Time to rent the robe

National | COURTS: Bush uses his power to work around an obstructionist Senate and place his judges (temporarily) on the bench-as the courts show once again why the stakes are so high | Bob Jones

Two down, four to go. On Feb. 20, for the second time in as many months, President Bush used a recess appointment to bypass Senate Democrats blockading his judicial nominations. If he keeps up that pace, by June the Democrats will have no nominees left to filibuster.

This time, the beneficiary of Mr. Bush's constitutional power was Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, whose nomination to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had languished in the Senate for 10 months, largely because of his staunch opposition to abortion. With a Democratic minority refusing to allow an up-or-down vote that would surely have approved the nomination, Mr. Bush took advantage of a one-week recess to bypass the partisan roadblock.