Fox News general assignment correspondent Major Garrett quoted Republicans who asserted that Texas Supreme Court justice Priscilla Owen, nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, is the first judicial nominee to be filibustered who received a unanimous well-qualified (“WQ”) rating from the American Bar Association (ABA). But Garrett failed to note that blocking WQ-rated judicial nominees is hardly new. Republicans blocked 10 of President Clinton's appeals court nominees who received unanimous WQs. Denied even hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, these nominations* never left the committee for full Senate consideration.

Clinton nominees with highest ABA ratings denied Senate Judiciary Committee hearings

106th Congress

H. Alston Johnson (5th Circuit)

James Duffy (9th Circuit)

Kathleen McCree-Lewis (6th Circuit)

Enrique Moreno (5th Circuit)

James Lyons (10th Circuit)

Robert Cindrich (3rd Circuit)

Stephen Orlofsky (3rd Circuit)

Andre Davis (4th Circuit)

J. Rich Leonard (4th Circuit)

105th Congress

James Beaty (4th Circuit)

In addition, Allen Snyder (District of Columbia Circuit), another Clinton nominee who received a unanimous “well-qualified” by the ABA, received a committee hearing but was granted neither a committee vote nor full Senate consideration.

Garrett stated on the May 6 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

[T]he American Bar Association voted unanimously to give Owen its highest rating, “well-qualified.” Republicans say she is the first nominee so rated ever blocked by a judicial filibuster.

*To view the status of these nominees on the Library of Congress' Thomas website, check the civilian box, select 105 or 106 Congress and enter the name in the box under “Word/Phrase/Name,” and then click the “search” button to the right.