前所未有的司法确认之争与寻找可利用的过去

IF 3.5 2区 社会学 Q1 LAW
Josh Chafetz
{"title":"前所未有的司法确认之争与寻找可利用的过去","authors":"Josh Chafetz","doi":"10.31228/osf.io/7wnqe","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\"Unprecedented\" is a dirty word--at least in the context of constitutional politics. The claim that some behavior is unprecedented carries with it a distinct whiff of impermissibility: if it's never been done before, then at the very least the burden is on those who would want to do it to show that it is permissible. (1) A thumb is very firmly placed on the scale against constitutional novelty. The claim that some activity is constitutionally novel is therefore a politically potent one. Of course, to call one act a \"precedent\" for another is not to state a fact about the relationship between them but rather to engage in a creative act of interpretation. Precedential relationships are made, not found, (2) and therefore charges of unprecedentedness represent a political judgment--but one that comes in the guise of a discovery of a fact about the world. In recent years, perhaps nowhere has unprecedented behavior been \"discovered\" with more abandon than in the context of judicial appointments. Part I of this Essay describes recent events in this domain, beginning in the George W. Bush Administration and culminating with the 2017 elimination of the filibuster for all nominees. In particular, it focuses on the discourse surrounding these reforms, noting that at every turn, accusations of \"unprecedented\" behavior have flown in all directions and have served as justifications for countermeasures, which are in turn characterized as unprecedented. Part II then reconstructs two pasts--two precedential pathways--for recent * rofessor of Law, Cornell Law School. I am grateful to Will Baude, Mike Dorf, Joey Fishkin, Randy Kozel, Marin Levy, David Pozen, Aziz Rana, Catherine Roach, and Justin Zaremby for helpful and thought-provoking comments on earlier drafts. The research and writing of this Essay were funded in part by a gift from the Charles Adelman Fund at Cornell Law School. I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Charles Adelman and the support his gift provides to legal scholarship. Any remaining errors or infelicities are, of course, my own. events, one drawing on the history of legislative obstruction and the other on the history of confirmation politics. The purpose of these historical narratives is not to adjudicate particular claims of unprecedentedness but rather to highlight the ways in which any claim of (un)precedentedness involves particular, contestable constructions of the past. The Essay concludes with some thoughts about why we might prefer some avail-able pasts to others. I. The Present By the middle of 2004, Republicans were furious. Three years into George W. Bush's presidency, they were having at best very limited success in stocking the federal courts, and especially the circuit courts, with their preferred personnel. Democrats had held the Senate majority for most of the 107th Congress (2001-2003), (3) and they had used their power to good effect, confirming only 52% of Bush's (4) nominees to the courts of appeals. (5) But Republicans retook the Senate in the 2002 midterms and clearly expected the pace of appointments to pick up. Orrin Hatch, who became chair of the Judiciary Committee, announced that he would dial down the deference traditionally given to home-state senators, holding hearings and votes even for nominees opposed by both home-state senators. (6) Of the seven appeals-court nominees in that Congress who did not have the approvals of both home-state senators, five were voted out of committee. (7) Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, solemnly intoned that this move would \"be long remembered in the annals of the Senate and of our committee for the precedent set by [holding a hearing on a nominee over the objection of both home-state senators], for the hubris behind it and for the brazenness of the double standard it sets\" (8) Majority Leader Bill Frist was unmoved; when the nominees came to the floor, he declined to honor hold requests on them. …","PeriodicalId":48320,"journal":{"name":"Harvard Law Review","volume":"131 1","pages":"96-132"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2017-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Unprecedented? Judicial Confirmation Battles and the Search for a Usable Past\",\"authors\":\"Josh Chafetz\",\"doi\":\"10.31228/osf.io/7wnqe\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"\\\"Unprecedented\\\" is a dirty word--at least in the context of constitutional politics. The claim that some behavior is unprecedented carries with it a distinct whiff of impermissibility: if it's never been done before, then at the very least the burden is on those who would want to do it to show that it is permissible. (1) A thumb is very firmly placed on the scale against constitutional novelty. The claim that some activity is constitutionally novel is therefore a politically potent one. Of course, to call one act a \\\"precedent\\\" for another is not to state a fact about the relationship between them but rather to engage in a creative act of interpretation. Precedential relationships are made, not found, (2) and therefore charges of unprecedentedness