Helms Won't Block Black Judge
U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms says he will not block the appointment of a Virginia attorney to the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals despite his repeated opposition to Tar Heel candidates.
North Carolina will continue to be the only state in the 4th Circuit not to have a judge on the court after President Clinton decided this week to install a Virginia attorney to the bench.
Helms, R-N.C., has blocked several nominations from North Carolina over the past several years, including three black nominees. Under Senate tradition, a single member can block a judicial nominee from his home state.
So Clinton used a rare "recess appointment" Wednesday to install Roger Gregory as the court's first black member. The appointment will expire at the end of next year, meaning the Senate would need to confirm Gregory by then.
State Court of Appeals Judge James A. Wynn, who is black, was nominated to the federal court in 1999. His nomination has languished due to Helms' opposition.
Helms said after Clinton's announcement that he would not try to block Gregory's appointment, but he had tough words for the president.
 The president nominating Gregory. (AP)SIZE> |
"This is typical Bill Clinton," Helms said. "He is having his fun at other people's expense and doing things other people have always disdained. He'll get away with it. He usually does."
Helms denies that race plays a role in opposition to Wynn. Helms said he has blocked the nominations because 4th Circuit Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson has publicly complained that the court is too large. Five of the court's 15 seats are vacant, and Wilkinson has said the 4th Circuit is handling its workload fine with its 10 active judges.
"The point is the chief judge of the 4th Circuit says I don't need an additional judge," Helms said. "And it costs $1 million a year to post a judge."
The court hears federal appeals from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. North Carolina hasn't had a member on the circuit court since the death of Judge Sam Ervin III in September 1999.
Blacks make up 22 percent of the population of the five states included in the 4th Circuit, giving it the largest black population of any judicial circuit, according to the White House. In making his announcement Wednesday, Clinton noted that he had "tried for five years to put an African-American on the 4th Circuit."
Helms said that Clinton was "playing politics right to the end, and he's playing his race card."
The senator said that North Carolina would already have a judge on the 4th Circuit if Democrats had not shot down the nomination of Republican Terrence Boyle by then-President George Bush.
"You sure don't hear the Democrats talking about that," Helms said. "They don't like it much when the shoe is on the other foot."
Wynn said he was personally disappointed he did not get the nomination, but was more upset it did not go to someone from North Carolina.
Gregory "appeared to have the support of both of his senators, which I clearly do not," Wynn said Thursday. "The political dynamics of all of this seemed to favor him at this point."
U.S. Sen. John Edwards, R-N.C., has been a strong supporter of Wynn's nomination.
Mike Briggs, an Edwards spokesman, said Edwards is happy to have a black person on the bench but "disappointed that no judge on the court is from North Carolina, which is the biggest state in the circuit. He thinks it's critically important that we change that soon."