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The American Voice

 Liberty
Volume 8 No. 1 ©  May 22, 2005


Save the Filibuster, Save the U.S. Senate, and most of all Save Our American Democracy and Our American Freedoms!

By J.J. Publius

 In America, the majority should never trample on the rights and privileges of the minority.

Inch-by-inch and day-by-day, Bush is taking our freedoms away

Save the Filibuster, it protects us all!

At issue is the procedure by which people are appointed as judges of our federal courts. That procedure is that George Bush as the President of the United States of America nominates his choices for the federal bench. But those nominations are subject to approval by the United States Senate.

These judicial appointments involve three major levels of the federal courts, the United States District Courts (trial courts), the Court of Appeals (intermediate appellate courts), and the United States Supreme Court (the court of last resort).

Unless this writer's elementary school teachers were not telling it the way it is, one of the most fundamental and basic principles of our American democracy  is that the majority should never trample on the rights and privileges of the minority(s).  That goes all the way back to our American democracy's founding. And it is well codified in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.

Another very fundamental principle of our American democracy is the system of balances and checks among the three independent branches or our federal government, the administrative, the judicial, and the legislative branches. An important part of that system of balances and checks is the advice and consent language in our United States Constitution.

Many items that come before the United States Senate require only a majority vote for passage. However, either by specification in the United States Constitution or by Senate rules, in some instances more than a simple majority is required for Senate passage.

For example, under the Advice and Consent clause of the Constitution a two-thirds Senate vote is required to approve treaties with foreign nations. But only a simple majority is required to confirm the nominations of judges, ambassadors, and so forth.

One problem with simple majority votes in the Senate is that a party with only 51 Senators can pass legislation and approve judicial nominations that the 49  Senators of the other party oppose. To the extent that the 51% vs. 49% composition of the Senate reflects the composition of the citizens of the United States, 51% of the people rule over the other 49% of the people. That can be very divisive.

For a very long time the United States Senate has had in place a mechanism to prevent such a situation in which 51% of the Senators can ram something down the throats of the remaining 49% of the Senators -- and therefore down the throats of 49% of the Citizens of the Unites States of America. That hallowed and venerable mechanism is the filibuster.

A filibuster is any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying action.  (U.S. Senate: Reference Home; Glossary, filibuster) It only takes one or just a few Senators to mount a filibuster.

However, by a vote of 60 Senators a filibuster can be stopped, thus allowing the matter to be voted on by the entire Senate. The mechanism for doing that is called cloture: The only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.  (U.S. Senate: Reference Home; Glossary, cloture)

In effect, the filibuster means that if at least 40 United States Senators strongly oppose a bill, presidential appointment, or other matter they can block its passage. And that helps to protect all of us from being trampled upon by a squeaking majority of only 51%.

Today, extremists and radicals want to destroy and to emasculate the protections of the filibuster by changing the Cloture rule to require only a simple majority (51%) to stop a filibuster. That change must not be allowed to be made and it must not be made.

If you are a patriotic American,  and if you believe in our great American democracy and freedoms you should, and you must, do everything that you can to insure this proposed  change in the Cloture rule is not adopted. For our part, we have written and published this edition of the American Voice. And further, we will do everything we can to help defeat any Senator that votes to so amend and destroy the Cloture rule.

For your part, you can and should write to, send e-mail to, and or call your state's Senators and let them know in no uncertain terms that you do not want any changes in the Cloture rule -- you want the current 60 votes for cloture to remain in full force and effect. And if your state's Senators do not listen to you and do vote to destroy cloture, you should  and you must do everything that you can to help to defeat them in their next elections.

If you are not good with words, just refer them to this article. The URL (Web address) for it is AmericanVoice.PennsylvaniaVoice.com


Bush is trying to destroy our great American democracy and freedoms!

As mentioned in the editorial about Brown and Owen in this edition of The American Voice, this whole affair surrounding the nominations of Brown and Owen for positions on the Court of Appeals has greatly disrupted the peace and dignity of the United States Senate. It could result in the destruction of the filibuster -- an important protection of liberty, freedom, and democracy.

If George Bush really cared about our United States of America, our Constitution, and  our freedoms and democracy, he would withdraw the  nominations of Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen for judges of the Court of Appeals in order to  secure the filibuster and its important protection of liberty, freedom, and democracy. If Bush truly were presidential material he would already have done this freely and willingly. George Bush would have put the good of our country and or democracy above his extremist and radical personal goals and ambitions.

