Despite a request from President Bush, Democratic senators today vowed to delay the vote on Miguel Estrada's nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a major escalation of the increasingly bitter partisan fight over Bush's judgeship choices, Democrats announced they had enough votes to block an immediate vote on nomination of the conservative Hispanic attorney to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. While stopping short of saying they would kill the nomination, they said they would filibuster -- or delay a vote -- until Estrada more fully answers questions about his legal views and the Bush administration provides memoranda he wrote while he worked in the office of the solicitor general in the Justice Department.

Update: Lupe just posted her perplexity with the Democratic opposition to Estrada in our comments section. She'd like to see a hispanic on the Court and doesn't get it. Here is our response:

Lupe, thank you for asking. Here are some of the reasons we don't want Estrada.

A lot of hispanic groups oppose Estrada. Go here and read their opposition letters and memorandum of reasons. The groups include the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF); Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF); and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC).