Brown approved by Senate panel

[D.COM]

http://www.blackamericatoday.com/art...m?ArticleID=87

Brown approved by Senate panel
By Roland S. Martin, Editor, BlackAmericaToday.com
November 7, 2003

Judge Janice Rogers Brown is one step closer to being named to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., widely considered as the second-most important panel in the federal court system.

Brown, called the most conservative jurist on the California State Supreme Court, was approved Thursday on a 10-9 strictly party line vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee. She now goes to the full Senate for confirmation.

But she may face a Senate roadblock from Democrats, who have been outspoken against her appointment, citing her conservative opinions on environmental issues, abortion and affirmative action.

Senate Democrats have been successful in sustaining several filibusters, including Bush appointees Charles Pickering and Priscilla Owen. Their filibuster of Miguel Estrada led him to withdraw his name from consideration.

David Carl, press secretary for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said no decision has been made on a Brown filibuster.

“It has yet to be scheduled by (Majority Leader) Senator (Bill) Frist for the floor yet, so the (Democratic) Caucus hasn’t met to decide,” Carl told BlackAmericaToday.com.

On Wednesday, the NAACP held a news conference to express their opposition to Brown’s appointment.

"Judge Brown has a record of ideological extremism and aggressive judicial activism that makes her unfit to serve on the powerful federal appeals court,” said NAACP CEO Kweisi Mfume. “Far from demonstrating the commitment to fundamental civil and constitutional rights principles that should be shown by all federal court nominees, Brown's record reveals a disturbing tendency to try to remake the law in a way that would undermine these crucial principles."

Julian Bond, chairman of the board for the NAACP, added: "President Bush appears to take a page from his father's 'play book' on judicial selection, choosing a black candidate hostile to civil rights and civil liberties, and ill prepared to sit on the nation's second highest court. The President's penchant for choosing extremist minority judicial candidates is an exercise in cynicism of the worst kind."

But conservatives maintain she is highly qualified for the post, and is being opposed because of her conservative views.