Cato Daily Dispatch for November 12, 2001
Press Consortium Analyzes 2000's Presidential VotesBush Judicial Picks To Wait Until Next Year
Senators May Tinker With Posse Comitatus
Press Consortium Analyzes 2000's Presidential Votes
In all likelihood, George W. Bush still would have won Florida and the presidency last year if either of two limited recounts -- one requested by Al Gore, the other ordered by the Florida Supreme Court -- had been completed, according to a study commissioned by The Washington Post and other news organizations.
But if Gore had found a way to trigger a statewide recount of all disputed ballots, or if the courts had required it, the result likely would have been different. An examination of uncounted ballots throughout Florida found enough ballots where voter intent was clear to give Gore the narrowest of margins.
Cato scholars John Samples, Tom G. Palmer, and Patrick Basham made recommendations for reform of the U.S. election system in "Lessons of Election 2000." They argue for preserving the electoral college, removing limits to campaign donations, and allowing states the choice to accept and implement Congress' suggestions for reform.
Bush Judicial Picks To Wait Until Next Year
President Bush's most controversial judicial nominees may have to wait until 2002 before they get a confirmation hearing, much less a vote, from the Democrat-controlled Senate, according to the Associated Press.
While Democrats say they plan to get as many as 30 of Bush's judges confirmed before the end of the year - 17 of his 64 nominees have been approved so far - none of them will likely be the four nominees who could cause long, drawn out debates among senators.
That means Bush Appeals Court nominees Miguel Estrada, Jeff Sutton, Terrance Boyle and Michael McConnell will likely have to wait until next year before finding out whether the Democrats in control of their destinies will even allow a vote on their nominations.
In "Craving Comity ... And Losing at Hardball," Vice President for Legal Affairs Roger Pilon explains that "this year there have been 117 vacancies on the federal courts -- half the seats on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals are now vacant. The president has thus far nominated 60 candidates to fill those vacancies. Yet only 12 of those nominees have been confirmed by the Senate, and two of those were Democratic holdovers from the Clinton years, renominated by President Bush as a gesture to the Democrats. Some of the most qualified candidates have languished since early May; yet the Senate Judiciary Committee, controlled by the Democrats since late May, has refused even to hold hearings on their nominations."
"What Democrats have done instead is try to thoroughly politicize the confirmation process," Pilon says.
Senators May Tinker With Posse Comitatus
For Americans, it's a jarring sight: Uniformed soldiers, armed and dangerous, patrolling the train stations of New York, the bridges of San Francisco Bay and the streets of dozens of cities in between.
It's a sight common in much of the rest of the world, but one that American leaders as far back as the Founding Fathers have scrupulously tried to avoid except in disaster areas and desolate stretches of the U.S.-Mexican border.
Now, it could become even more common, according to Fox News.
Fox reports that a handful of U.S. senators and some in the Bush administration are calling for changes in a 150-year-old statute, known as the Posse Comitatus Act, that keeps the military out of the business of domestic law enforcement.
"We've got to figure out a new Posse Comitatus that allows the Department of Defense to step forward and defend America," insists Georgia Democrat Max Cleland.
The Cato Handbook for Congress recommends tightening the Posse Comitatus Act so that it proscribes all use of military personnel and equipment, including the National Guard. In "Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in America's Police Departments," Diane Cecilia Weber explains how "over the past 20 years there has been a dramatic expansion of the role of the military in law enforcement activity. In 1981, Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act [that] amended the Posse Comitatus Act..."
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