Senate invokes cloture on Brown judicial nomination News
Senate invokes cloture on Brown judicial nomination

[JURIST] The US Senate voted 65-32 [Senate roll call] Tuesday to limit debate on the nomination of California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown [court profile] to the federal appeals bench, against some opposition from Democrats, some of whom have been blocking her appointment for two years. After a recent bipartisan truce [JURIST report; NRO text] helped the Senate avoid a showdown over judicial nominees, Democrats agreed to pass through Bush's nominations unless there are "extraordinary circumstances" involved. Senator Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that Brown's nomination may be too beneficial to business interests [press release]. Other nominees included in last month's compromise are former Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen [court profile], confirmed by the Senate in May [JURIST report] and just sworn in as a US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge Monday [AP report], and former Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr., [official profile] who is still awaiting confirmation. Bloomberg has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.