Miguel Estrada
Encyclopedia
Miguel Angel Estrada Castañeda (born September 25, 1961) is an attorney who became embroiled in controversy following his 2001 nomination by President
George W. Bush
to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
. Claiming he was a conservative ideologue with no experience as a judge, and unable to block Estrada's nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee after the Republican Party
took control of the Senate
in 2002, Senate Democrats
used a filibuster to prevent his nomination from being given a final confirmation vote by the full Senate on the Senate floor.
Although a filibuster had been used in 1968 to extend debate regarding the elevation of Associate Justice Abe Fortas
to the position of Chief Justice of the United States
, the Estrada filibuster was different in several ways. Estrada's was the first filibuster ever to be successfully used against a judicial nominee who had clear support of the majority in the Senate (Fortas only had the support of 45 Senators and ended up resigning his position a year later in disgrace), and the first filibuster of any court of appeals
nominee. Additionally, Estrada's was the first filibuster that prevented a judicial nominee from joining a court. Republican Senators opposed establishment of these new precedents, and, after Democrats filibustered several further nominees, the so-called Gang of 14
Senators negotiated an agreement to prevent a recurrence absent "extraordinary circumstances."
. After his parents divorce
d, he immigrated to the United States to join his mother when he was 17, arriving with a limited command of English
.
He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree
from Columbia
in 1983. He received a Juris Doctor
(J.D.) degree magna cum laude in 1986 from Harvard Law School
, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review
. After law school
, Estrada served as a law clerk
to Judge Amalya Lyle Kearse
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He then clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court during his first year on the Court in 1988. One of his fellow clerks during that year was Peter Keisler
, another controversial conservative nominee to the D.C. Circuit whose nomination was never processed by the Senate Democrats during the 110th Congress.
From 1990 until 1992, Estrada served as Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
. In 1992, he joined the United States Department of Justice
as an Assistant to the Solicitor General for the George H. W. Bush Administration where he served with now Chief Justice John G. Roberts. In those capacities, Estrada represented the government in numerous jury trials and in many appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, he practiced law in New York with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
.
Estrada was married to Laury Gordon Estrada until her death at age 46 on November 28, 2004. She died of an accidental overdose of alcohol and sleeping pills, having also miscarried during the nomination fight.
on May 9, 2001. He received a unanimous "well-qualified" rating from the American Bar Association
.
Democratic Senators opposed the nomination, noting Estrada's lack of any prior judicial experience at the local, state, or federal level. Additionally, though a member of The Federalist Society, Estrada had never been an academic, so there was no record of his writing by which the Senate could review his record. He had worked in the Office of the Solicitor General
under the senior President George Herbert Walker Bush. He had also been a partner in the same law firm as Ted Olson, working on the legal team that represented the younger Bush in the Bush v. Gore
case. Thus he and his record were well-known in conservative circles, and he was even known to be a friend of Ann Coulter
who acknowledged him in her book.
Yet, in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he claimed he had never thought about Roe v. Wade
even while serving as a Supreme Court clerk at a time when the first Bush Administration had asked the Court to reconsider it. Also while as Justice Kennedy's clerk, he interviewed potential candidates for the clerkship. In an article published in The Nation
magazine Jack Newfield
alleged that Estrada had disqualified candidates who were too liberal. When questioned about this by Sen. Charles Schumer
at the confirmation hearing, Estrada changed his recollection of the incident during his testimony. Democratic Senators also objected to the refusal by the Office of the Solicitor General to release samples of Estrada's writings while employed there, although such a release of confidential documents would have been precedent-setting. Minority Leader Tom Daschle
was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "The stumbling block to Miguel Estrada's nomination all along was the administration's refusal to allow him to complete his job application and provide the Senate with the basic information it needed to evaluate and vote on his nomination."
A bipartisan group of former Solicitors General
wrote a letter objecting to the Democrats' demand for memos that Estrada had written while he was with the office. The letter argued release of prior memos by government employees to the public would endanger the Solicitor General Office's ability to provide confidential legal advice to the Executive Branch. (Two years later, Republican Senators would also request confidential White House memos in the confirmation hearing of Miers, who also had no publication record.)
Leaked internal memos to Democratic Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin mention liberal interest groups' desire to keep Estrada off the court partially because "he is Latino," and because of his potential to be a future Supreme Court nominee. A spokesman for Durbin said that "no one intended racist remarks against Estrada" and that the memo only meant to highlight that Estrada was "politically dangerous" because Democrats knew he would be an "attractive candidate" that would be difficult to contest since he didn't have any record. Democrats argued that Estrada had extreme right-wing views, although others pointed to Estrada's difference with some conservatives on Commerce Clause issues.
