WASHINGTON - It was one bitter episode in the long-running feud over President Bush’s judicial nominees: Senate Democrats were dead-set against Alabama Attorney General William Pryor serving as a federal appeals court judge, so they talked his nomination into the ground, twice foiling Republican attempts to get the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster.
But Bush outmaneuvered them, putting Pryor on the bench last February by waiting until the Senate took a recess and using his power under article II of the Constitution to give him a recess appointment
The Democrats filbustered 10 of Bush’s judicial nominees in his first term, the most aggressive use of that tactic in Senate history. The Senate confirmed 204 Bush judicial nominees.
The filibuster feud has become so engrossing that now Pryor’s adversaries are urging the Supreme Court to join the brawl by ruling that Bush’s appointment of Pryor violated the Constitution.<snip>
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