Posted on: Saturday, May 21, 2005

Senators to defend filibuster

By Dennis Camire
Advertiser Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Hawai'i's two Democratic senators say they'll stand with their party next week against a Republican ban on filibusters for judicial nominees.

A test vote on the issue will take place Tuesday when Republicans will attempt to override a Democratic filibuster of the nomination of Priscilla Owen to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Republicans, who control the Senate with 55 senators compared to 44 Democrats and one independent, need 60 votes to prevail and force a simple majority vote on the nomination.

Unless an agreement is reached before the vote, Republicans are expected to fail in ending the filibuster and to then use a parliamentary maneuver. This so-called "nuclear option" would change Senate rules and end Democrats' ability to use filibusters to block future appeals court and Supreme Court nominees.

To be successful in that attempt, they will need only 51 votes. But if they do succeed, Democrats could decide to use other Senate rules to slow or stop all but the most essential legislative business.

Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, who will debate the issue Monday on the Senate floor, said the reason he and other Democrats are defending the filibuster tradition regarding the judicial nominees is because they are appointed to lifetime positions and will affect public policy for decades to come.

"Unlike legislation, which may be amended and refined over time, judges on the federal bench sit for a lifetime appointment with little recourse for correction or change," he said. "The only chance we as senators have to voice our positions on their appointments is now."

Sen. Dan K. Inouye said a filibuster ban would radically alter the balance of power between the majority and minority in the Senate.

"The minority view today could be the majority view tomorrow," said Inouye, who supported filibusters in his maiden speech on the Senate floor in 1963. "If they kill this now, it may come to haunt them later on."

Inouye took to the Senate floor during the debate to repeat his first speech in favor of maintaining the filibuster.

At that time, Senate conservatives were in favor of the filibuster because they could use it to block some of the civil rights proposals that were being argued, Inouye said.

"It hurt me to vote the way I did because I'm for the civil rights bill, but I couldn't get that by killing the filibuster," he said. "I thought someday, I may need it. After all, Hawai'i is a small state."