On March 6, 2003, there was the first of seven failed cloture votes on Estrada. Fifty-five senators voted to end debate on his nomination and allow a final confirmation vote, and forty-four senators voted not to end debate. After twenty-eight months in political limbo and a protracted six-month battle using the filibuster, Estrada withdrew his name from further consideration on September 4, 2003. Bush nominated Thomas B. Griffith
in his place, who was confirmed in 2005 under the terms of the Gang of 14
Deal.
With the benefit of hindsight, Jan Crawford Greenburg
has said of the nomination that "[i]f Majority Leader Bill Frist
had shown real leadership, he would never have allowed a Democratic minority to achieve the first-ever filibusters of appeals court nominees. If Trent Lott
had been majority leader, Estrada would have been confirmed."
Numerous judicial nominees prior to Estrada had been kept off the courts, when the Senate refused to let the nomination out of committee for a floor vote. A filibuster had been used in 1968 to extend debate regarding the elevation of Associate Justice Abe Fortas
to Chief Justice of the United States
, but the Estrada filibuster was different in multiple ways. Estrada's was the first filibuster ever to be successfully used against a judicial nominee who had clear support of the majority in the Senate. Estrada's was the first filibuster of any court of appeals
nominee. It was also the first filibuster that prevented a judicial nominee from joining a court.
, law office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where he is a member of the firm's Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group as well as the Business Crimes and Investigations Practice Group.
Estrada joined Rudy Giuliani
's 2008 presidential campaign
as a judicial adviser.
Referencing his own confirmation fight, in 2010, Estrada wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee supporting President Barack Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Elena Kagan
. Estrada argued that one of the prerogatives of the President, under the Constitution, is to nominate people who share his judicial philosophy, even though Estrada does not share Kagan's judicial philosophy. In 1999, Kagan had been nominated by President Clinton to serve on the D.C. Circuit - the same court Estrada was later nominated to. At that time, Kagan was kept off the circuit court because Republicans - the majority party in the Senate - refused to give her a hearing or a vote.
At her confirmation hearing on June 29, 2010 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, when asked by Senator Lindsay Graham whether she believed that Estrada was qualified to serve on an appellate court, Kagan responded affirmatively and added that she believed Estrada was qualified to serve on the Supreme Court as well. Kagan then told Senator Graham that she would put that in writing. She reaffirmed her position with Senator Coburn the following day, saying that she "..would have voted for him" referring to voting for his confirmation.
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...
. Claiming he was a conservative ideologue with no experience as a judge, and unable to block Estrada's nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee after the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
took control of the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
in 2002, Senate Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
used a filibuster to prevent his nomination from being given a final confirmation vote by the full Senate on the Senate floor.
Although a filibuster had been used in 1968 to extend debate regarding the elevation of Associate Justice Abe Fortas
Abe Fortas
Abraham Fortas was a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice from 1965 to 1969. Originally from Tennessee, Fortas became a law professor at Yale, and subsequently advised the Securities and Exchange Commission. He then worked at the Interior Department under Franklin D...
to the position of Chief Justice of the United States
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
, the Estrada filibuster was different in several ways. Estrada's was the first filibuster ever to be successfully used against a judicial nominee who had clear support of the majority in the Senate (Fortas only had the support of 45 Senators and ended up resigning his position a year later in disgrace), and the first filibuster of any court of appeals
United States courts of appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...
nominee. Additionally, Estrada's was the first filibuster that prevented a judicial nominee from joining a court. Republican Senators opposed establishment of these new precedents, and, after Democrats filibustered several further nominees, the so-called Gang of 14
Gang of 14
The Gang of 14 was a term coined to describe the bipartisan group of Senators in the 109th United States Congress who successfully negotiated a compromise in the spring of 2005 to avoid the deployment of the so-called nuclear option over an organized use of the filibuster by Senate...
Senators negotiated an agreement to prevent a recurrence absent "extraordinary circumstances."
Background
Estrada was born in Tegucigalpa, HondurasHonduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. After his parents divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d, he immigrated to the United States to join his mother when he was 17, arriving with a limited command of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from Columbia
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
in 1983. He received a Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
(J.D.) degree magna cum laude in 1986 from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review
Harvard Law Review
The Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School.-Overview:According to the 2008 Journal Citation Reports, the Review is the most cited law review and has the second-highest impact factor in the category "law" after the...
