Robert E. Bacharach to Get Full Senate Vote
Senate leaders have agreed to a vote on Feb. 25 on the nomination of Robert E. Bacharach for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That vote will come 13 months after President Barack Obama first nominated the federal magistrate judge to the appeals court.
Bacharach, 53, who works at the U.S. district court in Oklahoma City, enjoys strong bipartisan support in the Senate and has received the highest rating from the American Bar Association, but Senate Republicans have been slow-walking _ and even blocking _ votes on Obama’s judicial nominations for several months.…
Read the rest of Robert E. Bacharach to Get Full Senate Vote
Robert E. Bacharach Renominated for Federal Appeals Court
Robert E. Bacharach, an Oklahoma City magistrate judge whose nomination for a federal appeals court was blocked by Republicans in the last six months of 2012, was renominated for the post on Thursday by President Barack Obama.
Bacharach had strong bipartisan support for his nomination to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Both of Oklahoma’s Republican senators endorsed him. But Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, said “inside politics” doomed his nomination in the presidential election year. Republicans refused to allow a vote on him in the months before the presidential election and the weeks after the election.…
Read the rest of Robert E. Bacharach Renominated for Federal Appeals Court
Gay Marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court and former Oklahoma Republican Lawmakers
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide within days whether to review the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, approved in 1996 and signed by former President Bill Clinton. The act defines marriage as between a man and a woman, allows states not to recognize gay marriages from other states and denies federal health care and other benefits to gay couples.
Former Oklahoma Rep. Steve Largent, then a Republican from Tulsa, was one of the lead authors of the House bill.…
Read the rest of Gay Marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court and former Oklahoma Republican Lawmakers
Two Oklahoma Judicial Posts at Stake in Presidential Election
They’re not on any ballot, but U.S Magistrate Judge Robert E. Bacharach and Tulsa attorney John E. Dowdell have jobs at stake on Tuesday.
Bacharach, a magistrate judge in Oklahoma City, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the appellate courts a step below the U.S. Supreme Court. Obama nominated Dowdell for a U.S. District judgeship in Tulsa.
Both easily cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee with bipartisan support. But Senate Republicans blocked the full Senate from voting on their nominations.…
Read the rest of Two Oklahoma Judicial Posts at Stake in Presidential Election
Behenna Given Extension to File Appeal with U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court has given 1st Lt. Michael Behenna an extension to file an appeal of his conviction of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone. He will now have until Jan. 3, an extension from the Nov. 4 deadline.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the military’s highest appeals court, upheld the Edmond native’s conviction in July. A U.S. Army appeals court has also upheld the conviction. In 2008, Behenna shot and killed an Iraqi man he suspected of being a terrorist.…
Read the rest of Behenna Given Extension to File Appeal with U.S. Supreme Court
Outside Groups Line Up on Bacharach Vote
Some outside groups are watching the Senate’s vote scheduled for Monday on advancing U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert E. Bacharach past a Republican filibuster toward confirmation on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The conservative group Heritage Action, a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation think tank, is urging senators to hold the Republican line. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is advocating for Bacharach’s confirmation.
Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said this:
“The filibuster against Magistrate Judge Robert Bacharach is preposterous.…
Read the rest of Outside Groups Line Up on Bacharach Vote
The Behenna Case
There have been strong feelings expressed to The Oklahoman _ through letters, emails and story comments on NewsOK _ in regard to the case of 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, who is serving a 15-year sentence for unpremeditated murder in a combat zone for killing an Iraqi civilian in 2008.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces upheld his conviction and sentence earlier this month. The opinion is below. It provides a chronology of the events in the Iraqi desert that night and the legal arguments flowing from Behenna’s court martial.…
Read the rest of The Behenna Case
UPDATE: Oklahoma Judge’s Fate Could Come Down to Republican Sens. Coburn, Inhofe
UPDATE: Sens. Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn voted “present,” which is like not voting at all or voting “no,” depending on your viewpoint. Bacharach’s nomination is not going to be advanced.
It’s possible that Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe could determine whether U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert E. Bacharach, of Edmond, is confirmed to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Neither is saying whether they will vote on Monday to break the Republican blockade that has kept the Senate from confirming the magistrate, who has been endorsed by both Coburn and Inhofe and won overwhelming approval last month in the Senate Judiciary Committee.…
Read the rest of UPDATE: Oklahoma Judge’s Fate Could Come Down to Republican Sens. Coburn, Inhofe
Oklahoma Congressional Candidates Speak Out on Health Care Ruling
Some candidates seeking seats in the next Congress released statements on Thursday following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of the health care law.
In the 5th District, currently represented by Rep. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, Democrat Tom Guild, of Edmond, said: “I am very pleased that the United States Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. The fact that Republican and Bush Appointee Chief Justice Roberts cast the deciding vote to uphold the law is an important signal that the country needs to come together in a bipartisan fashion and create jobs and support education, pass the highway bill, and stop college student loans rates from doubling in two days.…
Read the rest of Oklahoma Congressional Candidates Speak Out on Health Care Ruling
Oklahomans Urge Action on Federal Judicial Nominees
Three prominent Oklahomans visited the White House and Capitol Hill on Monday to urge Senate confirmation of federal judicial nominees. The process of approving judges to the federal bench often slows in the months leading up to a presidential election as lawmakers from the party out of power sometimes stall action in hopes that they’ll win the White House and get a chance to replace the nominees with their own.
Former U.S. Attorney Dan Webber, former Seminole Nation Chief Enoch Kelly Haney and Jeremy Aliason, executive director of the National Native American Bar Association, went first to the White House to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler about the vacancy rate.…
Read the rest of Oklahomans Urge Action on Federal Judicial Nominees
