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Resolved: The Senate Should Take
Ideology into Account in the Judicial
Confirmation Process

DEBATE
Wednesday, January 16, 2002
4:00 p.m.

Featuring Ralph G. Neas, President, People for the American Way; versus Roger Pilon, Vice President for Legal Affairs, Cato Institute.

The Cato Institute
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Washington, DC 20001


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The power to nominate federal judges was one of the biggest stakes in the 2000 presidential election. That power fell to President Bush when he won the race following the Florida long count and the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore. During the first session of the 107th Congress, however, Senate Democrats have repeatedly frustrated the exercise of the power—some calling explicitly for the rejection of nominees who do not pass an ideological litmus test. By the end of the president’s first year in office, 99 federal judgeships remained unfilled. Today, half the seats on the Sixth Circuit are empty while eleven circuit court candidates nominated last May have yet to be given hearings. Is the Senate stalling? Should there be an ideological test for judges? Please join us for what should be a spirited debate about the role of ideology in the judicial confirmation process.

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