., that he was working to fill a long list of federal-court vacancies across the country that existed before Democrats recaptured the Senate in 2006.

"With your cooperation in the years ahead, I am confident we will be able to fill the remaining vacancies in the Federal courts in North Carolina," he wrote.

The four open seats on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, he said, are a holdover from the 1990s. Republicans, then in control of the Senate, repeatedly refused to confirm judges nominated by President Clinton. Though Republicans controlled the Senate through much of the Bush administration, the seats have remained open.

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond law school, said that the dispute delaying Conrad's confirmation is far bigger than one judge.

"We're just at the end of a long series of political paybacks on the 4th Circuit that go back to the Clinton administration, or even earlier," he said. "There's plenty of blame to go around."

Conrad, who is chief judge of a lower federal court in Western North Carolina, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Dole, however, complained that Conrad, "has not been given the courtesy of a hearing."

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said he suspects that Leahy has no problem with Conrad, specifically. "This is a concerted effort to keep these seats open" so that Barack Obama, should he win in the fall, could appoint less conservative nominees, Specter said in a brief interview.

Several reproductive-rights groups, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, opposed Conrad's 2005 confirmation to a U.S. District Court seat in Western North Carolina because of his anti-abortion views.

The Senate confirmed Conrad to that seat only after Burr replaced former Sen. John Edwards, who opposed Conrad's nomination.

Several opposition groups have objected to a newspaper op-ed piece that Conrad wrote calling Planned Parenthood a "radical, pro-abortion fringe group," and to his association with a pregnancy center in Virginia that gave misleading information about health risks associated with abortion.

People for the American Way, a progressive legal-advocacy group that opposes Conrad, wrote in an April letter to Leahy that although Conrad has been confirmed to a lower federal court, it is important that he not be promoted.

"The court of appeals is literally the court of last resort for most Americans, given that the Supreme Court hears so few cases," group president Kathryn Kolbert wrote. "The stakes are thus far higher when an appellate nomination is considered."

Burr said in an interview that he believes that Leahy is acquiescing to groups such as Kolbert's.

"Clearly, these outside groups have told Sen. Leahy, ‘Don't do this,'" he said.

Tobias said he expects only one 4th Circuit nominee to get a confirmation hearing before the end of the year. That nominee, Judge Glen E. Conrad of Roanoke, Va., is backed by Virginia Sens. John Warner, a Republican, and Jim Webb, a Democrat.

The issue of 4th Circuit vacancies has already been raised in the presidential campaign.

During a speech in Winston-Salem in early May, Republican John McCain criticized Senate Democratic leaders for failing to move on nominations for the 4th Circuit, which has a third of its slots unfilled.

■ Sean Mussenden can be reached at 202-662-7668 or smussenden@mediageneral.com.