Letter from 53 Law Professors Urging Hearing & Prompt Vote on Victoria Nourse v. Sen. Ron-Johnson "One-Person-Filibuster" (07/14/11)
"We urge you to hold a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and seek a prompt vote for Seventh Circuit nominee Victoria F. Nourse.... Purely as a matter of process, this delay raises serious questions about whether the Senate is fulfilling its constitutional role to provide the President’s nominees with a prompt hearing and full Senate vote. ... A nominee of sterling credentials, who has served her country under Republicans and Democrats, who was approved by a state merit commission, and praised by the A.B.A., should not be subject to unending delay. For a single Senator from one state within the Circuit to assert a hold, months after the nomination was complete, undermines Wisconsin’s meritbased selection system, blocking highly qualified nominees from a hearing and a vote....A hold without reason is an arbitrary Senatorial process, for any nominee of any party. It allows one Senator the ability to bar a hearing and a vote on a nominee with broad based support. The effect is an unbreakable one-person-filibuster."