Recommended Readings

06/19/2013 – Lamar Alexander Warns Harry Reid Against Breaking Filibuster Pledge, Despite Breaking His Own
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) spent most of Tuesday criticizing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for signaling that he may go back on his initial pledge to not make changes to Senate filibuster rules. But it turns out Alexander hasn't exactly stuck to his own filibuster pledge. read full story

06/17/2013 – Do Senate Dems have the votes for the `nuclear option’?
It’s being privately discussed at the highest levels of the Democratic Party: The passing of Senator Frank Lautenberg has cast doubt on the ability of Senate Democrats to exercise the so-called “nuclear option” and change the Senate rules via a simple majority. read full story

06/17/2013 – Dispute over Obama’s choices for D.C. court centers on need
A fight is brewing over President Barack Obama's efforts to fill three vacancies on a single federal court that Republicans claim doesn't do enough work to merit them. read full story

06/16/2013 – Stop playing politics with federal court
Because the federal courts decide critical issues that affect the daily lives of Americans, we need a fully staffed and functional court system. Our elected representatives need to ensure that we have one. read full story

06/16/2013 – Grassley’s ‘court-packing’ analogy goes astray
When President Barack Obama recently named three judges to a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., Iowa’s Sen. Chuck Grassley likened it to President Franklin Roosevelt’s infamous 1937 “court-packing” plan. That is a bad analogy. read full story

06/13/2013 – The state of advice and consent … in charts
Because there is no single way to slice and dice judicial nominations data, the parties duel with rival statistics. Absent a single metric, it’s tough to nail down whether Republicans have overstepped the bounds of acceptable behavior—relative to Democrats’ behavior in the past. read full story

06/13/2013 – Sen. Warren Blasts Pro-Corporate Trend of Federal Courts
The federal bench with the backing of lots of money from corporate America is unsurprisingly increasingly favorable to corporate interests and that fact is not likely to change unless balance is brought to the courts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said at the 2013 ACS National Convention. read full story

06/12/2013 – Report: Obama Tops in Diversifying Federal Bench
When President Barack Obama nominated two women to a key appeals court last week, he was adding to his lead when it comes to adding women to the federal bench, according to a new study. read full story

06/12/2013 – Much Ado About Court Packing
he latest example to set my teeth grinding is the GOP accusation that Obama is trying to “pack” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. There are three vacancies. Obama nominated three lawyers for the Senate’s “advice and consent.” read full story

06/11/2013 – Grassley’s Plan to Block 3 Court Nominees
Given the shrill sounds rising from Washington these days, the news wasn’t easily heard: After years of partisan obstruction and delay, the United States Senate confirmed a judge. read full story

06/11/2013 – Obstructionism’s New Low: Exposing Sen. Grassley’s D.C. Circuit Myth
In the upcoming fight to confirm judges for the D.C. Circuit, Republicans are going to try to avoid a discussion of the incredible qualifications of the three nominees and instead claim that we don’t need the judgeships at all. read full story

06/10/2013 – Meet the D.C. Circuit Nominees: Millett, Pillard, Wilkins
The Obama D.C. Circuit nominees -- Patricia Millett, Cornelia Pillard, Robert Wilkins -- made their grand debut to the spotlight last week. Since the announcement, much of the discussion has focused on the political reaction to President Obama's nominations. But what about the nominees themselves? read full story

06/10/2013 – Democrats, Fact-checkers and the D.C. Circuit
Unfortunately, the President ignores the recent history -- including his own -- of Senate Democrats blocking nominees. His rhetoric also ignores the verdict of independent fact-checkers, while his political decision to stack all three nominations neglects other circuit courts in greater need of judges. read full story

06/10/2013 – The Jury is out on Obama’s Fight to Confirm Judges
The next major showdown in Washington may not be over how best to reduce the deficit or involve another Obama cabinet appointment. Look for sparks to fly over the president’s constitutional prerogative to nominee federal judges and the Senate’s responsibility to either confirm or reject those nominees read full story

