From: Public Citizen Member Services <member@CITIZEN.ORG>

YOUR ACTION NEEDED NOW!

In their drive to install President Bush's most radical,
out-of-the-mainstream nominees in the federal judiciary - and even the
Supreme Court - the Republican leadership in the Senate is considering
using the so-called "nuclear option": eliminating the filibuster through
a rule change so that Democrats would have no way to block unacceptable
nominations. While this issue has been talked about for a couple of
months, it is likely that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will force a
vote on the nuclear option within the next few days.

Make no mistake - such an arrogant misuse of majority power to stack
the federal courts is a grave threat to our democratic government and
the Constitutional system of checks and balances, which prevents the
tyranny of one-party rule. If the majority party will change the rules
to force through extremist judges, what else might they change the rules
for? Where will they stop?

Given the urgency of this matter, we urge you to call your Senators
ASAP. (Sample script is below, along with more background information.)
Both of your Senators must hear from you on this crucial issue -
Republicans and Democrats alike.

You can reach your Senators through the Capitol switchboard at
202-225-3121. If the line is busy, call until you reach them, or get
their DC office number from the web and call them directly. Thank you!

To support Public Citizen in our work on this and related issues,
please go to http://www.citizen.org/join/518nukesP


Sample Phone Script for Republican Senator

"I am calling to demand that you vote against any attempt to use the
'nuclear option' to eliminate the use of the filibuster against judicial
nominees. You know that your own party has used the filibuster and other
parliamentary tactics to stop votes on judicial nominees you considered
unacceptable in the past. You also know that 95% of President Bush's
judicial nominees have been approved - an approval rate that is higher
than any of his three predecessors achieved.

I urge you to back away from this grab at absolute power, which will
trample the rights of the minority - a minority that represents 49% of
the population - and which could do irreparable harm to the U.S. Senate
and our democracy.

Thank you."

Sample Phone Script for Democratic Senator

"I am calling to urge that you use any and all methods available to you
to fight the 'nuclear option' aimed at eliminating the use of the
filibuster against judicial nominees. This is a grab at absolute power,
an attempt to stack the courts with right-wing ideologues, and an
abusive trampling of the rights of the minority - in this case a
minority which represents 49% of the population.

I also urge you to resist the talk of 'compromise' and allowing votes
on some of the extremist nominees that were previously filibustered. You
know that 95% of President Bush's nominees have been approved - an
approval rate that is higher than any of his three predecessors
achieved. Isn't that more than enough compromise already?

And if against all reason the Republicans actually ram through the
nuclear option, I urge you and the Democratic leadership to do
everything in your power to disrupt the rest of their agenda. The
tyranny of one-party rule cannot be allowed in a democracy, and you are
our last hope to prevent it.

Thank you."


BACKGROUND

The Senate tradition of the filibuster helps maintain the system of
checks and balances put in place by the Framers of the Constitution, and
has been used by both parties for more than 200 years to prevent abuses
of power by one political party.

To quote Republican Senator Orrin Hatch from when he chaired the
Judiciary Committee in 1994, the filibuster is "one of the few tools
that the minority has to protect itself and those that minority
represents."

But now that the Republicans control the White House and both chambers
of Congress, they seem to have forgotten the wisdom of Sen. Hatch and
the founding fathers, as well as their own past experiences. We must
oppose any attempt to change the rules to eliminate the filibuster to
push through extremist judges who were blocked by Democrats in the last
session of Congress. Allowing outside-the-mainstream judicial
nominations - even those to the Supreme Court - to be approved on a
simple majority, party-line vote would be a grave mistake. (It takes 60
votes to end a filibuster in the Senate, and currently there are 55
Republican Senators.)

This is an outrageous, partisan power grab of our courts, and it must
be stopped. It is even more outrageous when you consider that the
"minority" represented by Democrats in the Senate is roughly half the
population of the country, and that the Democrats have used the
filibuster to block only seven of Bush's judicial nominations in his
first term, while approving more than 200.

This partisan power grab is bad enough by itself. Federal courts can
have a major impact on any number of fundamental public policy issues,
and therefore should be as independent as possible and not stacked for
partisan purposes. But even worse, if the Republican majority in the
Senate is willing to change the rules for something as important as the
approval of federal judges, what's next? Changing the rules to make it
easier to pass President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, or to
turn health care decisions over to drug companies and HMOs?