Justice Agee Confirmed by Senate 4th Circuit Slot
The U.S. Senate voted 96-0 to confirm Virginia Supreme Court Justice G. Steven Agee’s nomination to the U.S. Fourth Circuit of Appeals which covers federal appeals in Maryland.
President Bush nominated Justice Agee six weeks ago after he withdrew his earlier nominee, Virginia lawyer Duncan Getchell. Getchell, a lawyer at McGwireWoods, saw his nomination go into the tank when it was revealed he apparently botched an $8 million dollar appeal in a personal injury case to the Virginia Supreme Court.
Setting aside that after his nomination he publicly blamed another lawyer for the error to the point where the lawyer sued him, and setting aside the character defects such an action might reveal, it is probably a little over the top to make an issue of single error in a legal career that spanned over 30 years. But Getchell’s nomination was probably doomed the minute he was not approved by either of the Virginia senators, one of whom is Republican Senator John W. Warner. The fact that he once belonged to a country club that excluded women also didn’t help.
Both Senator Warner and Senator James Webb approved of Justice Agee, who also served in the Virginia House of Delegates. I doubt I would nominate Justice Agee because I suspect I disagree with him on many political issues. But by all accounts, he is eminently qualified to join the 4th Circuit. Even with the addition of Justice Agee, there are still 7 more vacancies on the 4th Circuit that I do not suspect will be filled anytime soon in this election year.
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Editorial
Senators, start new beginning now
The Baltimore Examiner Newspaper
2008-06-13
BALTIMORE - Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin right now have power to shape the future of our nation. They can set the new direction and attitude. They can prove to America that Democratic cries for a new beginning are not just hollow party rhetoric.
And while they are at it, they can serve justice, relieve the beleaguered U.S. 4th District
Court of Appeals and put an excellent choice for judge on the bench.
They readily admit Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein would be a good judge. In fact, they say the main reason they are blocking his nomination is he does such a great job here in Maryland. The other reasons they give are patently specious.
Politics, they say, has nothing to do with keeping off the most shorthanded appeals court in the nation this Republican who clerked for Reagan Supreme Court nominee Judge Douglas Ginsburg before being hired and promoted by the Clinton Justice Department. IQ is not the issue. He graduated summa cum laude from Wharton, cum laude from Harvard and was a Law Review editor.
Now that Virginia’s senators joined hands across party lines to expedite one appointment, four vacant seats remain, still more than twice as many as any other circuit court of appeals. The partisan bickering over filling this influential bench has denied citizens of five states our full share of justice through the terms of three presidents and surely will into a fourth.
That is an outrage. If Mikulski and Cardin are playing mere politics with Maryland’s unofficial seat, they betray the people of our state. If they are waiting out the presidential election in hopes of inflicting an ideologue on the court and replacing Rosenstein with one as U.S. attorney, they should turn Democrats’ eight years of allegations against the Bush administration upon themselves.
For one thing, the 2008 election is a long way from decided. For another, even if their party’s nominee wins, he has called for a new beginning. Barack Obama asks all Americans “to believe not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington. I’m asking you to believe in yours.”
Really? How can anybody believe in his or our ability to effect change if two of the smartest, most effective members of the Senate refuse to change?
Senators, we want change today, not seven months from now. The first thing we want you to change is putting party politics before the greater good of the people. Stop it.
Show the way. You still have time. The Senate filled the last seat only 65 days after President Bush’s nomination.
Use Rosenstein’s appointment to light a beacon on Capitol Hill that those who call for change can change themselves.
www.baltimoreexaminer.com
Posted by: Frank Keegan | June 16, 2008 11:30 AM