Judges and Judiciary
Jun. 15, 2002
Panel OKs U.S. Attorney for San Francisco
WASHINGTON - Two California presidential nominees commanded the attention of the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, with one winning committee approval to be U.S. attorney in San Francisco and the other facing scrutiny in his bid for a lifetime federal judgeship.
Additionally, the California senator chairing the session Thursday used it to commend the controversial bipartisan panel that proposes nominees for federal judicial posts in the state.
The committee in the morning unanimously reported out to the full Senate the nomination of Kevin V. Ryan to be the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. Then, it convened a separate confirmation hearing in the afternoon to hear from four judicial nominees, including Eastern District hopeful Morrison Cohen England Jr. The panel did not vote on those nominations.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the only Democrat present at the opening of the day's second hearing by the committee, delivered praise for England.
She also praised Gerald L. Parsky, the Republican chair of California's bipartisan judicial advisory committee.
"I'm very proud of the functioning of our screening panel, and I'm very thankful to Mr. Jerry Parsky for suggesting it, putting it together, monitoring it and overseeing it," Feinstein said.
The senator cited "complaining in the press" over the work of the Parsky committee but insisted that the screening panels had taken "partisanship out of the process" of helping the president fulfill his constitutional duty to nominate qualified federal judges.
"It is alive. It is well. And it is working, I think, in a fine way," she said of the California screening committee.
In a subsequent interview away from the hearing, Feinstein addressed the recent criticism voiced by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and others close to the selection process in Washington that the advisory committee has worked too slowly in sending names to President Bush for consideration of judicial vacancies.
"No one has ever expressed any dissatisfaction to my face, and I've asked. I've tried to see if there were problems with it," she said.
Gonzales, Bush's top lawyer, said at a luncheon last month that he hadn't been "overjoyed" at the pace of recommendations coming from the California committee but that the president was proud of those he nominated with the committee's nod.
So far, though, those nominees have been England and two two District Court judges first nominated by Bush's father a decade ago.
After his comments were reported by the Daily Journal, Gonzales faxed a copy of the story to Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to complain.
"[The story's headline] mischaracterizes my frustration over the pace of recommendations as an indictment of the California commission process," he wrote.
"I wanted to reassure you (as I said in my remarks) that we support the California commission and that we are pleased it has provided candidates that the president is proud to nominate," Gonzales wrote on May 20 in a two-sentence letter.
On Thursday, Feinstein said her agreement with the White House counsel was that "each slot would have three choices to come out of the [advisory] committee" and that she had heard grumbling in one or two cases that the committee hadn't met that goal.
As for assessing any political disconnect between Bush's Los Angeles confidante, Parsky, and the White House, Feinstein declined direct comment.
"I didn't know Mr. Parsky before we started this. I have the greatest respect for him. He's been a straight shooter. He called. He suggested [the committee]," she said. "It is working. The nominees are going through here in record speed."
Certainly that was the case with Ryan's nomination to be U.S. attorney for the Northern District, which the bipartisan advisory committee approved. The San Francisco Superior Court judge's appointment appears headed for a speedy vote in the Senate after being reported out of the Judiciary Committee without a word of dissent on Thursday.
Feinstein said she was pleased with the Ryan vote and hopes he will build on former San Francisco U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller's "successful efforts in reinvigorating" the office. Mueller is now the embattled FBI director.
At the onset of Thursday's hearing, England - who repeatedly referred to Feinstein as Boxer - said he was happy to have a confirmation hearing and looked forward to the process proceeding.
But it wasn't without a few questions from Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who peppered the Sacramento Superior Court judge with inquiries about his 1999 ruling in Brosterhous v. State Bar, CV527974 (Sacramento Super. Ct., June 27, 1992).
The case was controversial because England, 47, sided with the plaintiffs, who charged that the State Bar violated the First Amendment by improperly using mandatory dues for political activities not all bar members supported.
The judge said he relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Keller v. State Bar.
"I did state in that opinion that the various activities that the California State Bar was engaged in were, in fact, very laudable activities," England said. "However, the fact that they were laudable activities and for good purposes did not necessarily mean that everyone who was a member should be required to fund those activities."
Feingold then asked for an example of a case he had decided that was unpopular.
England, a former 1976 New York Jets football player, again cited the State Bar case, which he said invited intense community criticism following his decision.
The Judiciary Committee unanimously approved six federal judges Thursday: Henry E. Autrey for the Eastern District of Missouri, Richard E. Dorr for the Western District of Missouri, David Godbey for the Northern District of Texas, Henry Hudson for the Eastern District of Virginia, Timothy Savage for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Amy J. St. Eve for the Northern District of Illinois.
Besides England, two other District Court nominees - David Cercone for the Western District of Pennsylvania and Kenneth Marra for the Southern District of Florida - received confirmation hearings, along with John Rogers, who was appointed by Bush to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The committee has held hearings for 75 of Bush's federal court nominees since Democrats regained control of the Senate a year ago, and 57 have been confirmed as of this week.
James Gordon Meek
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