The Washington Post reports today
that conservatives are concerned, with the turning of the Senate to
Democrat control, that the judicial philosophy of the majority on the
4th Circuit Court of Appeals could move more decidedly liberal. That’s
because the court currently has three vacancies with another to come in
July:
Even though the 11 judges who would remain by summer are split 6-5 in
favor of Republican appointees, some court observers say that Democrats
might gain effective control because Judge Allyson K. Duncan often
votes with the court’s moderate-to-liberal bloc. She was appointed by
Bush in 2003, with strong support from John Edwards, a former
Democratic senator from North Carolina and vice presidential candidate.
Not long ago Duncan was the only Republican on the N.C. Utilities
Commission, until she resigned before her term was up and went to work
for the Kilpatrick Stockton law firm. Within months she was representing a new natural gas organization before the commission, who at the time was trying to help Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight get a pipeline built into northeastern North Carolina. Taxpayers paid for the project through bond funds and now ratepayers are eating the massive losses because the pipeline system can’t sustain itself.
Isn’t bipartisanship wonderful?
