WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and nine other Republican senators voted Tuesday afternoon to stop a GOP filibuster of a Hoosier judicial nominee.
The 70-29 vote, supported by all the Senate’s Democrats, will allow a final vote, possibly this week, on the nomination of Indianapolis resident David Hamilton to the federal appeals court.
Lugar publicly broke with members of his party who were leading the effort to block Hamilton’s confirmation.
Lugar delivered an 18-minute speech Monday to refute, point by point, the allegations made by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who said Hamilton has indulged his ideological agenda as a district court judge and would continue that pattern as a federal appeals court judge.
Hamilton was the chief lawyer for Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., when Bayh was governor. Bayh said Tuesday that Hamilton, "like most Hoosiers, is not an ideologue."
But Hamilton’s main critic – Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee and the only senator who spoke publicly against Hamilton – said the nominee previously was involved with the American Civil Liberties Union and has views "outside the mainstream."
Sessions characterized one of Hamilton’s rulings as prohibiting the Indiana General Assembly from using prayers that mentioned Jesus Christ, "yet he allowed prayers which mentioned Allah."
Both Lugar and Bayh said Sessions’ description of the ruling is wrong. They said the ruling was that "Allah" could be used as a generic reference to the deity, just as "God" can.
"It is only in the upside-down, hyper-partisan world of Washington, D.C., that the humble son of an Indiana pastor can be turned into a partisan zealot hostile to religion," Bayh said.
Session said he doesn’t think Hamilton is hostile to religion, just to "the free expression of religion."
Hamilton was President Obama’s first judicial nominee. If confirmed, Hamilton would become a member of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears federal cases from Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.
sylviasmith@jg.net
