Estrada gives up on appeals bench

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Hispanic lawyer Miguel A. Estrada threw in the legal towel Thursday, withdrawing from consideration for a U.S. Court of Appeals seat.

"I believe that the time has come to return my full attention to the practice of law, and to regain the ability to make long-term plans for my family," Estrada said in a letter to President George Bush.

Bush forwarded the request to the Senate.

"It is with regret that, at the request of Miguel Estrada, I have today withdrawn his nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit," Bush said in a statement. "I understand and respect his decision, and wish Mr. Estrada and his family the best.

"Mr. Estrada received disgraceful treatment at the hands of 45 United States senators during the more than two years his nomination was pending."

Estrada was the first of a half-dozen or more appeals court nominees to be held up by Senate Democrats, who accused President Bush of choosing them to pack the courts with ideological conservatives, the Washington Post said.

Democrats refused to allow a vote until the nominee and the administration provided more information about his legal views, including memos he wrote while working in the solicitor general's office in the 1990s.

Republicans defended the Honduras-born and Harvard-educated Estrada as highly qualified and suggested Democrats were blocking him to keep him from being named later as the first Hispanic to the Supreme Court.