Senate Republicans set Thursday showdown for Pickering nomination
JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, October 28, 2003
(10-28) 19:13 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
After more than two years of waiting, Mississippi judge Charles Pickering will get a Senate vote this week on his nomination to a federal appeals court.
But Senate Democrats are expected to use the vote Thursday to begin filibustering to block Pickering, who wants a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Senate Republicans said Tuesday night they would force a filibuster vote Thursday on Pickering, who was one of President Bush's first judicial nominees in 2001.
In 2002, the U.S. district judge also was the first of Bush's nominees to fall to the Democrats, who voted against his nomination on a 10-9 party-line vote when they controlled the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Pickering's opponents have complained that he supported segregation as a young man in Mississippi. They also pointed to his votes against abortion and voting rights as a Mississippi state lawmaker and his decisions as a judge, including efforts to reduce the sentence of a man convicted of burning a cross on an interracial couple's lawn. (snip/...)
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