Crack in Barrier to Nominees

As White House nominations for dozens of federal judgeships and for surgeon general languished in the Senate last year, the conventional wisdom was that things could only get worse. After all, in an election year the temptation to pick apart nominees’ politics grows stronger and forces on both sides of hot-button issues like abortion grow testier. What a welcome surprise, then, to have Dr. David Satcher approved Monday as surgeon general and Los Angeles lawyer Margaret Morrow approved Tuesday for the federal 9th Circuit Court.

In both cases, it was hard to see any legitimate cause, or even a solid political reason, for the holdup. Satcher’s life is an inspiring bootstraps story, from rural Alabama farm family to head of the federal Centers for Disease Control. He had no trouble being confirmed by the Senate as head of the CDC in 1993, and his opponents this time had to scratch for issues: He has supported studies of needle exchanges to reduce AIDS transmission among addicts, and like President Clinton he opposed a bill in Congress that would have banned all late-term abortions. Satcher said he saw himself as an advocate of good nutrition, physical exercise and other healthy life choices--a thoroughly beneficial stance for the nation’s family doctor.

Morrow’s case was similar. She is a former president of the L.A. County Bar Assn. and the State Bar of California and is an experienced litigator in trial and appellate courts. Her main critics, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), said they feared she would be a judicial activist, but they were hard-pressed to find examples from her public statements. Still, her nomination was bottled up for close to two years because of the GOP objections, and there are still many worthy nominees who have waited for months for even a fair hearing.

Satcher and Morrow were never good enemies of conservative principles, so perhaps by confirming them the Senate is just moving to juicier targets. But the overall pace of judicial confirmations in the first weeks of 1998 is well ahead of last year’s, welcome news for judges who are scrambling to cover for all the vacancies. Good sense should continue to prevail.