represent a political judgment--but one that comes in the guise of a discovery of a fact about the world. In recent years, perhaps nowhere has unprecedented behavior been \\\"discovered\\\" with more abandon than in the context of judicial appointments. Part I of this Essay describes recent events in this domain, beginning in the George W. Bush Administration and culminating with the 2017 elimination of the filibuster for all nominees. In particular, it focuses on the discourse surrounding these reforms, noting that at every turn, accusations of \\\"unprecedented\\\" behavior have flown in all directions and have served as justifications for countermeasures, which are in turn characterized as unprecedented. Part II then reconstructs two pasts--two precedential pathways--for recent * rofessor of Law, Cornell Law School. I am grateful to Will Baude, Mike Dorf, Joey Fishkin, Randy Kozel, Marin Levy, David Pozen, Aziz Rana, Catherine Roach, and Justin Zaremby for helpful and thought-provoking comments on earlier drafts. The research and writing of this Essay were funded in part by a gift from the Charles Adelman Fund at Cornell Law School. I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Charles Adelman and the support his gift provides to legal scholarship. Any remaining errors or infelicities are, of course, my own. events, one drawing on the history of legislative obstruction and the other on the history of confirmation politics. The purpose of these historical narratives is not to adjudicate particular claims of unprecedentedness but rather to highlight the ways in which any claim of (un)precedentedness involves particular, contestable constructions of the past. The Essay concludes with some thoughts about why we might prefer some avail-able pasts to others. I. The Present By the middle of 2004, Republicans were furious. Three years into George W. Bush's presidency, they were having at best very limited success in stocking the federal courts, and especially the circuit courts, with their preferred personnel. Democrats had held the Senate majority for most of the 107th Congress (2001-2003), (3) and they had used their power to good effect, confirming only 52% of Bush's (4) nominees to the courts of appeals. (5) But Republicans retook the Senate in the 2002 midterms and clearly expected the pace of appointments to pick up. Orrin Hatch, who became chair of the Judiciary Committee, announced that he would dial down the deference traditionally given to home-state senators, holding hearings and votes even for nominees opposed by both home-state senators. (6) Of the seven appeals-court nominees in that Congress who did not have the approvals of both home-state senators, five were voted out of committee. (7) Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, solemnly intoned that this move would \\\"be long remembered in the annals of the Senate and of our committee for the precedent set by [holding a hearing on a nominee over the objection of both home-state senators], for the hubris behind it and for the brazenness of the double standard it sets\\\" (8) Majority Leader Bill Frist was unmoved; when the nominees came to the floor, he declined to honor hold requests on them. …\",\"PeriodicalId\":48320,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Harvard Law Review\",\"volume\":\"131 1\",\"pages\":\"96-132\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":3.5000,\"publicationDate\":\"2017-07-21\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"2\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Harvard Law Review\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"90\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/7wnqe\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"社会学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"LAW\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Harvard Law Review","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/7wnqe","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2

摘要

“史无前例”是一个肮脏的词——至少在宪政的背景下是这样。声称某些行为是前所未有的,带有明显的不被允许的意味:如果以前从未有人做过,那么至少那些想要做这件事的人有责任证明它是被允许的。(1)在反对宪法新颖性的天平上,大拇指是非常牢固的。因此,声称某些活动在宪法上是新颖的,在政治上是强有力的。当然,将一个行为称为另一个行为的“先例”并不是陈述它们之间关系的事实,而是参与一种创造性的解释行为。先例关系是建立的,而不是发现的,因此,对史无前例的指责代表了一种政治判断——但它是以发现世界事实的名义出现的。近年来,在司法任命的背景下,可能没有什么地方比任何地方更能“发现”前所未有的行为了。本文的第一部分描述了这一领域最近发生的事件,从乔治·w·布什政府开始,到2017年取消对所有提名者的阻挠议事。报告特别关注围绕这些改革的讨论,指出在每一个转折点,对“前所未有”行为的指责都向四面八方飞来,并成为反制措施的理由,而反制措施又被描述为前所未有。第二部分为康奈尔大学法学院(Cornell Law School)最近的法学教授重建了两个过去——两个先例路径。我很感谢Will Baude, Mike Dorf, Joey Fishkin, Randy Kozel, Marin Levy, David Pozen, Aziz Rana, Catherine Roach和Justin Zaremby对早期草稿的有益和发人深省的评论。本文的研究和写作部分由康奈尔大学法学院查尔斯·阿德尔曼基金的捐赠资助。我非常感谢查尔斯·阿德尔曼的慷慨和他的捐赠对法律学术的支持。当然,任何剩下的错误或缺点都是我自己的。事件,一个借鉴立法阻挠的历史,另一个借鉴确认政治的历史。这些历史叙述的目的并不是对史无前例的特定主张进行评判,而是强调任何(非)史无前例的主张都涉及对过去的特定的、有争议的建构。这篇文章总结了一些关于为什么我们可能更喜欢一些可用的过去而不是其他人的想法。到2004年中期,共和党人怒不可遏。在乔治·w·布什(George W. Bush)担任总统三年后,他们在为联邦法院,尤其是巡回法院配备他们喜欢的人员方面,最多只取得了非常有限的成功。民主党在第107届国会(2001-2003)的大部分时间里都占据着参议院的多数席位,他们很好地利用了自己的权力,布什提名的上诉法院大法官中只有52%得到了确认。但是,共和党人在2002年中期选举中重新夺回了参议院,并显然期望任命的步伐加快。成为司法委员会主席的奥林·哈奇宣布,他将减少对家乡参议员的传统尊重,甚至对两个家乡参议员都反对的提名人举行听证会和投票。(6)在那届国会中,有7名上诉法院提名人没有得到两个州参议员的批准,其中5人被选出了委员会。(7)司法委员会的资深民主党人帕特里克·莱希(Patrick Leahy)庄严地表示,这一举动将“在参议院和我们委员会的史册上永远被铭记,因为它开创了先例(不顾两个州参议员的反对,就一名被提名人举行听证会),因为它背后的傲慢和它所设定的无耻的双重标准”(8)多数党领袖比尔·弗里斯特(Bill Frist)不为所动;当被提名者上台时,他拒绝尊重他们的等待要求。...
