The Republicans are having a fit over the fact that Senate Democrats have successfully blocked four of Bush’s 172 judicial nominees. I get that. The question then becomes what the GOP is willing to do about it.
So far, the Republicans have decided their best course of action is to hold a 39-hour marathon session of the Senate, in which lawmakers pontificate (read: whine) endlessly about the fate of these four right-wing nominees. It’s a bizarre public relations stunt, but aside from wasting an enormous amount of time and about $100,000 of our money, I guess this debacle won’t do any lasting damage.
Taking the GOP frustration to a new level, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) have decided to ratchet things up a bit. They’re so mad about the Dems’ filibusters that they’re going to sue the Senate.
After months of planning, Graham and Chambliss are “filing a lawsuit against the Senate in an attempt to force the Supreme Court to overrule the use of a filibuster to block a president’s judicial nominations,” Roll Call reported today.
This strikes me as an unusually dumb move.
As far as I can tell, no Senator has ever filed a federal lawsuit against the very body in which he or she was elected to serve. I think the reason this is unprecedented, aside from the notion of being absurd, is a little constitutional principle I like to call the “separation of powers.”
The Graham/Chambliss lawsuit, assuming it moves forward and is not just another GOP publicity stunt, would ask a federal judge to decide on the legality on a self-imposed rule created by senators for the Senate. How would a federal judge have jurisdiction in a case like this? If the “separation of powers” means anything, it would be impossible for the judiciary to tell the Senate how it can conduct its legislative affairs.
Adding a fun little wrinkle, if Graham and Chambliss sue the entire Senate in this adventure of theirs, they, as sitting senators, would be in the untenable position of being plaintiffs and defendants in the same case. How fun for them.
Truth be told, I hope the Graham/Chambliss lawsuit does go forward. It’ll be good for a few laughs when their case gets thrown out of court.