Sixth Circuit Nomination Under Clinton
On January 7, 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated White to a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that was created by the decision by Sixth Circuit Judge Damon Keith to shift to senior status. With the U.S. Senate controlled by Republicans during Clinton's entire second term, White's nomination languished for more than four years, chiefly because of objections from Michigan's Republican senator at the time, Spencer Abraham.
Abraham had been angry with Clinton because Abraham previously had aided the president in getting three Democratic judicial nominees from Michigan approved in the Republican-controlled Senate allegedly on the condition that Clinton make no more nominations to the federal courts from his state. When Clinton went ahead and nominated White contrary to the previous agreement, Abraham refused to give his approval of her, keeping White's nomination stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee without a hearing or committee vote. When Clinton later nominated Kathleen McCree Lewis in 1999 to a second Michigan vacancy on the Sixth Circuit, Abraham did not allow her to be processed in committee either.
Despite the delays, being picked to sit on a court just one notch below the U.S. Supreme Court "is like being hit by lightning," White told the Detroit News in an article that was published on October 17, 1999. "To say I'm going to pick up my jacks and go home is self-defeating. Why would I take them off the hook." White acknowledged to the paper that she had considered withdrawing for "maybe 30 seconds." But at the time the article appeared, White told the paper she believed she would be given a fair hearing. "From everything I've heard, Sen. Abraham is a decent guy," White told the paper. "I have no reason to believe I won't get a hearing."
Ultimately, White's nomination was returned to the White House when Clinton's presidency ended. White's four year nomination remains one of the single longest federal appeals-court judicial nominations never given a full Senate vote, exceeded only by the failed nomination of Bush nominee Terrence Boyle from 2001 to 2007.
Read more about this topic: Helene White
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