Senate seats judge amid new filibuster threat

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats said Tuesday they would filibuster another of President Bush's federal court nominees, minutes after allowing the Senate to confirm a Bush nominee who critics said had worked to curtail the rights of the disabled.

The new filibuster target will be Priscilla Owen, a Texas judge who was nominated for a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Democrats have called Owen, who sits on the Texas Supreme Court, an antiabortion, probusiness judicial activist whose opinions and rulings are too influenced by her personal beliefs.

"Her record is so egregious that we have no choice but to filibuster," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said.

This comes as Democrats enter their third month of filibustering to keep lawyer Miguel Estrada off the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Republicans have lost four attempts to break the Estrada filibuster.

Bush noted Tuesday that half the 10 judicial nominees he submitted to the Senate in 2001 still have not had votes.

"The delays in the Senate confirmation process deter good people from seeking to serve on the bench and create a vacancy crisis in the federal courts that harms the American people," Bush said.

Democrats said they are willing to confirm consensus candidates like U.S. District Judge Edward Prado, who also wants a seat on the 5th Circuit. Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt to immediately confirm Prado, a Hispanic federal judge from Texas, instead of debating Owen.

All of this came as the Senate confirmed Jeff Sutton, a former Ohio solicitor general for a seat on the U.S. appeals court despite protests from disabled persons who say Sutton worked to restrict their rights.

Sutton was approved on a 52-41 vote for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which handles appeals from Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan.

Democrats were not unified in their opposition to Sutton, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California breaking ranks to vote for him. The only other Democrat to vote for Sutton was Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

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