. After law school
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
, Estrada served as a law clerk
Law clerk
A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Law clerks are not court clerks or courtroom deputies, who are administrative staff for the court. Most law clerks are recent law school graduates who...
to Judge Amalya Lyle Kearse
Amalya Lyle Kearse
Amalya Lyle Kearse is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and a world-class bridge player.-Legal career:...
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He then clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court during his first year on the Court in 1988. One of his fellow clerks during that year was Peter Keisler
Peter Keisler
Peter D. Keisler is an American lawyer whose 2006 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit became embroiled in partisan controversy...
, another controversial conservative nominee to the D.C. Circuit whose nomination was never processed by the Senate Democrats during the 110th Congress.
From 1990 until 1992, Estrada served as Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a federal district court. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case...
. In 1992, he joined the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
as an Assistant to the Solicitor General for the George H. W. Bush Administration where he served with now Chief Justice John G. Roberts. In those capacities, Estrada represented the government in numerous jury trials and in many appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, he practiced law in New York with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is a prominent law firm located in New York City. Herbert Wachtell, Martin Lipton, Leonard Rosen, and George Katz founded the firm in 1965. All four were graduates of New York University School of Law...
.
Estrada was married to Laury Gordon Estrada until her death at age 46 on November 28, 2004. She died of an accidental overdose of alcohol and sleeping pills, having also miscarried during the nomination fight.
D.C. Circuit nomination by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush nominated Estrada to a position on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. CircuitUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...
on May 9, 2001. He received a unanimous "well-qualified" rating from the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
.
Democratic Senators opposed the nomination, noting Estrada's lack of any prior judicial experience at the local, state, or federal level. Additionally, though a member of The Federalist Society, Estrada had never been an academic, so there was no record of his writing by which the Senate could review his record. He had worked in the Office of the Solicitor General
United States Solicitor General
The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June...
under the senior President George Herbert Walker Bush. He had also been a partner in the same law firm as Ted Olson, working on the legal team that represented the younger Bush in the Bush v. Gore
Bush v. Gore
Bush v. Gore, , is the landmark United States Supreme Court decision on December 12, 2000, that effectively resolved the 2000 presidential election in favor of George W. Bush. Only eight days earlier, the United States Supreme Court had unanimously decided the closely related case of Bush v...
case. Thus he and his record were well-known in conservative circles, and he was even known to be a friend of Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter
Ann Hart Coulter is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events...
who acknowledged him in her book.
Yet, in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he claimed he had never thought about Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
even while serving as a Supreme Court clerk at a time when the first Bush Administration had asked the Court to reconsider it. Also while as Justice Kennedy's clerk, he interviewed potential candidates for the clerkship. In an article published in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
magazine Jack Newfield
Jack Newfield
Jack Newfield was a muckraking journalist, employed by The Village Voice, the Daily News and the New York Post. He covered the emergence of the New Left and the civil rights movement, and was a close friend of Robert F...
alleged that Estrada had disqualified candidates who were too liberal. When questioned about this by Sen. Charles Schumer
Charles Schumer
Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a...
at the confirmation hearing, Estrada changed his recollection of the incident during his testimony. Democratic Senators also objected to the refusal by the Office of the Solicitor General to release samples of Estrada's writings while employed there, although such a release of confidential documents would have been precedent-setting. Minority Leader Tom Daschle
Tom Daschle
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Daschle is a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "The stumbling block to Miguel Estrada's nomination all along was the administration's refusal to allow him to complete his job application and provide the Senate with the basic information it needed to evaluate and vote on his nomination."
A bipartisan group of former Solicitors General
United States Solicitor General
The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June...
wrote a letter objecting to the Democrats' demand for memos that Estrada had written while he was with the office. The letter argued release of prior memos by government employees to the public would endanger the Solicitor General Office's ability to provide confidential legal advice to the Executive Branch. (Two years later, Republican Senators would also request confidential White House memos in the confirmation hearing of Miers, who also had no publication record.)
Leaked internal memos to Democratic Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin mention liberal interest groups' desire to keep Estrada off the court partially because "he is Latino," and because of his potential to be a future Supreme Court nominee. A spokesman for Durbin said that "no one intended racist remarks against Estrada" and that the memo only meant to highlight that Estrada was "politically dangerous" because Democrats knew he would be an "attractive candidate" that would be difficult to contest since he didn't have any record. Democrats argued that Estrada had extreme right-wing views, although others pointed to Estrada's difference with some conservatives on Commerce Clause issues.
