Miguel Estrada

Nominated to the United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. On May 8, 2003, the Senate rejected (54-43) a sixth cloture motion on Estrada's nomination. (Sixty votes are required to invoke cloture and end debate on the nomination.)

Estrada withdrew his name from consideration in early Sept. 2003.

• Strong supporter of capital punishment.

• His ability to listen with an open mind to different points of view has been questioned.* Paul Bender, Mr. Estrada's supervisor at the Solicitor General's office and now an Arizona State University professor, is cited in the Washington Post as being "worried [that Estrada's personal] views would spill into rulings if Mr. Estrada is asked to decide matters involving defendants' rights, affirmative action and other controversial subjects ... 'I think Estrada lacks the judgment and he is too much of an ideologue to be an appeals court judge'."

• The Bush administration hopes that by nominating a minority, Democrats will look past Estrada's right wing ideologies.

• Has been compared to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Supreme Court's most vocal opponents of women’s abortion rights, because of his extreme conservatism.

• Partner in the law firm that represented Bush to the Supreme Court during his post-election legal fight with Al Gore.

• Is for "anti-loitering" laws, which when applied, disproportionately single out minority groups such as African-Americans and Latinos.

* Source: Independent Judiciary

last updated 9/4/03