Filibuster Compromise 'Not Good News' for Hispanics
Patricia Guadalupe

After weeks of intense negotiations, the U.S. Senate has ended, at least for the present, what threatened to be a showdown over a fundamental change to the way the legislative body operates.

But the compromise that was reached May 23 is not necessarily good news for the Hispanic community, Latino legislators and community groups say.

The back-and-forth that took place focused on the use of the filibuster, which is employed to block or delay Senate action on the floor. In this case, Democrats had used it to stop discussion on several federal judicial nominees they considered too conservative.

The compromise, which Senate leaders called a victory for bipartisanship, allows for certain nominations to be voted on by the Senate without a filibuster. Those include some of the most conservative nominees ever under consideration, such as Janice Rogers Brown, an African-American California judge who ruled that racial epithets in the workplace are protected by the First Amendment and who supported California’s Proposition 209, saying that she considers affirmative action a form of segregation. The Proposition, which passed easily in 1996, eliminated state and local government affirmative action programs in area of public employment.

Other nominees share similar views and that does not bode well for Latinos, says Democratic Senator Ken Salazar, who served as Colorado Attorney General from 1999 until he joined the U.S. Senate last year.

"I have looked at the judges that the Republicans have put up for consideration, and I can tell you without a doubt what is going to happen is that these judges are going to take away the rights that have been fought for and won (over) so many years in the civil rights struggle," he told Hispanic Link.

A letter circulated by the Congressional Progressive Caucus — a 55-member group of legislators that includes Reps. José Serrano (D-N.Y.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Hilda Solís (D-Calif.) — expressed similar views.

"Clearly, the American people want us to work out our differences in Congress whenever possible, but they don't want political deals brokered at the expense of our fundamental rights. Federal judges are appointed for life terms and their rulings shape our daily lives," it declared in a statement.

To compound the problem, too few Latinos are paying attention to the issue, even though the courts play a prominent role in the community, said Gabriela Lemus, director of policy and legislation at the League of United Latin American Citizens.

"Latinos should care about this issue because in the long term this is about the courts. This is about civil rights, and this is about ensuring that minority rights stay in place," she said. "We know all too well that many times we are discriminated against in the courts. We need to ensure that we have people who at least will be open to our community's concerns."

Latino groups and Hispanic members of Congress say they fear that the judicial issue could be only the beginning of the Latino community's problems.

The Senate compromise on filibusters, they say, does not preclude the possibility that the Republican majority will bring up the issue again on legislation such as Social Security that could impact the community negatively.

(Patricia Guadalupe, based in Washington, D.C., is Capitol Hill editor for Hispanic Link New Service. She reports regularly for various other Hispanic media in Puerto Rico and across the country. She may be contacted by e-mail at boricuawriter@aol.com.)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service
06/05/05
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