Senate confirms appeals court nominee

November 20, 2009|Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Senate yesterday confirmed US District Judge David Hamilton for the Chicago-based federal appeals court, approving a nominee targeted by conservatives as a liberal activist.

Hamilton was approved on a 59-to-39 vote and became the eighth of President Obama’s judicial nominees to win confirmation and the third confirmed for a US appeals court, which is usually the last stop for federal court cases.

Republican senators - backed by their conservative allies outside Congress - had blocked a vote for five months until Democrats overcame a filibuster on Tuesday with a 70-to-29 vote. The failure to stop the confirmation showed that Republicans lack the clout to block Obama’s judicial nominees as the president remakes the federal judiciary following eight years of George W. Bush’s mostly conservative choices for the bench.

Republicans attacked Hamilton’s rulings - including one against using prayers mentioning Jesus to open the Indiana Legislature - and his work in the distant past for two liberal organizations: the American Civil Liberties Union in Indiana and as a fund-raiser over two months for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, the troubled group that is under fire from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Ten GOP senators sided with 60 Democrats to end the filibuster, but nine of those Republicans voted against Hamilton yesterday, leaving his home-state Republican, Senator Richard Lugar, as his sole GOP backer. A number of senators frown on delaying tactics against a president’s picks for the bench, even if the senators oppose a nominee.