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
Unprecedented? Judicial Confirmation Battles and the Search for a Usable Past
"Unprecedented" is a dirty word--at least in the context of constitutional politics. The claim that some behavior is unprecedented carries with it a distinct whiff of impermissibility: if it's never been done before, then at the very least the burden is on those who would want to do it to show that it is permissible. (1) A thumb is very firmly placed on the scale against constitutional novelty. The claim that some activity is constitutionally novel is therefore a politically potent one. Of course, to call one act a "precedent" for another is not to state a fact about the relationship between them but rather to engage in a creative act of interpretation. Precedential relationships are made, not found, (2) and therefore charges of unprecedentedness represent a political judgment--but one that comes in the guise of a discovery of a fact about the world. In recent years, perhaps nowhere has unprecedented behavior been "discovered" with more abandon than in the context of judicial appointments. Part I of this Essay describes recent events in this domain, beginning in the George W. Bush Administration and culminating with the 2017 elimination of the filibuster for all nominees. In particular, it focuses on the discourse surrounding these reforms, noting that at every turn, accusations of "unprecedented" behavior have flown in all directions and have served as justifications for countermeasures, which are in turn characterized as unprecedented. Part II then reconstructs two pasts--two precedential pathways--for recent * rofessor of Law, Cornell Law School. I am grateful to Will Baude, Mike Dorf, Joey Fishkin, Randy Kozel, Marin Levy, David Pozen, Aziz Rana, Catherine Roach, and Justin Zaremby for helpful and thought-provoking comments on earlier drafts. The research and writing of this Essay were funded in part by a gift from the Charles Adelman Fund at Cornell Law School. I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Charles Adelman and the support his gift provides to legal scholarship. Any remaining errors or infelicities are, of course, my own. events, one drawing on the history of legislative obstruction and the other on the history of confirmation politics. The purpose of these historical narratives is not to adjudicate particular claims of unprecedentedness but rather to highlight the ways in which any claim of (un)precedentedness involves particular, contestable constructions of the past. The Essay concludes with some thoughts about why we might prefer some avail-able pasts to others. I. The Present By the middle of 2004, Republicans were furious. Three years into George W. Bush's presidency, they were having at best very limited success in stocking the federal courts, and especially the circuit courts, with their preferred personnel. Democrats had held the Senate majority for most of the 107th Congress (2001-2003), (3) and they had used their power to good effect, confirming only 52% of Bush's (4) nominees to the courts of appeals. (5) But Republicans retook the Senate in the 2002 midterms and clearly expected the pace of appointments to pick up. Orrin Hatch, who became chair of the Judiciary Committee, announced that he would dial down the deference traditionally given to home-state senators, holding hearings and votes even for nominees opposed by both home-state senators. (6) Of the seven appeals-court nominees in that Congress who did not have the approvals of both home-state senators, five were voted out of committee. (7) Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, solemnly intoned that this move would "be long remembered in the annals of the Senate and of our committee for the precedent set by [holding a hearing on a nominee over the objection of both home-state senators], for the hubris behind it and for the brazenness of the double standard it sets" (8) Majority Leader Bill Frist was unmoved; when the nominees came to the floor, he declined to honor hold requests on them. …
求助全文
通过发布文献求助,成功后即可免费获取论文全文。 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
2.90
自引率
11.80%
发文量
1
期刊介绍: The Harvard Law Review is a student-run organization whose primary purpose is to publish a journal of legal scholarship. The Review comes out monthly from November through June and has roughly 2,500 pages per volume. The organization is formally independent of the Harvard Law School. Student editors make all editorial and organizational decisions and, together with a professional business staff of three, carry out day-to-day operations. Aside from serving as an important academic forum for legal scholarship, the Review has two other goals. First, the journal is designed to be an effective research tool for practicing lawyers and students of the law. Second, it provides opportunities for Review members to develop their own editing and writing skills. Accordingly, each issue contains pieces by student editors as well as outside authors. The Review publishes articles by professors, judges, and practitioners and solicits reviews of important recent books from recognized experts. All articles — even those by the most respected authorities — are subjected to a rigorous editorial process designed to sharpen and strengthen substance and tone.
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信