Senate OKs Griffith for D.C. court

By Jerry Spangler
Deseret Morning News
Published: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 9:10 a.m. MDT
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WASHINGTON — After weathering a 400-day political maelstrom over federal judicial nominees, Utahn Tom Griffith finally will be sworn in as a judge for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. — a court widely acknowledged as the second-highest court in the land behind only the U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Griffith's nomination by a 73-24 vote Tuesday morning, clearing the way for Griffith, now the general counsel at Brigham Young University, to be sworn to the lifetime appointment.

"He's a top-notch attorney who has distinguished himself as one of the best legal minds in the country," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who lobbied the White House to get Griffith nominated to the bench. "As many of his peers have noted, Tom will not only be a good judge — he will be a great one."

Griffith was first nominated for the post on May 10, 2004, but the nomination died when Congress adjourned in December without a vote. President Bush nominated Griffith again in January, just as the issue of judicial filibusters was heating up.

For months, Griffith's nomination has been caught up in the larger political machinations of the Republican majority threatening to change the Senate rules to disallow filibusters on more controversial judicial nominees.

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During the heat of the filibuster battle, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered an olive branch to Republicans by agreeing not to filibuster the Griffith nomination, even though some Democrats worried Griffith was too conservative and perhaps too absentminded — or worse. (He forgot to pay his bar dues, resulting in a temporary suspension of his law license.)

In the end, many Democrats, including Reid, joined with Republicans to confirm Griffith's nomination, which was never really in doubt once the nomination made it out of the Judiciary Committee.

Griffith is well known to most of the senators, having served as Senate legal counsel from 1995 to 1999, a period of time that included the Whitewater investigation and the impeachment trial of former President Clinton.

"If there was ever a circumstance to test the temperament of a lawyer, his ability to ascertain what the law is and what prudence dictates, and to provide objective legal advice in a fair and even-handed manner in a highly charged atmosphere, surely it was the unique circumstances of the impeachment trial," Hatch said. "By all accounts, Tom Griffith came through in flying colors.

"He performed well under the sometimes scorching heat of the situation and helped all of us get through that unique test."

And he did it with such nonpartisan fairness that even Clinton's attorneys, both prominent Democrats, wrote a letter to the Washington Post in support of Griffith's nomination, saying "the federal bench needs judges like Tom, an excellent lawyer supported across the political spectrum. We support Tom and believe he has the intellect and judgment to be an excellent judge."

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