A project tracking federal judicial nominations and courts.
|
|
|
 Editorials and Opinion
|
Obama nominees blocked (San Francisco Chronicle, 09/09/10)
"Senate Republicans continue unprecedented across-the-board denials of floor votes to more than 20 judicial nominees, including California and other nominees whom the Judiciary Committee approved without dissent months ago." {Glenn Sugameli, Letter to the Editor)
Editorial: Congress needs to stop stonewalling on federal court vacancies (Washington Post, 09/09/10)
"Republican senators have done their fair share to muck up the process. Nominees with bipartisan support on the Senate Judiciary Committee often wait close to eight months for a floor vote because of objections -- or threatened objections -- from Republicans. ... The shenanigans should stop."
Editorial: Political games could harm TVA region’s power future (Tennessean, 09/08/10)
"Tennesseans are seeing the results of the two-party stalemate acutely now, with a nominee for a U.S. Circuit Court judgeship, Nashvillian Jane Stranch, held up for more than a year, and four appointees to the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors unable to take their seats.
Stranch, an appointee of President Barack Obama, is expected to finally get an up-or-down vote in the Senate on Sept. 13, thanks in part to Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander bucking leaders of his Republican Party to get her confirmation on track."
Kimberly Mueller: A Poster Child for Republican Obstruction of Judicial Nominees (Text & History, 09/07/10)
Judith E. Schaeffer, Vice President, Constitutional Accountability Center: "Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy decried the growing crisis in our nation’s federal courts caused by an increasingly insufficient number of judges ... Kimberly Mueller is about as uncontroversial as judicial nominees get.... Senate Republicans have taken judicial obstructionism to an entirely new level, abusing the Senate’s procedural rules to block even the most uncontroversial of the President’s judicial nominees and giving new meaning to the phrase “Just Say No.” "
GOP stalling on judicial nominees (Charleston Gazette (WV), 09/07/10)
"After an Aug. 4 Public Policy Polling survey showed North Carolina voters overwhelmingly (58 percent to 16 percent) supported prompt votes on Judges Albert Diaz and James Wynn, senators finally confirmed Wynn by unanimous consent.
Diaz, however, remains in limbo, along with many others who were approved in committee without dissent months ago. Senate Republicans continue unprecedented denials of floor votes to more than 20 judicial nominees." Glenn Sugameli, Letter to the Editor
GOP Control Of Federal Trial Courts Has Increased Since Obama Took Office (Think Progress, 09/06/10)
Ian Millhiser: "In the final months of 2002, the Senate confirmed 29 of Bush’s judges — 20 of whom were confirmed during lame duck. And these judges were confirmed at such a speedy rate despite the fact that the Senate was controlled by Democrats and Bush is a Republican.
Now it’s time for Obama’s judges to be confirmed at a similarly rapid rate. Allowing the GOP to increase its stranglehold on many federal courts even when a Democrat is in the White House doesn’t just thwart democracy, it has terrible consequences for the American people."
GOP stonewalling president's worthy judicial nominees (Republican-American, 09/03/10)
"First, it only takes one senator to deny a vote on a judicial nomination or to force a nomination's return to the White House. as happened with Judge Chatigny. Because holds can be secret, all we know is one or more Republicans refused the unanimous consent required for an up-and-down floor vote.
Second, Senate Republicans continue unprecedented across-the-board blockages, regardless of the merits, of judicial nominees." Glenn Sugameli, Letter to the Editor
One Year and Waiting -- The Nomination of Edward M. Chen (Huffington Post, 09/02/10)
Kenneth K. Lee, former Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush (judicial nominations): "None of the arguments offered in opposition to Judge Chen's nomination, when examined closely, has merit."
