THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9512310059
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Contending he's been doublecrossed on a judicial appointment, North Carolina's senior senator says heplans to introduce a bill that could jeopardize the life tenure of federal judges.
``Maybe we should have reconfirmation hearings every eight years for all these federal judges,'' Sen. Jesse Helms said Friday.
Helms says the White House broke faith with him when President Clinton recently nominated two North Carolina judges to fill vacancies on the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
Helms is mustering friends on the Senate Judiciary Committee and elsewhere in Congress to reject the president's efforts unless one of the nominations is dropped in favor of U.S. District Court Judge Terrence W. Boyle of Edenton.
Boyle presides in Elizabeth City over the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
For several years Helms has been trying to get Boyle named to the prestigious the 4th Circuit bench, only one level below the U.S. Supreme Court.
Boyle, highly regarded in the federal courts, married a daughter of Thomas F. Ellis, founder and energizer of the Congressional Club that has financed Helms' successful Senate campaigns since 1972.
President Bush sent Boyle's 4th Circuit nomination to the Senate in 1992, but Democrats controlled the Judiciary Committee and the nomination died.
Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, was chairman of the Judiciary Committee at the time and Helms said last week that he and Biden reached an agreement that Boyle would not be forgotten by the Clinton administration.
``I made it clear that I would support a Clinton nominee if Terry Boyle would also be supported for a 4th Circuit nomination,'' Helms said.
``Joe Biden agreed with his hand on his chest, over his heart,'' he said.
Helms' threat to introduce legislation that would end the lifetime tenure of U.S. judges through eight-year Senate ``reconfirmation'' proceedings could send quakes of concern through the federal judiciary.
There is no more glittering reward than the lifetime salary of about $145,000 and perks that go with a U.S. judgeship.
Helms' proposed ``reconfirmation'' hearings could jeopardize at least one of Clinton's choices, District Judge James Beaty Jr., who has been a federal judge for the past year and sat for 13 years on the North Carolina Superior Court
Beaty lives in Winston Salem and if the Clinton nomination is confirmed, Beaty would be the first African-American to sit on the Richmond appellate Court.
``Judge Beaty is a good man and I have no objection to him,'' Helms said. ``But I think Judge Boyle deserves to be nominated, too; an agreement is an agreement . . .''
Clinton's other 4th Circuit candidate is federal bankruptcy court Judge J. Rich Leonard of Raleigh. Before being named in 1992 to the bankruptcy court, Leonard was clerk of the court in the U.S. Eastern District and a federal magistrate.
Helms specifically seemed to blame President Clinton for the apparent effort to bypass Boyle.
``I don't think the president wants to be fair. He doesn't want `you-take-one, I-take-one.' He wants it all his way, and I'm stopping that,'' said Helms. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms threatened on Friday to limit the life tenure
currently granted to federal judges.
by CNB