EDITORIAL: Wolves need more time; Feds should abandon planned delisting in Lower 48 (Register Guard [OR] , 04/27/13)
"The recovery of the gray wolf is a success story that illustrates the effectiveness of the federal Endangered Species Act. But the Obama administration fails to see that it’s a story whose final chapters have yet to be penned. ... The Fish and Wildlife Service is under intense pressure from ranchers, hunters and some federal and state officials to remove the remaining protections. As Jamie Rappaport Clark, the former director of the Fish and Wildlife Service and now the president of Defenders of Wildlife, notes, the agency’s latest delisting decision “reeks of politics.”"

EDITORIAL: Earth Day unnoticed at our perilmad (Madison Eagle [NJ], 04/26/13)
"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge gyre of plastic, chemical sludge and debris washed out to sea and concentrated by the North Pacific’s currents, is deadly to sea turtles and sea birds. ...A majority of biologists conclude that worldwide, a mass extinction of species is under way – due to human activity – that will dwarf the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.... That first Earth Day led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts ... Citizens who care about the Earth and future generations must redouble their efforts to make a difference."

Why The Confirmation Of An Outstanding Judge Still Proves The Senate Is Terrible (Think Progress, 04/25/13)
Ian Millhiser: "It is fantastic news that Kelly is now a judge. Beyond the fact that she is talented and that she adds another name to the short list of potential Supreme Court nominees in a Democratic administration, former public defenders are very rare on the federal bench ... But a person shouldn’t have to be friends with a guy who is friends with Chuck Grassley in order to avoid a grueling confirmation process."

Confirm the judges  (The Hill, 04/24/13)
Brent Budowsky: "It is time to end the obstruction against justice committed by Senate Republicans who first abuse the senatorial courtesy known as blue slips, which gives senators a voice in presidential nominations of federal judges, and then abuse the Senate filibuster rules, to obstruct confirmation of judicial nominees ... a growing number of Senate Republicans are abusing this extra-constitutional and non-statutory blue-slip practice with a contempt for courtesy that obstructs the pursuit of justice. They prevent the confirmation of federal judges with one-senator or two-senator vetoes. They willfully and deliberately keep large numbers of judicial posts vacant ... If this abusive contempt of senatorial courtesy does not end promptly, the blue-slip practice should be ended."

Take back the planet, and not just on Earth Day; Earth Day needs to be more than a fun celebration if we are to heal a damaged world (Baltimore Sun, 04/22/13)
John Racanelli, CEO of the National Aquarium: "In 1970, 20 million individuals from all walks of life united to protest the deterioration of the environment, and the results included the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act. Why can't Earth Day 2013 be the start of this same kind of sea change?"

How the Senate cheats New York: We cede our power to Wyoming (New York Daily News, 04/22/13)
Norm Ornstein: "it now means that even when a clear majority of senators favor a bill or a nominee for executive or judicial posts, that is not enough. And in an era of partisan polarization, where minority Republicans act regularly as if they were a parliamentary minority, reflexively voting together in opposition, it means that a majority party is routinely stymied."

The Register editorial: Grassley wants to whittle down court (Des Moines Register [IA] , 04/20/13)
"U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley has gotten a lot of attention for his proposal to reduce the size of the second most powerful federal court from 11 judges to eight. ... Grassley insists he just wants to redistribute court resources without increasing the judiciary budget. Maybe, but we don’t remember Grassley having these budget concerns when Republican presidents were packing the court."

Seib & Wessel: What We’re Reading Tuesday (Wall Street Journal, 04/20/13)
Recommended reading from around the Web, by Gerald F. Seib and David Wessel: "Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) looks at the rash of vacant federal judgeships around the country–82 vacant federal judge slots—and notes that for a startling 61 of them there hasn’t even been a nominee put forward to the Senate. But she says that isn’t simply because President Obama isn’t moving; a large part of the problem is that Republican senators aren’t nominating judges for district court nominees, which by tradition, they recommend. [Huffington Post]"

We Have Ceased to Be a Representative Government (Huffington Post, 04/18/13)
H. Lee Sarokin, Retired federal judge: " I suggest that although the filibuster is constitutional and has a valid role in the legislative process, its abuse should not be tolerated and that such abuse is a violation of a senator's oath to "well and faithfully discharge" his or her duties."

