Like It Is

“ Like It Is” and Bush 43s’ Judicial Appointees This Sunday’s “ Like It Is” (November 21) should be of great interest to anyone interested in whether Blacks are U.S. citizens and the impact of the three-fifths provision of the U.S. Constitution on presidential elections in 2000 and 2004. Among other things, this program will provide legal insight into the future of Blacks in the electoral process and the impact of the Electoral College and the three-fifths provision of the Constitution. The July 2004 Judicature magazine published a study outlining the judicial record of Bush 43’s appointments on civil rights and criminal law and labor cases. In the area of civil rights, his judicial appointees have not disappointed descendants of enslaved Africans. Civil rights and civil liberties plaintiffs won only 28 percent of the time when a Bush 43 judge presided over the trial. According to University of Houston political science professor Robert Carp, this is the lowest score of any modern president. This study involves cases decided up to this past spring. The Environmental Law Institute through June of this year looked at 325 district and circuit court decisions made during the Bush administration. Judges appointed by Democratic administrations ruled for environmental plaintiffs nearly 60 percent of the time while Republican judges dipped to 28 percent. Bush 43’s appointees on the federal trial court level favored plaintiffs in only 17 percent of the environmental cases. So far, 203 of Bush 43’s nominees have been appointed to federal judgeships. To avoid Senate oversight, Bush is now making recess appointments. Judge Charles Pickering, Sr. of Mississippi has received a recess appointment to the 5th Circuit. The recess appointment of William Pryor of Alabama to a seat on the 11th Circuit has prompted a drug defendant to petition the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari arguing, inter alia, that recess appointees lack Senate confirmation, life tenure and judicial independence. o0o