WASHINGTON (ABP) — With the breakdown of negotiations between the Senate's Democratic and Republican leaders, the chamber is closer than ever to a “nuclear” showdown over the filibuster.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced May 16 that his attempts to reach a compromise over Democrats' blocking of a handful of President Bush's judicial nominees were over and that the issue “will have to be decided on the Senate floor.”
Reid and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had been discussing ways to avoid a showdown over seven Bush nominees to the federal courts. Democrats have blocked the nominees — while approving more than 200 others — for various reasons by use of a parliamentary procedure called the filibuster. Senate rules require 60 votes to close debate on any matter and move to a substantive vote. Because of that rule, minority parties with 41 votes or more can block votes.
But Republicans — spurred on by the White House and some conservative religious groups — could override the filibuster for judicial nominations with a simple majority vote. The move has been dubbed the “nuclear option” because it would dramatically change nearly 200 years of Senate tradition and risk major retaliation from Democrats.
Reid said May 16 that the talks broke down because Frist (R-Tenn.) had not offered any genuine compromises to Democrats. In a statement released by his office after Reid's comments, Frist said, “Republicans believe in the regular order of fair up-and-down votes and letting the Senate decide 'yes' or 'no' on judicial confirmations free from procedural gimmicks like the filibuster,” it read.
Frist's statement continued, “I hope Sen. Reid and others know our door is always open to reasonable proposals for fair up-or-down votes for judicial nominees.”
Multiple Senate sources said the issue would come to the chamber's floor May 18, after senators dispense with a highway-funding bill. It is likely, they said, that the nominations of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen and California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the federal bench will be the first “test cases” for the showdown.
However, the final vote that would actually trigger the “nuclear option” — an obscure procedural vote — could likely be held up for as much as a week due to extensive debate and parliamentary stalling techniques.
Meanwhile, a group of moderate senators is working on a compromise that would allow votes on some or all of the seven nominees, while preserving Democrats' right to use the filibuster to block future nominees in extreme circumstances.
The allowance would be important, because there will likely be at least one vacancy on the Supreme Court before the end of Bush's term. Since federal judges enjoy lifetime appointments and the Supreme Court is closely divided along ideological lines, the addition of any new justices to the high court could have significant consequences for decades to come.