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BYRD SIGNS "FAIR JUDICIARY OATH"

July 22, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Audrey Mullen
(202) 861-5677


(WASHINGTON, DC) Johnnie Byrd, Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and Republican candidate for United States Senate in Florida, has signed the "Fair Judiciary Oath." The Oath calls for a "fair and simple up-or-down vote for all nominees duly nominated by the President of the United States and reported favorably out of the Senate Judiciary Committee."

"One of the most important duties of an elected United States Senator is the review and confirmation of federal judges," said Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary. "After observing the slow, painful deterioration of the judicial nominations process, it is readily apparent that a vocal minority is determined to obstruct the President's judicial nominees at all costs. In fact, for the first time in history, the filibuster has been deployed to grind several nominations to a halt. To that end, voters need to know what they can expect of their elected Senators once they reach those venerable chambers. Speaker Johnnie Byrd, by signing the Fair Judiciary Oath, has spoken loud and clear."

On July 19th, the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary faxed a copy of the Fair Judiciary Oath to each of the Florida Senate candidates with a cover letter explaining the purpose of the Oath. Florida is the third state in the nation to participate in the Oath project.

According to a recent Zogby poll, a solid majority of Americans, in both the red and the blue states, believe that the filibuster applied to judicial nominations is unfair and that nominees deserve a simple up-or-down vote.

"Men and women of outstanding character and experience, nominated by their President to serve on the federal bench, have been held in a nominations process akin to purgatory because of an ideological litmus test imposed by those who seek to hijack the federal courts for their own extreme agenda," said Daly. "In fact, on the Senate floor today yet another extraordinarily qualified nominee, Henry Saad, will be added to the ever-growing list of filibustered federal judges. We are headed toward double-digit filibusters now absolutely unprecedented obstruction."

Henry Saad, a nominee to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals is the eighth judge to be filibustered by a minority of votes in the Senate. Two other nominees from the Sixth Circuit, Richard Griffin and David McKeague, are awaiting full Senate votes as well.

The Coalition for a Fair Judiciary has conferred upon Speaker Johnnie Byrd a "Friend of the Constitution designation for signing the Fair Judiciary Oath.

"The people of this nation deserve the right to have their representatives vote each nominee up or down without procedural tricks blocking those votes," said Speaker Byrd. "As past chairman of the Florida House Judiciary Committee, I would enjoy sitting on the U.S. Senate s Judiciary Committee to help approve the President's judicial nominations. I salute the work of the Coalition to shine a spotlight on the destructive results of Congressional obstructionism."

"With the virtual certainty that a vacancy will occur on the United States Supreme Court in the next few years, the importance of this issue, and these candidates opinion on it, is of great interest,"said Daly. "Clearly, Speaker Johnnie Byrd understands that significance and like most Americans, would like to see fairness return to the process."