Chuck Schumer: “I do believe--and this is another excellent question--a President should be given some degree of flexibility and…”

“I do believe--and this is another excellent question--a President should be given some degree of flexibility and latitude because the Constitution says the President should nominate judges. We advise and consent. If choice were the issue, then I probably would have voted against--I think of the 106 nominees who have come before us, more or less, I have voted for 100. My guess is of those 100, given they were nominated by President Bush who made commitments to the pro-life groups, that they would agree with them and try to get judges to ``think like Scalia and Thomas,'' that the overwhelming majority were pro-life. In fact, I know some of them were because I have read their decisions. I have read what they said in lower courts. I voted for them. I do not believe in a litmus test. I believe very few Members of this Chamber on either side of the aisle believe in a litmus test. My guess--and I cannot speak for others--when on issue after issue a judge would have such extreme views that he would take the courts and the rulings so far out of the mainstream that Americans would be aghast, that ideological-type judges, whether on the far left or the far right, instead of doing what the Constitution says, interpret the law, rather make law because they feel so strongly that they have to pull the country in a direction way beyond, those are the few judges we--at least I--have objected to. Again, I have to use my judgment.…”