7A
NEWSAI^e Oarlotte $at
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Watching high court
Continued from page 1A
Justice Harry A. Blackmun.
At stake in filling the next
vacancy is women’s right to
make their own reproductive
decisions, as expressed in the
1973 case of Roe v Wade.
If a moderate jurist, such as
Justice Sandra Day
O’Connor, retires and is
replaced with an anti-choice
nominee, the high court will
lose a fi'agile majority that
has restricted abortion but
kept it as a legal option when
a motha'’s life or health is at
risk, or when fetus cannot live
on its own. Those decisions
could be revisited again as
early as the term beginning in
fall 2005.
Also at issue are rights to
privacy in intimate decisions,
includii^ the use of contra
ception, as weU as equal
opportunity laws, dvil liber
ties, same-sex relationships
and religious encroachment
on the public sector.
On May 23, 14 senators
released a last-minute com
promise on the handling of
judicial nominations. The
nine-paragraph agreement by
seven Republicans and seven
Democrats was designed to
stop Republicans who were on
the brink of banning senate
use of the filibust^, a tradi
tional technique to block con-
trov^ial measures that do
not have the support of at
least 40 senators.
Shutting off a filibuster
requires the vote of 60 s^a-'
tors. "W^th the Republicans
controlling 55 seats, the GOP
leadership was considering
the extreme measure—
hyperbolicaUy dubbed the
nuclear option—of ending the
filibuster altogether.
Most Supreme Court jus
tices have been approved by
more than 70 senators,
according to research by
Senator Chafee, one of the
compromise signers. An
exception was the consei*va- •
tive Justice Clarice Thomas,
who drew only 52 votes in
1991, said Chafee spokesper
son Hourahan.
By preserving the filibuster,
the 14 senators may have
helped to prevent an especial
ly rigid or narrow-thinking
justice fix)m taking a seat.
‘’If there is a bad nominee
for the Supreme Court, we
certainly want senatoi’s who
oppose it to use all of the
power at their disposal and
they wfil be able to filibuster,”
said Judy Appelbaum, vice
president of the National
Women’s Law Center.
But senators who signed
and crafted the compromise,
“For / will restore health imto thee, and / will heal tly]’
wounds, saith the Lord." - Jeremiah 30: 17
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the so-called Gang of 14,
agreed that the filibuster will
be used only imder ‘’extraordi-
naiy di'cumstances.”
With those two key words
open to interpretation, if any
one of the Gang of 14 decides
that ‘’extraordinary diXTum-
stances” warrant the use of
the filibuster but other sign
ers disagree, the compromise
commitment can be dissolved.
The nuclear option permit
ting approval of a justice by
51 senators (or 50 senators
and the vice president as tie-
breakei’) can rise again.
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