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Russ Feingold doesn’t think that Wisconsin will see nominees confirmed to either the Eastern or Western district federal bench before President Bush leaves office. I certainly with the White House was moving faster (though Cong. FJS suggests its the Dems fault - reports say the WH has settled on picks and is conducting background checks currently.). But I understand there’s a lot of vacancies to find good nominees for. The President doesn’t leave office til January of 2009, but the Senate Democrats are trying to end his term early.

In a recent interview with Wispolitics, Senator Feingold said,

Time is running out for the Bush administration to make appointments, he said. “Both of these will be caught up in the much larger issue of whether or not judges in general will be going forward after a certain point,” Feingold said. “As I understand, we’re already past what’s called the ‘Thurman rule’ which is the time generally speaking when a presidency is ending [and] there aren’t more judges approved.”

The Thurmond Rule is a historical mistake that Senate Democrats have chosen to claim as their main talking point. The Wall Street Journal editorial page recently explained and debunked the “Rule” -

Under a precedent ostensibly created by Republican Strom Thurmond in 1980, confirmations of new judges cease after July in a presidential election year. But the Thurmond rule is a Democratic urban myth. Mr. Thurmond made the statement in question at a September 1980 hearing when his committee voted out 10 Jimmy Carter nominees a mere six weeks before the election.
That same year, a Senate staffer named Stephen Breyer was nominated and confirmed to the First Circuit after Ronald Reagan was elected, in the very final days of the Carter Administration. Mr. Breyer would become a Supreme Court Justice during the Clinton presidency thanks to that Republican bow to Ted Kennedy, for whom Mr. Breyer worked. In 1984, a GOP Senate confirmed six circuit court nominees in August and another five in October. Ditto 1988, when a Democratic Senate confirmed a pair of Reagan nominees as late as October.

Senator Arlen Specter, ranking member on Senate Judiciary, and Ed Whelan at Bench Memos have also weighed in against the so-called “Thurmond Rule.” Mr. Whelan found a bit of wisdom worth repeating:

We cannot afford to follow the ‘Thurmond Rule’ and stop acting on these nominees now in anticipation of the presidential election in November. We must use all the time until adjournment to remedy the vacancies that have been perpetuated on the courts to the detriment of the American people and the administration of justice. That should be a top priority for the Senate for the rest of this year.

Those are the words of Senator Pat Leahy, now the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in 2000. Mr. Feingold, who sits on Judiciary, would do well to remember them and should pressure the WH and his leadership to include WI’s nominees in another deal to keep the courts open.

• Remember when he was lampooned? - September 4th, 2008
• The Media has it both ways - September 3rd, 2008
• New MULS Law faculty blog - September 2nd, 2008
• Concluding Convention Thoughts - September 1st, 2008
• Another Nixon Observation - August 30th, 2008