06/10/2013 – This Week in History: Republicans use threat of “nuclear option” to confirm conservative judges to D.C. Circuit and other appellate courts
Over the past week, a chorus of congressional Republicans has criticized President Obama for fulfilling his constitutional duty to nominate qualified individuals for the three open seats on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the second-highest court in the land. Eight years ago this week, they were singing a far different tune. read full story

06/08/2013 – A lesson in packing
Republicans have dragged out or stopped the confirmation of many of Mr Obama’s judges. Although he confirmed about as many judges in his first term as George W. Bush did, he had many more vacancies to fill. As a result, the number of vacancies climbed. read full story

06/07/2013 – Please, Republicans, save the filibuster
Republican objections to the contrary are either silly (in the case of the court vacancies) or based on a explicit preference that the government not run smoothly, in the cases of CFPB and other “nullification” filibusters. read full story

06/07/2013 – Filling vacancies is not ‘packing the court’
Packing the court didn’t happen then and it isn’t happening now. One would hope that sitting senators might know the difference between packing the court and filling empty seats on the bench. read full story

06/07/2013 – A ‘Pack’ of Nonsense
The more serious claim from the right is that President Obama is attempting to use these appointments to advance his policy agenda. This gets it exactly backwards. read full story

06/07/2013 – Democrats obscuring judicial facts
Democrats attempt to turn prestigious court into rubber stamp for Obama agenda. read full story

06/07/2013 – Filibuster: Thwarting democracy
This week, President Obama is preparing to nominate three judges to U.S. District Court in Washington -- and Senate Republicans plan to filibuster to obstruct them. (Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, even has drafted a bill to abolish the three court seats, rather than let Obama fill them.) read full story

06/07/2013 – Packing the DC Circuit with DC lawyers
Obama’s three recent nominees to the D.C. Circuit are certain to experience similar resistance. Washington insiders and court watchers are predicting that the president will be lucky to get any of the three confirmed. read full story

06/07/2013 – Stop abusing the confirmation process
Americans deserve a government that works, but that is not what they are getting. Despite President Barack Obama's re-election, Senate Republicans still are filibustering highly qualified Cabinet-level and judicial picks to hamper the executive and judicial branches. read full story

06/07/2013 – Court Packing Vs. Court Filling
When a lawyer enters the courtroom to argue before the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, she faces the intimidating specter of 11 chairs elevated above the lone podium and microphone. When the judges enter the courtroom, three of those chairs remain empty. read full story

06/07/13 – Obama, Congress fight over judges
Do you know the team chant “Be Aggressive! B-E Aggressive! B-E-A-G-G . . .”? I hummed it as I watched President Obama announce that he is simultaneously lining up three nominees for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. read full story

06/06/2013 – Tom Cotton says president is “court packing”
I'll say this for Rep. Tom Cotton: he knows his audience. If there is a nonsensical argument to make against President Obama, Cotton will leap to the head of the line. read full story

06/06/2013 – What Judicial Obstructionism? Obama’s Nominees Are Faring Better Than Bush
So, is Obama mad that his nominees can’t get through, or that they wait longer than his predecessor? Well, they are being confirmed. That’s the point. It’s what matters in the end. Nonetheless, if the president is frustrated over the waiting period, which I’m sure college applicants can empathize with, then he’s just being ridiculous. read full story

06/05/2013 – Where Is Axelrod’s Mustache? Obama on the Court — Now and Later?
The president has thrown down the executive gauntlet to the Senate for preventing too many of his judicial nominees from getting an up or down vote. (Insert yawn here). read full story

06/06/2013 – GOP obstruction of judicial nominations is ‘unprecedented’
Though both parties have been terrible about blocking judicial nominations, President Obama is correct that GOP obstructionism is “unprecedented.” read full story

06/06/2013 – Court Packing by Another Name
Next to the initial response to Benghazi, the DOJ’s journalist eavesdropping, and conservative targeting at the IRS, add the existence of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to the list of things about the federal government of which President Obama has, apparently, only recently been made aware. read full story

