WASHINGTON – The Senate ended the filibuster of California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown on Tuesday when 10 Democrats crossed party lines and voted to close debate, clearing the way for a confirmation vote today on her nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The motion to end debate, known as cloture, passed by a vote of 65-32, more than enough to clear the 60-vote threshold required. Washington Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray voted with the minority to continue debate.
President Bush nominated Brown to the main appeals court for government-related litigation. The court is often seen as a steppingstone to the Supreme Court.
Democrats had blocked a confirmation vote on Brown since November 2003 by refusing to end debate, a tactic known as the filibuster. Seven Democrats joined with seven Republicans in May and agreed not to continue the filibuster on Brown and several other judges, including Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, who was confirmed last month to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans and sworn in Monday.
Following Brown, three more judicial nominations are on the Senate docket for action this week: Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, nominated for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and Richard Griffin and David McKeague, both of Michigan and both nominated to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Detroit.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he expected a confirmation vote on Pryor and the two Michigan nominees on Thursday.
The fate of two other circuit court nominees – William Myers to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and Henry Saad to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Detroit – was not addressed by the moderates’ compromise and remains uncertain.
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