Burr should pressure GOP not to block N.C. judge (Asheville Citizen-Times, 09/01/10)
"Senate Republican holds (threatened filibusters) continue to freeze judicial nominees. These include Diaz, whom the Judiciary Committee approved (19-0) the same day as Wynn more than six months ago; and N.C. federal district court nominee Catherine Eagles (also approved in committee without dissent months ago). Sen. Burr is unable or unwilling to convince his fellow Republicans to allow votes on Diaz and Eagles." Glenn Sugameli, Letter to the Editor
GOP blockage (Wichita Eagle, 08/31/10)
"Senate Republicans continue unprecedented across-the-board blockages, regardless of the merits, of judicial nominees. They will not allow the Senate to vote on more than 20 judicial nominees who were approved in committee, including many endorsed without dissent months ago. Federal judicial vacancies have risen to more than 100." Glenn Sugameli, Letter to the Editor
Judicial Nominees Still Being Blocked (Pilot (So Pines, NC), 08/30/10)
"After an Aug. 4 Public Policy Polling survey showed North Carolina voters overwhelmingly (58 percent to 16 percent) supported prompt votes on Diaz and Wynn, senators finally confirmed Judge Wynn by unanimous consent. Sen. Richard Burr’s press release, however, absurdly stated: “I hope the majority leader will put political gamesmanship aside and make the confirmation of Judge Diaz a priority.” Senate Republican holds (threatened filibusters) continue the “virtual freeze” on judicial nominees. These include Diaz, whom the Judiciary Committee approved (19-0) the same day as Wynn more than six months ago; and N.C. federal district court nominee Catherine Eagles, who was also approved in committee without dissent months ago." Glenn Sugameli, Letter to the Editor
Senate needs to fill judge vacancies (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 08/26/10)
Prof. Carl Tobias: " President Barack Obama should promptly nominate, and the Senate must expeditiously confirm, lower court judges, so that the bench will be at full strength. ... Obama has selected 22 consensus appeals court nominees who possess even temperament and are intelligent, ethical, hard working and independent as well as diverse vis-à-vis ethnicity, gender and ideology."
Editorial: High court needs Kagan to take her seat on the bench (Aurora Sentinel [CO], 08/24/10)
"Critics like Republican Senator Mitch McConnell were simply looking for any issue, hoping to have some basis of opposing the appointment of Kagan, but the “no-judicial experience” dog didn’t hunt.... She is unquestionably qualified to sit on the high court."
Stem cells, politics and the law (Guardian News and Media, 08/24/10)
Michael Tomasky's blog: "ho sat on this three-judge panel? They were: Janice Rogers-Brown, Brett Kavanaugh and Douglas Ginsburg. All Republicans. The first two very ideological Republicans.... Why did this question go to three conservatives? Part of the reason may be that Obama has not filled two vacancies on the DC Circuit. The two seats have been vacant since he took office, and they're still vacant.
His fault? Maybe. But everyone who knows anything knows that whatever appointments he'd tried to make would now be languishing in the circle of hell known as the senatorial hold.... There is no way the Senate Republicans are going to let Obama reshape the DC Circuit. ... Rogers-Brown and Kavanaugh did get on, didn't they? Imagine if Obama tried to nominate someone who'd been, say, a Democratic lawyer who investigated the Bush administration for war crimes or sued the government on Gitmo detentions (i.e., a rough Kavanaugh parallel).
So this decision from yesterday is where GOP Senate obstructionism isn't just about politics and actively hurts the republic."
No justice in partisan fight over judges (San Francisco Chronicle, 08/22/10)
Mark Greenbaum: "In perhaps no other area is Congress' crisis of leadership more glaring than with judicial nominations. ... since President Obama was inaugurated, confirmations have come to a standstill as Republicans block even the most non-controversial nominees. The fight over judges paralyzes the administration of justice and provides the perfect lens into the Senate's failings."
H. Brandt Ayers: The glacial Senate (Anniston Star, 08/21/10)
Anniston Star publisher: "How diminished does the current Senate minority leader, thin-lipped, taciturn Mitch McConnell, seem in comparison with the looming ghostly presence of his predecessor.
And how puny the task he has set for himself and his party, a mission he has the craft and iron discipline to enforce in the GOP caucus: it is to stop or at least delay every appointment or bill sent to the chamber by the president.
As a list of 56 appointments to judgeships or key executive posts was read in the Senate, Minority Whip John Kyl of Arizona objected to each, a single member stalling the work of government."
Editorial: Senate has become dysfunctional (Carroll County Times [MD], 08/20/10)
"At the least, the senate rules should be changed so that a senator placing a block on legislation would have to reveal himself or herself and stand in the open to defend why they used the blocking tactic."