06/06/2013 – Filibuster Reform Has Right-Wing Media Frantically Condemning Judicial “Power Play”
Right-wing media are continuing to follow GOP talking points opposing filibuster reform by pretending President Obama's attempts to fill judicial vacancies are dangerously unprincipled. read full story

06/06/2013 – On judges, President Obama forgets his Senate votes
The issue of judicial nominations causes an outbreak of hypocrisy in both political parties, and President Obama isn't immune. In fact, he seems to have come down with a particularly bad case lately. read full story

06/06/2013 – Republicans Are Wrong About Judges
Congress created a certain number of judgeships on the Court, and the president wants to fill them. The Republican argument is that he should leave them unfilled and fill vacancies in other courts. They have not specified those other courts. read full story

06/06/2013 – Let Kansan Sri Srinivasan be the first of many federal court confirmations
The U.S. Senate recently confirmed Kansan Sri Srinivasan to serve as a federal appeals judge. Finally, there is some small hope that gridlock over judicial nominations might break. read full story

06/06/2013 – Is the D.C. Circuit last in ‘almost every category’?
President Obama’s move this week to simultaneously nominate three judges for three vacancies on U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has once again placed a focus on this court. read full story

06/06/2013 – A lesson in packing
On Tuesday June 4th Barack Obama nominated three judges for the court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit—a very important court, second only to the Supreme Court, which hears many cases touching on government or national security. In doing so, he all but dared the Republicans to filibuster them, setting up a showdown over the filibuster itself. read full story

06/05/2013 – Vacancy Packing: Obama Emerges From His Five-Year Appeals-Court Nap
Picking a judicial nomination fight used to be rare. But in the past two decades, it has become a burdensome and often ugly blood sport. read full story

06/05/2013 – When basic governance is deemed controversial
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, widely seen as the nation's second most important federal bench, has three vacancies. President Obama yesterday introduced three non-controversial nominees to fill those vacancies. And were it not for the breakdowns of the American political process, none of this would be especially interesting. read full story

06/05/2013 – Is Obama’s Charm Offensive Over?
On Tuesday, President Obama appeared in the Rose Garden to press the case for confirming three D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals nominees, in what Republicans view as a shift from an earlier “charm offensive.” read full story

06/05/2013 – Obama’s New Tactic: If You Don’t Eat Your Meat, You Can’t Have Any Pudding
The idea is that the nominations will force Republicans’ hand. If they filibuster Obama’s nominees then it will serve as a rallying cry for filibuster reform; if they allow a confirmation vote, then Obama will have significantly changed the balance on the D.C. Circuit. read full story

06/05/2013 – Barack Obama says his judicial nominees have faced waits three times as long as George W. Bush’s
Is Obama really correct that his judicial nominees "have waited three times longer" than those nominated by President George W. Bush? The answer hinges on how you define the phrase "to receive confirmation votes." read full story

06/05/2013 – Obama Makes Incorrect Claim About Senate Confirming Court Nominees
President Obama incorrectly claims that the Senate has taken three times longer to confirm his court nominees than those of his predecessor, George W. Bush. read full story

06/05/2013 – Law professor says Obama making a statement with three D.C. Circuit nominations
A University of Richmond law professor says President Barack Obama’s decision to make three, simultaneous nominations to one of the nation’s most important courts, albeit bold and somewhat unusual, is a statement to Republicans. read full story

06/04/2013 – Obama Wants Senate Republicans to Confirm Some Judges and It’s Not Going to Happen
The president of the United States has thrown down the gauntlet to his political enemies by ... designating nominees to fill vacancies on the court that have lingered since his first inauguration. read full story

06/04/2013 – With three nominations to D.C. Circuit court, Obama gets aggressive
If confirmed by the Senate, the three selections would bring the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to 11 judges – a rare moment of full capacity – and address what the Obama administration sees as the court’s conservative tilt. But more likely, the nominees will spark intense Republican opposition and could hasten a showdown over Senate filibusters. read full story