Instead, Bush is abusing his presidential powers in order to destroy the filibuster -- an important protection of liberty, freedom, and democracy. Bush is trampling on the rights of the minority in order to impose his rule on America and Americans.

While George Bush has put America at war in Iraq to supposedly bring freedom, democracy, and liberty to the Middle East, he keeps inch-by-inch destroying our American freedoms, democracy, and liberties. Watch out America!

George Bush is nice, personable dude on the surface. But underneath that  deceptive exterior Bush is a tyrant. And day-by-day, he is moving us ever closer to tyranny.
If Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown cared about America, they would withdraw

The nominations of Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen by President George Bush to the Court of Appeals are heavily opposed by many United States Senators, and many Americans too. And without Senate approval, Brown and Owen cannot be appointed to the Court of Appeals.

Under long-standing United States Senate rules and procedures, particularly the filibuster and cloture, it will take a vote of at least 60 of the 100 U.S. Senators to approve Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen for  Court of Appeals judgeships. Further, it appears that they do not have the 60 votes to make it.

Because Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen do not have the 60 votes they need under current U.S. Senate rules and procedures, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other extremist and radical Senators have threatened to change those Senate procedures and rules so that Brown and Owen only need 51, rather than 60, Senators to vote for their approval.

This whole affair surrounding the nominations of Brown and Owen for positions on the Court of Appeals has greatly disrupted the peace and dignity of the United States Senate. It could result in the destruction of the filibuster -- an important protection of liberty, freedom, and democracy.

If Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen really cared about our United States of America, our Constitution, and  our freedoms and democracy, they would withdraw their  nominations for judges of the Court of Appeals in order to  secure the filibuster and its important protection of liberty, freedom, and democracy. If they truly were Court of Appeals material they would already have done this freely and willingly. They would have put the good of our country and our democracy above their personal goals and ambitions.

However, Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen have not done so. Nor does it appear they have any plans of so doing.  Rather they have put their own ambitions, personal goals, and quests for power above the interests of our nation and our democracy.

What we need on the federal bench are judges who put our nation, our Constitution, our democracy, and our freedoms above their own personal goals and ambitions. Not power-happy judges such as Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen  who place their own personal goals and ambitions above the good of our country.

Thus, Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen do not deserve appointments to the Court of Appeals. The United States Senate should not  confirm their appointments!

Filibuster is a vote -- a vote against!

Senator Bill Frist, President Bush, and other Republican extremists and radicals have been making a big thing about allowing the United States Senate to vote on the nominations of Brown and Owen for positions on the Court of Appeals. They say that a filibuster would keep the Senate from voting on the Brown and Owen nominations. And they say it is the right and duty of the Senators to vote.

But their position that a filibuster precludes Senators from voting is not exactly the truth. Here is why.

In order to stop a filibuster and allow what is called an up or down vote, it takes a vote of 60 Senators to invoke cloture and stop the filibuster.

A vote to invoke cloture and stop a filibuster is a vote of the U.S. Senate. What Senator Bill Frist, President Bush, and other Republican extremists and radicals want to do is to in effect change the current Senate rules and procedures.

Under the current Senate rules and procedures a Senator or some Senators can force nominations to the federal judiciary  to require a 60% (60 of 100 Senators) for approval by filibustering the nominations. Then after cloture it still takes a majority of 51 of 100 Senators to approve the nominations.

But it first takes a vote of 60 Senators to stop the filibuster. Less than 60 Senators voting to stop the filibuster is a vote against the nominations!

If Senator Bill Frist, President Bush, and other Republican extremists and radicals can get away with changing the Senate rules and procedures by destroying the filibuster, then it only takes 51 of 100 Senators to approve judicial nominations. That makes it easier for  Senator Bill Frist, President Bush, and other Republican extremists and radicals to get extremists and radicals appointed to the federal bench.

Thus the flap that Senator Bill Frist, President Bush, and other Republican extremists and radicals are making about the cloture and filibuster rules and procedures is not about Senators voting. When there is a filibuster Senators can, if they so desire, vote to invoke cloture and stop the filibuster -- and that is a vote. It's an up and down vote by the full Senate for that matter.

The flap is all about Senator Bill Frist, President Bush, and other Republican extremists and radicals wanting to change the voting requirements in order to lower the standards by which people are appointed to federal judgeships. And they want to do that so they can stack the federal judiciary with fellow extremists and radicals.



Advice and Consent -- Article II, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution 



The President shall . . . have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.



Liberty


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