Ideology Matters
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As a new presidential term and a new Congress begin, the Center for American Progress has launched the Progressive Priorities Project to provide policymakers and the public a positive vision for progressive policymaking supported by a series of new and bold policy ideas in priority areas identified by American Progress. Ideology Matters: A Progressive View of the Judicial Confirmation Process is the first of approximately a dozen papers in the series American Progress will issue over the course of the next two months. In addition to providing broad policy recommendations, each of the papers in the series proposes specific steps policymakers can take to achieve the broader policy goals. All of the papers in the series will be compiled and published as a book in early 2005.
Ideology Matters: A Progressive View of the Judicial Confirmation Process
The Center for American Progress's Position on Judicial Confirmations
Executive Summary
As one of three coequal branches of our government, the judiciary plays a central role in safeguarding our liberties, upholding the rule of law against governmental intrusions and excesses, and ensuring that every person is accorded due process and the equal protection of the laws. Over the next four years, President Bush will nominate scores of judges to the federal bench, including, in all likelihood, one or more Justices to the Supreme Court. The effects of their decisions will be felt for a generation to come.
Before consenting to any nomination, the Senate should consider a broad range of factors that may affect a nominee’s fitness and suitability. As part of this analysis, senators should give explicit consideration to a nominee’s ideology—including his or her beliefs about the Constitution and the role of the courts in interpreting it—to determine whether those views are within the constitutional mainstream. Senators should insist on exercising fully their Advice and Consent responsibilities—and should use their political capital—to confirm only those nominees who recognize that the meaning of the Constitution has continued to evolve to meet the needs of a changing society and who will interpret the Constitution to preserve and promote the ability of Congress and the courts to protect fundamental rights.
The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."