Release date: Nov. 4, 2005
Contact: Beverly Cox Clark at 404-712-8780 or beverly.clark@emory.edu

Democrats Should Hold Back on Filibuster, Says Emory's Giles

The confirmation process for Judge Samuel Alito will likely be contentious, but Democrats would be unwise to block his path to the Supreme Court through a filibuster, says Emory University political scientist Micheal Giles, an expert on judicial selection.

"Unlike Miers, Judge Alito has sterling credentials for the Supreme Court. More importantly he doesn't have a paper trail of opinions outside of his court decisions, like Bork, or issues about his character, like Thomas. Moderates of both parties will likely go with him. For Democrats, in this round of Supreme Court nominees, it's not worth it to mount a big fight," says Giles.

Reach Giles at 404-727-6565 or mgiles@emory.edu.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

Subscribe to News@Emory RSS feeds for automatic updates of the latest news at Emory.

Back