Bush nominates US attorney for judicial vacancy

As the clock ticks down on his administration, President Bush has nominated a large bevy of judicial candidates to lifetime-tenured positions on the federal bench.

Among them is U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren of Kansas, a politically connected Republican stalwart with solid conservative credentials.

Nearly half of the 34 pending nominations for 42 vacancies in the federal judiciary were tapped in late June and July, government records show. Melgren — who was quietly nominated on July 23 — is slated to fill, if confirmed, the Wichita vacancy created with the semiretirement of U.S. District Judge Monti Belot.

On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) sent a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asking him to schedule a hearing on Melgren’s nomination at its Sept. 9 hearing.

The Kansas senator argued for Melgren’s speedy consideration given that the Kansas federal judicial district is facing “a unique and difficult challenge” due to the extremely advanced age of several of its judges and its reliance on a temporary judgeship set to expire this fall.

But the sheer number of judicial nominations so late in the Bush Administration has raised questions about whether they can all be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Democratic-controlled Senate before time runs out on Bush’s term.

“It is unusual and I think people have wondered why the president has nominated so many people at the end of his administration,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor.

Brownback told Leahy in his letter that given the pace of nomination hearings and the Senate schedule, it is likely the Sept. 9 hearing will be the only opportunity for judicial nominees to appear before the committee.

“It is very political, and the president has to know that these people are not going to be confirmed because it is just not physically possible, given the way the process works,” Tobias said, noting that nominees must undergo FBI background checks, evaluations from the American Bar Association and hearings by both the committee and Senate.

Melgren has not yet received an ABA evaluation, something Brownback asked Leahy to overlook.

As the top federal law enforcement official in Kansas, Melgren has been a strong advocate of minimum prison sentences. Melgren declined an interview for this story, citing protocol for judicial nominees.

But in an op-ed piece published in The Wichita Eagle in 2004, Melgren wrote, “The fact that our prisons are full is not a call to revise our sentencing laws. Crime is down because prison populations are up. Our neighborhoods are safer because tough sentencing laws are working.”

Under Melgren’s leadership, the U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas has prosecuted far more people than it did under his predecessors. During the first eight months of this fiscal year, the government reported 727 new federal prosecutions in the district of Kansas. At that pace, Kansas would have 1,091 prosecutions for the year, according to Department of Justice data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Federal prosecutions in Kansas are up 185 percent from 20 years ago and up 123 percent from 10 years ago, TRAC reported. And Kansas is not alone.

The uptick in federal prosecutions has been a nationwide trend under Bush’s Justice Department. Prosecutions across the country are up 140 percent from 20 years ago and up 77 percent compared with 10 years ago, according to the TRAC analysis.

Melgren also has been a staunch supporter of the Patriot Act, testifying as U.S. attorney on its behalf before the Kansas Legislature’s committee of homeland security. He has defended it in an op-ed piece and in a letter in local newspapers, and in numerous talks to civic groups, according to an affidavit he filed before the judiciary committee.

And Melgren’s office has apparently used the Patriot Act to investigate drug dealing cases in Kansas. The defense attorney for a suspected cocaine supplier accused of funneling drugs for the Wichita Crips gang argued in court documents that federal agents used the Patriot Act to secretly search his client’s home last year. Prosecutors contended the secret search was necessary to protect evidence and to prevent suspects from fleeing or intimidating witnesses.

The 51-year-old Melgren is a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.

The friendship that developed between Melgren and Brownback while the two were in college dramatically accelerated Melgren’s career. Brownback, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, propelled Melgren’s appointment as U.S. attorney in 2002 and his more recent nomination for the federal judgeship.

“Eric and I were student body presidents at the same time — he was at Wichita State University and I was at Kansas State University,” Brownback said. “We became friends then, and have been friends ever since.”

Melgren took a four-month leave from his Wichita law firm — where he specialized in tax issues — to work part time in 1995 as a legislative assistant for Brownback. He also worked for the Brownback for U.S. Senate campaign as its 4th District chairman in 1998.

“I’ve got great admiration for his ability and his character,” Brownback said. “I know him well, I know his family well. I think he is going to make a great judge.”

Melgren’s Republican credentials spanned three decades before his appointment as U.S. attorney, his affidavit shows. He served on the executive committee of the Kansas State Republican Party from 1997 to 2002, was precinct committeeman in Sedgwick and Shawnee counties, and has worked on numerous other local, state and national election campaigns.

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Associated Press Writer Sam Hananel in Washington contributed to this report.