'Filibus[t]er wars' must come to an end (Des Moines Register [IA] , 04/17/13)
Carl Tobias: "reflect the judicial vacancy crisis that has left the courts with almost 90 vacancies for more than three years and the D.C Circuit with four of 11 judgeships empty. ... The filibuster wars must cease for the good of the nation, the bench and federal court litigants."

President and Congress must act to fill judicial vacancies (The Hill, 04/17/13)
By Laurel Bellows, president, American Bar Association: "With 86 (one in 10) vacancies on our federal bench and with 37 vacant judgeships qualifying as judicial emergencies, the time for collaboration and compromise is now. ... Real costs are often borne by businesses whose viability relies on the timely resolution of commercial disputes, by defendants who lose jobs and sometimes family ties while languishing behind bars awaiting trial, and, ultimately, the public that expects courts to deliver on the promise of justice for all. 
Our economy depends on courts to enforce contracts, protect property and determine liability. Judicial vacancies increase caseloads per judge, creating delays that jeopardize the ability of courts to expeditiously deliver judgments. Delay translates into costs for litigants. Delay results in uncertainty that discourages growth and investment. With 60 percent more judicial vacancies at present than in January 2009 and pending civil cases in U.S. District Courts 7 percent higher than in 2005, vacancies are potential job-killers.

 ... As a first step, Democrats and Republicans should schedule up-or-down floor votes for those 13 nominees favorably reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with little or no opposition.

 Second, the 11 nominees who were pending on the floor when the 112th Congress adjourned should be fast-tracked.... Next, the Senate majority and minority leaders should agree to prioritize filling judicial emergencies and shorten the period of time between nomination and votes. ... Finally, the White House should offer a nominee for every open seat on the bench. The many vacancies and anticipated vacancies warrant making judicial vacancies a priority this year."

Of Judges and Judging  (New York Times, 04/17/13)
Linda Greenhouse Opinionator blog: "The Senate Republican minority conducted an outrageous filibuster that killed the nomination of Caitlin Halligan ... To say that the D.C. Circuit has been a political football in recent years is an understatement. In 1999, when President Bill Clinton named Elena Kagan to the appeals court, where she would have been the 11th judge, the Republican-controlled Senate refused to give her a hearing, on the ground that the court’s workload didn’t justify filling that vacancy. But four years later, the Senate had no such compunctions about confirming Janice Rogers Brown, President George W. Bush’s nominee to that seat, even though the court’s workload had actually declined in the interval. Senator Grassley may or may not know his history, but no one can say he doesn’t know his politics."

Senators Filibuster; Get a Panel  (Burnt Orange Report [TX], 04/17/13)
Edward Garris: "Reasonable people can agree on the conciliatory tone of Rep. Jackson Lee's press release and the spirit of bipartisanship. However, where two Republican senators from Texas have worked tirelessly to block the president's judicial nominees, it is not necessarily clear that a 35-person committee assembled by and beholden to those two senators is necessarily the answer to clearing that path to the federal bench."

Obstruction or hope (WisOpinion, 04/16/13)
Bill Kaplan: "Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson is one of the leading obstructionists.... And, he was successful. Case in point, law professor Victoria Nourse. Nourse had taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School since 1994, when she was nominated to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Obama in 2010. She had served in the federal executive and legislative branches under Republicans and Democrats. And, Nourse had received the highest grade for a judicial nominee from the American Bar Association. Moreover, she had strong support from the Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission (a merit-based selection system). But Nourse never got a Senate hearing. Senator Johnson later put a "hold" on Nourse, a one-man-filibuster. Johnson never bothered to meet with Nourse. If he had bestirred himself he would have learned that Nourse was respected by other Senate Republicans. And, Johnson would have been surprised that Nourse is related to the late GOP Representative Edith Nourse Rogers (MA), an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. Instead he killed her nomination."

An end to partisan gamesmanship on judges? Not yet (Los Angeles Times, 04/15/13)
Opinion L.A. by Michael McGough: "Srinivasan’s apparently easy path to confirmation doesn’t guarantee an end to the bipartisan practice of blocking eminently well-qualified judicial nominees -- especially to the D.C. Circuit ...Srinivasan’s apparently easy path to confirmation doesn’t guarantee an end to the bipartisan practice of blocking eminently well-qualified judicial nominees -- especially to the D.C. Circuit"