06/04/2013 – Assumption GOP Will Blockade DC Circuit Is Probably Wrong
Here's my guess -- not a prediction, but just a guess based on past patterns. We'll continue to hear the insipid rhetoric about "court packing" and how the DC Circuit doesn't need any judges anyway, but that will be mostly just background music for the rubes. read full story

06/04/2013 – Cotton vs. Court Packing
Today Congressman Tom Cotton introduced the Stop Court Packing Act, legislation that would reduce the number of judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from eleven to eight. read full story

06/04/2013 – President Nominates Three Judges, to Fix Imaginary Judicial Vacancy Crisis; Fewer Judges Needed on D.C. Circuit
I practice before the D.C. Circuit, and have argued before it, and I can tell you none of the three vacancies needs to be filled. The judges there are not overworked. When I go down there to file a petition for review, it’s like a ghost town. read full story

– Getting to Know Obama Court Nominee Patricia Ann Millett
Currently a partner at Akin Gump, where she leads the firm’s Supreme Court practice. We’ve written about her previously, noting in 2009 that with the departures and retirements of other top women Supreme Court lawyers, she was perhaps the last woman standing among Washington’s crème de la crème of high court advocates in private practice. read full story

06/04/2013 – Obama’s nominations will test Reid’s ability to lead
President Barack Obama challenged Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday when he nominated three judges to fill vacancies on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., often called the second most important court in the U.S. after the Supreme Court. read full story

06/04/2013 – Sen. Grassley? You don’t want more DC judges? Have I got a deal for you!!
I have heard with interest your comments that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals does not need more judges. You've indicated that you're not opposed to the President's individual nominations to that court. Instead, you think the Court already has too many judges, and you'd like to eliminate two of those seats to move them around the country. Your claim is that there are other courts that need more judges because they are overloaded in their workload. read full story

06/04/2013 – The D.C. Circuit nomination wars have begun
The bottom line here is that Obama won the 2012 election, and Democrats won a solid Senate majority in that election. Intense minority opposition occasionally winning is reasonable in a democracy; a minority winning most or all of the time cannot be justified. read full story

06/04/2013 – Mr. Wilkins goes to the Senate
The man who successfully fought against racial profiling in Maryland is now treated as a political pawn by Senate Republicans. read full story

06/04/2013 – Remarks by the President on the Nominations to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Throughout my first term as President, the Senate too often failed to advise and consent. Time and again, congressional Republicans cynically used Senate rules and procedures to delay and even block qualified nominees from coming to a full vote. read full story

06/05/2013 – Advise and Consent
On Tuesday, when President Obama made the unusual gesture of personally introducing his three nominees for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, he said that Americans would consider it a “judicial crisis” if the Supreme Court were similarly shortstaffed. The president did not come right out and say it, but he should have: The severe breakdown in the process for approving federal judges in the Senate has been especially hard on that critically important appeals court. read full story

06/04/2013 – Obama picks fight with Senate Republicans over judicial nominations
President Obama on Tuesday opened a new fight with Senate Republicans over judicial nominations. Obama nominated three people to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — widely considered a steppingstone to the Supreme Court — and all but dared the Senate GOP to filibuster them.

read full story

– Nomination delays hurting courts, federal judge says
U.S. District Judge James J. Brady spoke out Monday aga inst the increasingly glacial pace of judicial nominations, calling on U.S. Senate leaders to “come to their senses” and recognize the toll a vacant bench has on the court system. read full story

06/03/2013 – Use the Nuke, Harry, Use the Nuke
For two and a half years, Senate Republicans delayed a vote on President Obama's first nominee to fill a vacancy on the D.C. Circuit court =- so long the candidate withdrew. Last week, the Senate finally confirmed a judge nominated by President Obama. read full story

06/03/2013 – Rep. Grassley should pack it in
In an extraordinary act of hypocrisy, Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has labeled as "court-packing" the president's intention to exercise his constitutional authority to appoint judges to existing open seats. He has introduced a bill to reduce the number of seats from 11 to eight, which would preserve the conservative majority now on the court - court-packing in reverse. read full story