The Case Against Restrictive Constitutional Standing Requirements (Volokh Conspiracy, 08/19/10)
Ilya Somin: “constitutional” standing requirements are both a bad idea and not required by the Constitution. ...Perhaps “case” and “controversy” were eighteenth century terms of art that required a narrowly defined harm as a prerequisite for standing. But the historical evidence doesn’t support any such claim. ...The real purpose of “standing” doctrine is not to keep out frivolous cases, but to make it more difficult to bring meritorious ones, and thereby insulate potentially unconstitutional practices from legal challenge."
Editorial: No Names, Please (New York Times, 08/19/10)
"A rare bipartisan move is afoot to crimp one of the clubby abuses of the United States Senate — the “secret hold” that lone lawmakers employ anonymously to block worthy bills and nominees.... A proposal to shine a public light on the obstructers deserves to be enacted, holds-free, as soon as the Senate returns from recess."
Burr should do more to move Diaz confirmation through U.S. Senate (Rocky Mount Telegram, 08/17/10)
Published Glenn Sugameli Letter to the Editor: "Sen. Burr’s press release absurdly states: “I hope the Majority Leader will put political gamesmanship aside and make the confirmation of Judge Diaz a priority.”
Senate Republican holds (threatened filibusters) have blocked floor votes on many nominees. These include Diaz, whom the Judiciary Committee approved (19-0) the same day as Wynn more than six months ago; and N.C. Federal District Court nominee Catherine Eagles, who was also approved in committee without dissent months ago.
While 58 percent of North Carolina voters support a prompt vote on Diaz (Public Policy Polling survey), Sen. Burr is unable or unwilling to convince his Republican colleagues to allow a vote."
Republican Obstructionism on Judges (Huffington Post, 08/17/10)
Prof. Geoffrey R. Stone: "The stunning thing about the first eighteen months of President Obama's term, however, is not only that the Senate has confirmed only 42% of his nominees - the lowest confirmation rate in American history, but also that this is happening even though the Democrats hold a 59-41 majority in the Senate.
Thus, it is no longer the majority that is blocking judicial confirmations, but a fiercely obstructionist minority. ... Using a variety of parliamentary maneuvers, the 41-member Republican minority has successfully paralyzed our federal courts - even with respect to nominees who have been unanimously approved by the bipartisan Senate Judiciary Committee."
Our own Party of No (Indianapolis Star, 08/16/10)
Sheila Kennedy: "Republicans have blocked votes on the DISCLOSE Act (increasing disclosure and reporting requirements in the wake of the Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to make direct campaign contributions), a bill to provide medical aid and compensation for 9/11 first responders, and a bill to expand credit to small businesses. Republicans also have blocked votes on at least 20 judicial nominees who received bipartisan support in committee.
What is appalling about this behavior is its transparent motivation to deny the administration credit for getting anything done, even when the measures being proposed have previously been supported by Republicans."
Kagan beats the confirmation obstacle course: editorial (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 08/15/10)
"[A]t least Supreme Court nominees get a vote. ... Benita Pearson, a highly regarded former federal prosecutor, is among 17 judicial candidates on hold. Recommended by a bipartisan committee of lawyers chosen by Voinovich and his Democratic colleague Sherrod Brown, Pearson was nominated by President Obama to a seat on the U.S. District Court in Youngstown last December.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved her on a party-line vote in February. Since then, nothing has happened."
Editorial: Unfair: Senate imbalance (Charleston Gazette (WV), 08/13/10)
"Without unanimous consent, the Senate must go through a laborious, time-consuming process to scrape up 60 votes needed to make floor action possible.... two-thirds of senators -- mostly Democrats -- signed a letter pledging never to apply secret holds, and now Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is pushing the Secret Holds Elimination Act.
... We hope West Virginia's two senators, Jay Rockefeller and Carte Goodwin, enthusiastically support this cleanup reform."
Side of the Rhode: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not in RI Politics? (GoLocalProv, 08/13/10)
Matt Jerzyk: "WHO'S NOT: Senate Republicans -> Shame on this group of Senators who - en masse - left the U.S. Capitol without allowing the nomination of Jack McConnell to the RI federal bench to be continued and considered by the Senate. For years on end, these same Republicans complained that President Bush's judicial nominees were not being allowed to have an "up or down" vote on the merits. Now, Senate Republicans are engaged in the same gamesmanship. McConnell, who has broad support across Rhode Island - including the business, Republican and legal communities - deserves an up or down vote on the merits of his nomination."
|
