Miguel Estrada Withdraws Name From Consideration

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 4, 2003   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Miguel Estrada Withdraws Name From Consideration

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 4, 2003

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Miguel Estrada is the first victim of the refusal by Senate Democrats to agree to confirm President Bush’s pro-life judicial nominees. He withdraw his name from consideration on Thursday.

"I write to ask you to withdraw my pending nomination,” Estrada said in a letter to President Bush. "I believe that the time has come to return my full attention to the practice of law and to regain the ability to make long-term plans for my family.”

In response, President Bush said he was upset at the "disgraceful treatment" Estrada received from most Senate Democrats.

Estrada was one of several Bush nominees for Appeals Court positions. Senate Democrats, with a few exceptions, have filibustered the nominations and refused to let them come up for a vote knowing that the nominations would be approved.

Democrats prevented Estrada from receiving a vote seven times.

All 51 Republicans voted against the filibusters. They were joined by Democratic senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Zell Miller (D-GA), John Breaux (D-LA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL).

Estrada and the rest of the judicial nominees have been blocked at the urging of pro-abortion groups who oppose the nominees’ positions against abortion or in favor of upholding pro-life legislation.

Estrada would have been the first Hispanic on the DC Court of Appeals, considered the nation’s second highest court.

Rai Rojas, the Hispanic Outreach Coordinator for the National Right to Life Committee, is troubled as both a Hispanic and pro-life advocate that Estrada was forced to withdraw his name.

Rojas told LifeNews.com, "Latinos all over the country, who in the last months had rallied behind Estrada and shown up at pickets from Los Angeles to Miami at the offices of many of the Senators who blocked his nomination, are taking notice."

"They know the names of these bullies who care so little about Hispanics that they would reject a highly qualified nominee and hold him to a different set of standards then others that came before him," Rojas explained.

Calling them "Uncle Toms" who were "out of step" with Hispanics, Rojas also said the Congressional Hispanic Caucus badly misrepresented Hispanics by so strongly opposing the Estrada nomination.

Other Bush judicial nominees to the appeals court who have been blocked include Mississippi judge Charles Pickering, Texas judge Priscilla Owen and Alabama Attorney General William Pryor.

All have received the support of the pro-life community.