06/03/2013 – Is Barack Obama trying to ‘pack’ the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals?
Superficially, Obama’s actions don’t seem to mirror FDR’s, since Obama is seeking to fill existing vacancies, rather than creating new seats he can fill. But do the Republicans have a point? read full story

06/03/2013 – Everything you need to know about the nominations showdown, in one FAQ
It was funny when Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley equated Obama filling D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacancies with “court-packing.” But that’s not the last we’re going to hear from the Senate about judicial appointments. read full story

06/02/2013 – To break D.C. logjam, Sen. Reid should revive the ‘nuclear option’
As President Obama prepares to nominate three new judges for what is probably the nation's most important federal appeals court, Republicans in the Senate are escalating their attempts to stand in his way. read full story

05/31/2013 – Alumni, Eisgruber ’83 evaluate state of judicial confirmation process
In an alumni-faculty forum Friday morning, Princeton University Provost and President-elect Christopher Eisgruber ’83 moderated a panel discussion on the current state of the judicial confirmation process. read full story

05/31/2013 – Obama Tries for Three More Judges to DC Court
In a new development, however, and in a game of six degrees of blogosphere, New York magazine is reporting that that President Obama is addressing the problem in the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia - the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. - and the second most important federal court, right after the U.S. Supreme Court. read full story

05/31/2013 – Grassley Says D.C. Circuit’s Not Busy: Is He Right?
The unique caseload of the D.C. Circuit also adds an extra layer of importance to Obama’s attempt to fill the court’s vacancies: Over the next several years, the court will likely be asked to rule on agency rulemaking for issues from financial regulation to health care to environmental protections -- all Obama administration priorities. read full story

05/31/2013 – Reid a Reluctant ‘Nuclear’ Warrior
Will another Senate “gang” emerge to keep Majority Leader Harry Reid from the nuclear option to preclude filibusters of nominees? Maybe that’s what he’s hoping for. read full story

05/31/2013 – Fill seats on key D.C. court
Caseloads aren't a matter of numbers alone. The D.C. Circuit handles some of the most complex cases in the federal court system and should have its full complement of judges to do so. The Senate should reject Mr. Grassley's court-packing bill and give a fair hearing to the nominees. read full story

05/31/2013 – Not Too Shabby So Far: Obama’s Judicial Legacy
Liberals may not be happy about the rate at which Obama has filled vacancies, but they ought to give him credit for significantly increasing diversity on the federal bench. And he still has three years to go. read full story

05/31/2013 – What Makes the D.C. Circuit Different?
Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, is pushing a bill misleadingly called the Court Efficiency Act, which would eliminate three unfilled seats on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Next week, President Obama is expected to nominate three highly qualified lawyers for those seats, to bring the court to its full complement of 11 active judges. The Senate should confirm them quickly. read full story

05/30/2013 – Obama vs. GOP on Judicial Nominees
As President Obama faces off against Senate Republicans in a showdown over his abuse of recess appointments, a conflict that has gone to the Supreme Court, Obama has launched a new attack on the opposition party — using Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev., shown) as his proxy — in an effort to target what he views as Republican “obstructionism.” read full story

05/30/2013 – It Might Finally Be Time for the ‘Nuclear Option’ in the Senate
Watching Sen. Chuck Grassley this week rail against President Obama for "court packing" made me laugh out loud. read full story

05/30/2013 – Why is the GOP so obsessed with three little judges?
It’s beginning to feel a bit like 1937 in Washington this week as the White House and Senate Republicans hurl allegations of “court-packing” up and down Pennsylvania Avenue at one another. read full story

05/30/2013 – Obama: Finally Ready to Fight?
Is Barack Obama finally ready to fight? His announcement, reportedly coming this week, of three nominees to sit on the District of Columbia federal bench sure makes it look like he is. read full story

05/30/2013 – President does job. Republicans set hair on fire.
President Obama is reported to be ready to do something very important: he is expected to make nominations for the three empty seats on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. read full story

05/30/2013 – Bench-Pressed: Libs Try to Muscle onto Courts
If you don't like the court's decisions, change the people making them! That seems to be Barack Obama's philosophy, as he gets ready to pick one of the biggest fights of his presidency with Republicans. After simmering in the background for a few months, the issue of judicial nominations is about to boil over. read full story

05/30/2013 – Sen. Collins, GOP colleagues trying to slow government
Sen. Susan Collins is in the center of a showdown between the White House and Senate Republicans over judicial nominations. It’s taking place over the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which has been described as the most important court that no one has heard of. read full story

05/30/2013 – The G.O.P.’s Court-Shrinking Plan
Harry Reid has vowed to crack down on Republican filibusters several times with no effect, so it’s hard not to feel dubious about his latest threat to change Senate rules if Republicans continue to block President Obama’s nominations. read full story

05/30/2013 – This is court-packing in the GOP’s dreams only
When it comes to judicial vacancies, and especially the powerful D.C. Circuit, "pack" is the verb of choice, with its sinister Rooseveltian overtones of a president maneuvering to game the system. Don't fall for it. read full story

05/29/2013 – Will Republicans filibuster Obama’s three judicial nominations?
In an effort to shape the nation’s judiciary system–and put Senate Republican obstructionism in the spotlight–President Obama plans to simultaneously nominate three judges to the second most powerful court in the country. The president’s announcement will force Republicans to decide whether they will filibuster all three nominations. read full story

05/29/13 – Ed Whelan’s Misplaced Blame for Judicial Emergencies without Nominees
A column today includes a series of misleading statements about the President’s record on filling vacancies where the caseload backlog is most severe. read full story

05/29/13 – Is Obama ‘Stacking the Courts’ With Liberal Judges?
Obama is planning a big push to get three judges nominated to America's most important federal court, and Republicans do not like it. read full story

05/29/13 – Shorting the D.C. Circuit
Even if his three simultaneous judicial nominees are blocked, it's a win-win situation for the president that just might mean the beginning of the end for the filibuster. read full story

05/29/13 – That Term Most Definitely Does not Mean what you Think it Means
It is amazingly cynical, not to mention blatantly dishonest, to associate filling existing vacancies with a practice of trying to add new seats to the bench, especially since “court packing” has a decidedly negative connotation in American politics. read full story

05/29/13 – Putting the D.C. Circuit Vacancies in Context – Part 2
The White House’s reported sudden rush to fill three D.C. Circuit vacancies, even as it neglects judicial-emergency vacancies on overworked courts, needs also to be considered in the context of President Obama’s manifest lack of respect for, and lack of seriousness about, the D.C. Circuit. read full story

05/29/2013 – A Legacy Litigated
President Obama is finally getting serious about the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The federal appeals court is second only to the Supreme Court in importance, because it referees fights about the power of federal agencies and the rulings they make (and also because it’s a traditional feeder to the high court). read full story

05/29/13 – Putting the D.C. Circuit Vacancies in Context – Part 1
There is no neutral principle that justifies the Obama administration’s sudden rush on the D.C. Circuit. read full story

05/29/2013 – A Time for Harry Reid’s Backbone
A president’s court picks shouldn’t require 60 Senate votes. The Constitution is quite specific about when “super-majorities” are needed, and makes no mention of super-majorities for court appointments. read full story

05/29/13 – Republican Court Unpacking Plan Takes Judicial Manipulation to a New Level
Republicans in the Senate have made no secret of their efforts to block the President’s constitutional responsibility to appoint federal judges. read full story

05/28/13 – Republicans Looking Sheepish On Obama Court Nominees
They're hoping they can obstruct quietly, without drawing too much attention. read full story

05/28/13 – Democrats prepare for nuclear war
Harry Reid is threatening to revisit rules reform by simple majority – i.e., the nuclear option — and the case he is making privately is that if Republicans continue at current levels of obstructionism, he is prepared to move in July to end the filibuster on judicial and executive branch nominations. read full story

