A new glass ceiling?

Speaking of John Eastman and the unfair treatment of President Bush’s judicial nominees, here, courtesy of the Claremont Institute, is Professor Eastman’s excellent discussion of the deplorable treament of Carolyn Kuhl’s nomination to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Kuhl’s sin, according to California Senator Barbara Boxer, is that she is “outside of the mainstream.” But Eastman shows that a bi-partisan group of female judges who worked with her on the California Superior disagrees. So does Vilma Martinez, head of the liberal Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and a lifelong Democrat. But, for purposes of receiving Senate confirmation, nominees belong to the mainstream nowadays only if they receive the approval of decidedly non-mainstream “women’s” special interest groups such as the National Abortion Rights Action League. At least, says Eastman, that’s the standard for female nominees.