On March 6, 2003, there was the first of seven failed cloture votes on Estrada. Fifty-five senators voted to end debate on his nomination and allow a final confirmation vote, and forty-four senators voted not to end debate. After twenty-eight months in political limbo and a protracted six-month battle using the filibuster, Estrada withdrew his name from further consideration on September 4, 2003. Bush nominated Thomas B. Griffith
Thomas B. Griffith
Thomas Beall Griffith is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Before his appointment to the bench he was Senate Legal Counsel, the chief legal officer of the United States Senate...
in his place, who was confirmed in 2005 under the terms of the Gang of 14
Gang of 14
The Gang of 14 was a term coined to describe the bipartisan group of Senators in the 109th United States Congress who successfully negotiated a compromise in the spring of 2005 to avoid the deployment of the so-called nuclear option over an organized use of the filibuster by Senate...
Deal.
With the benefit of hindsight, Jan Crawford Greenburg
Jan Crawford Greenburg
Jan Crawford, formerly known as Jan Crawford Greenburg, is a television journalist, author, and lawyer. She currently serves as both the political correspondent and chief legal correspondent for CBS News and appears regularly on the CBS Evening News, Face the Nation, Early Show, and CBS News Sunday...
has said of the nomination that "[i]f Majority Leader Bill Frist
Bill Frist
William Harrison "Bill" Frist, Sr. is an American physician, businessman, and politician. He began his career as an heir and major stockholder to the for-profit hospital chain of Hospital Corporation of America. Frist later served two terms as a Republican United States Senator representing...
had shown real leadership, he would never have allowed a Democratic minority to achieve the first-ever filibusters of appeals court nominees. If Trent Lott
Trent Lott
Chester Trent Lott, Sr. , is a former United States Senator from Mississippi and has served in numerous leadership positions in the House of Representatives and the Senate....
had been majority leader, Estrada would have been confirmed."
Numerous judicial nominees prior to Estrada had been kept off the courts, when the Senate refused to let the nomination out of committee for a floor vote. A filibuster had been used in 1968 to extend debate regarding the elevation of Associate Justice Abe Fortas
Abe Fortas
Abraham Fortas was a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice from 1965 to 1969. Originally from Tennessee, Fortas became a law professor at Yale, and subsequently advised the Securities and Exchange Commission. He then worked at the Interior Department under Franklin D...
to Chief Justice of the United States
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
, but the Estrada filibuster was different in multiple ways. Estrada's was the first filibuster ever to be successfully used against a judicial nominee who had clear support of the majority in the Senate. Estrada's was the first filibuster of any court of appeals
United States courts of appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...
nominee. It was also the first filibuster that prevented a judicial nominee from joining a court.
Current life
Estrada is currently a partner at the Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, law office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where he is a member of the firm's Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group as well as the Business Crimes and Investigations Practice Group.
Estrada joined Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....
's 2008 presidential campaign
Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign, 2008
Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign began following the formation of the Draft Giuliani movement in October 2005. The next year, Giuliani opened an exploratory committee and formally announced in February 2007 that he was actively seeking the presidential nomination of the Republican...
as a judicial adviser.
Referencing his own confirmation fight, in 2010, Estrada wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee supporting President Barack Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 7, 2010. Kagan is the Court's 112th justice and fourth female justice....
. Estrada argued that one of the prerogatives of the President, under the Constitution, is to nominate people who share his judicial philosophy, even though Estrada does not share Kagan's judicial philosophy. In 1999, Kagan had been nominated by President Clinton to serve on the D.C. Circuit - the same court Estrada was later nominated to. At that time, Kagan was kept off the circuit court because Republicans - the majority party in the Senate - refused to give her a hearing or a vote.
At her confirmation hearing on June 29, 2010 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, when asked by Senator Lindsay Graham whether she believed that Estrada was qualified to serve on an appellate court, Kagan responded affirmatively and added that she believed Estrada was qualified to serve on the Supreme Court as well. Kagan then told Senator Graham that she would put that in writing. She reaffirmed her position with Senator Coburn the following day, saying that she "..would have voted for him" referring to voting for his confirmation.
See also
- List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
- George W. Bush judicial appointment controversiesGeorge W. Bush judicial appointment controversiesDuring President George W. Bush's two term tenure in office, he nominated thirty-nine people for twenty-seven different federal appellate judgeships that were blocked by the Senate Democrats either directly in the Senate Judiciary Committee or on the full Senate floor using a filibuster....
- filibuster
- cloture
- George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates