Email I got today from Leahy about Roberts - pls DU petition

[jillan]

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As the President moves to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at the Supreme Court, we in the Senate are fast approaching a moment of truth. The Judiciary Committee has announced confirmation hearings for the White House's choice, John Roberts -- the hearings begin on September 6 -- and I wanted to give you a quick update.

This is a brisk schedule. To make it work, we need the White House to give its full cooperation. Senators need the same information to make their choice that the President needed to make his. Yet so far, the Bush Administration has yet to respond to key Senate requests for information -- in spite of warnings from my Democratic colleagues and me that the American people deserve a full review of John Roberts' career.

Americans don't want a rubber-stamp justice on the Court. They expect more than a rubber-stamp process from the Senate. President Bush must know that we need a fair, thoughtful process -- not a rush to judgment.

The President says he wants a replacement for Justice O'Connor in place by October, when the Supreme Court term begins. But for us to meet that goal, the White House has to cooperate by giving the Senate the information it needs to make a fair, informed decision.

A justice who wins confirmation to the Supreme Court holds that job for life. The Court can shape the future of our civil rights, employment laws, environmental safeguards and reproductive freedoms -- which means that as the Senate moves toward the Roberts hearings, all of the American people have something at stake.

The Bush Administration has demanded that the Senate keep a tight schedule. But what we need more than the White House telling us when and how to do our job is a White House willing to help us expedite our consideration by making relevant materials available without delay.

The White House says it might need a month to screen documents before giving them to the Senate. Yet the Republican leadership in the Senate wants hearings to begin in a little more than a month -- a timetable that leaves senators almost no time to review critical information before casting one of the key votes of their careers. For the Senate to do its job before October, it needs time to review information about John Roberts -- and the White House needs to provide that information, fast.

Under the Constitution, the Senate has a duty to review presidential nominations to the Supreme Court. The American people need us to make those decisions as best as we can -- and that matters far more, over the long run, than doing so as fast as we can.

It's up to the White House to give the Senate the information the American people need us to have. We expect a fair vote, not an attempt to have this pivotal nomination rubber-stamped.

With thanks,

Patrick Leahy

Patrick Leahy
Ranking Democratic Member, Senate Judiciary Committee

P.S. This nomination is one of the most important decisions of our time. Please forward this message -- ask everyone you know to sign the petition and to send the message, "The Senate is not a rubber stamp."

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/norubberstamps

[Swamp Rat]

1. "The Senate is not a rubber stamp."

We'll see.