Dr. William A. Wexler. the president of B’nai B’rith, condemned today as “legislative lynching” the filibuster to block a Senate vote on the nomination of Justice Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice.
The campaign to postpone a vote “distorts the American system of governmental checks and balances and places partisan politics rather than judicial merit as a priority concern before the Senate.” Dr. Wexler said. The objections raised by “a handful of Senators” to Justice Fortas’ qualifications “should be weighed against their silence when Mr. Fortas was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 1965,” Dr. Wexler said. “Their silence then speaks volumes now. Have three years on the nation’s highest bench diminished Justice Fortas’ ability?” Dr. Wexler added. “Or has the portent of a national election diminished the integrity of those who would block Justice Fortas that they stoop to appeals to prurience to prevent a vote on the merits?”
Parliamentary tactics to evade a vote “also evade the Senate’s Constitutional responsibility to maintain continuity in Government,” Dr. Wexler declared. He decried the campaign against Mr. Fortas’ nomination as “tawdry in so much of its content.” He added that “in all of American history, no nominee for Chief Justice had to submit to the abuse and vituperation to which Justice Fortas has been subjected,” Dr. Wexler said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
