Sample JSP Update

In this e-mail:

Hearings and Committee Votes

There were no hearings on judicial nominees this week. The Senate Judiciary Committee had scheduled an executive business meeting to debate and possibly vote on the nominations of N. Randy Smith (read more about Smith here) for a seat on the Ninth Circuit, but the meeting was canceled because of the floor debate on the immigration reform bill, a bill that is under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee.

Floor Votes

On Tuesday, March 4, 2006, the Senate confirmed the nomination of New Jersey attorney Michael Chagares (read more about Chagares here) for the Third Circuit by a vote of 98-0.

New Nominations

There were no new lower court nominations this week. However, the American Bar Association did revise its rating for the nomination of White House Staff Secretary Brett Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit (read more about Kavanaugh here). He had received a rating of substantial majority Well Qualified/minority Qualified from the 14 voting members of the committee, but the ABA lowered the rating to substantial majority Qualified/minority Well Qualified. No explanation was given for the lowered rating.

The Week Ahead

The Senate will not be in session for the next two weeks for spring recess. The Judiciary Committee has scheduled a judicial nominations hearing for Tuesday, April 25, 2006. The committee will announce an agenda closer to the date of that hearing.

Conservative blog reports suggest that, soon after the Senate returns to session in late April, it may turn to controversial judicial nominees such as Kavanaugh's D.C. Circuit nomination and the nominations of Defense Department General Counsel William J. (Jim) Haynes, II and Eastern District of North Carolina Judge Terrence Boyle both for the Fourth Circuit and former Solicitor for the Interior Department William Myers for the Ninth Circuit. Alliance for Justice has opposed these nominations. Information on these nominations is available at http://www.independentjudiciary.org/.

To listen to our podcast on Alito, the confirmation process, and the Supreme Court or to read our Insider Scoop blog, please go to http://www.allianceforjustice.org/.

Access to Justice

Heath Courts Under the Microscope

This week Alliance for Justice released a comprehensive analysis of the most recent medical malpractice tort reform proposal circulating in Congress. AFJ's groundbreaking study found that the current Health Courts plan would undermine the civil justice system by removing medical malpractice cases from courts and creating a complex new and untested administrative system to handle such claims. Legislation introduced in the Senate, S. 1337, would authorize federal funds that allow states to implement the Health Courts plan.

Alliance for Justice's analysis found numerous problems with the scheme including that the proposal takes away injured patients' right to a jury trial without providing an alternative system that offers equal or better protection than our civil justice system. Moreover, because the proposal is modeled on the workers' compensation system, the report notes that it will likely suffer from the same flaws as the workers' compensation system, which includes susceptibility to undue influence by powerful entities, like the insurance industry, whose interests are typically adverse to those of medical malpractice victims.

Alliance for Justice's complete analysis and findings are available at http://www.afj.org/healthcourtreport.pdf .

State Legislators Speak Out Against Federal Preemption

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) gathered in Washington, DC this past week to speak out against the undermining of state consumer protection laws by the federal government. With little public notice and no Congressional input, the Bush administration is immunizing major industries from lawsuits by passing regulations with express language preempting state consumer protection and environmental laws. New York State Senator Michael Balboni described the administration's regulatory efforts as "nothing more than a backdoor, underhanded means by which unelected federal bureaucrats impose their will on the states."

Recent actions by the Bush Administration include a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposal on roof standards that includes pre-emption language that would protect automakers from liability over defective roofs. NCSL released a report about the fiscal impact such a rule would have on states. The report concluded that currently 55% of road crash victims recover compensation for their injuries from litigation. Because the NHTSA provision would essentially void state laws that now provide the ability for injured consumers to get redress without providing another way to recover against automakers, many of permanently disabled victims would depend on Medicaid to provide for their needs. The report calculated that the financial burden of this provision on states would be between $49 - $71 million per year.

Summary

This is a summary of current judicial selection statistics.

23 judicial nominees (8 Ct. App. 15 Dist.)

4 pending on Senate floor (2 Ct. App. 2 Dist.)

4 had hearing in 109^th Congress but no Committee Vote (1 Ct. App. 3 Dist.)

15 pending in committee and have not had hearing in 109^th Congress (5 Ct. App. 10 Dist.)

(2 of these 15 had a hearing in a previous Congress (2 Ct. App. 0 Dist.) the remaining 13 have never had a hearing (3 Ct. App. 10 Dist.))

(0 scheduled for a hearing (0 Ct. App. 0 Dist. 0 Ct. Int'l Trade))

234 Confirmations overall (2 S. Ct. 43 Ct. App. 187 Dist. 2 Ct. Int'l Trade)

8 Confirmations in 2006 (1 S. Ct. 1 Ct. App. 5 Dist. 1 Ct. Int'l Trade)

30 Confirmations in 109^th Congress (2 S. Ct. 15 Ct. App. 12 Dist. 1 Ct. Int'l Trade)

204 Confirmations in President Bush's First Term (35 Ct. App. 168 Dist. 1 Ct. Int'l Trade)

10 Withdrawals (1 S. Ct. 7 Ct. App. 2 Dist.)

54 Vacancies (17 Ct. App., 37 Dist.)

Non-lifetime federal judgeship nominations:

2 District of Virgin Islands Nominees Confirmed in President Bush's First Term

9 Ct. of Fed. Claims Nominees confirmed, 7 in President Bush's First Term, 2 in his second

For more information about judicial selection or to learn about other ways that you can take a lead in the fight for a fair and independent judiciary, please contact us at Alliance for Justice and visit us on the web at http://www.independentjudiciary.org/ and http://www.afj.org/. Thank you for your continued support.