Political Quotes

“We support this open rule for H.R. 1170, the bill mandating that three-judge panels review constitutional challenges of State referenda. With respect to the bill itself, we are somewhat mystified at the manner in which it has moved through committee and on to the House floor. According to the dissenting views in the committee report, the Committee on the Judiciary rushed through the hearing and markup of H.R. 1170 before the Judicial Conference of the United States had an opportunity to consider the bill and provide the committee with the benefit of its views. The conference's official views would have been especially important to the Committee on the Judiciary in this case since the conference has consistently, since 1970, opposed three-judge courts except for certain reapportionment cases. The 12 members signing the dissenting views noted that, and I quote them: not for the first time this year, the Judiciary Committee majority has ridden roughshod over the Federal judiciary, taking action on measures with a significant impact on the workload of the Federal judiciary without waiting the short period of time it would take to permit the Judicial Conference to consider those measures and give the committee the benefit of its views.”