05/28/13 – Judges, filibusters and obstruction
It appears almost certain that President Obama will soon offer three nominees to fill the three vacancies on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Good. Excellent. read full story

05/28/13 – Judicial Blitz?
Republican senators mulling a major filibuster action against Obama’s nominees have to deal with the incendiary rhetoric some of them deployed back in 2005, when they toyed with using the “nuclear option” to overcome Democratic filibuster threats against George W. Bush’s judicial nominees. read full story

05/28/13 – Obama to Senate: Obstruct This
Obama is calculating that, by making three selections at once, Republicans in the Senate won’t be able to use the same pretense they used against Halligan — picking out one objectionable ruling and calling it an extraordinary circumstance. read full story

05/28/13 – Why the New White House Push for Judicial Nominees Won’t Work
The confirmation system is so broken that it takes a year for qualified nominees to be approved. That's leaving dozens of courts woefully understaffed. read full story

05/28/13 – The coming showdown on judicial nominations
It appears that President Obama will finally nominate judges for the three remaining vacancies on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. read full story

05/28/13 – How An Absurd Senate Rule Kept A Powerful Judgeship Open For 1000 Days And Counting
This weekend, former federal appellate Judge Stanley Birth celebrated his 1000th day of retirement from the federal bench, and the seat he once occupied also celebrated its 1000th day of being vacant. read full story

05/27/13 – How Republicans have a hidden advantage on the nation’s second most important court
The Supreme Court rightly attracts the most attention. But the filibuster is reshaping American justice, and the federal government's ability to institute and enforce regulations, throughout the federal court system. read full story

05/27/13 – Filibuster summer is coming our way
In recent years, the DC Court of Appeals has been busily at work trying to undermine as much of President Obama's agenda as they can get their eager little right-wing hands on. Republicans, needless to say, think this is a fine thing, which means they're none too eager to let Obama fill the court's open vacancies with judges who might not be quite such committed Federalist Society members. read full story

05/27/13 – Sen. Chuck Grassley: White House sheds crocodile tears
The Senate has confirmed a near record number of judicial nominees during President Obama's time in office. Yet you'd never know it by the crocodile tears coming from this administration. read full story

05/27/13 – Senate GOP obstructionism reaches new heights
Just when you think the Senate has become hopelessly dysfunctional, senators do something to remind you they're capable of so much more. read full story

05/27/13 – Injustice in the Senate
The federal courts are sick. The symptoms have been worsening for some time, resulting in too few judges with too many cases and slowing justice to a glacial pace. And the diagnosis is one we've all heard before: Partisan politics. read full story

05/26/13 – The Most Dangerous Court in America
The D.C. Circuit is the training ground for the Supreme Court and the place where much of the nation’s regulatory framework is decided. In its current form, it is one the most dangerous courts in the land. read full story

05/24/2013 – What ‘packing the court’ means
Chuck Grassley sees judicial nominations as some kind of underhanded Democratic scheme. The rest of us should consider it basic American governance. read full story

05/24/2013 – A Troubled Path for Judicial Nominees
Since Republicans have upended the traditions of the Senate by requiring supermajority votes for practically everything, the nuclear option may be the strongest option Senate Democrats have for filling the large number of vacancies on the federal bench. read full story

05/24/2013 – 1000-Day Judicial Vacancy in Georgia
This Memorial Day weekend will be the 1000th day since Eleventh Circuit Judge Stanley Birch retired, leaving a vacancy that has yet to be filled. read full story

05/24/2013 – Susan Collins’ D.C. Circuit Hypocrisy
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins signed on today as a cosponsor of a blatantly political bill meant to deny President Obama, unlike any of his predecessors, the ability to fill vacancies on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. read full story

05/24/2013 – Reid’s court-packing scheme
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn’t like the direction the federal judiciary is heading, so he has come up with a variant of court-packing to achieve his results. read full story

05/23/2013 – Sri Srinivasan: Supreme Court justice in the making?
That an Obama nominee could be so quickly and completely embraced by Republicans is a testament to Srinivasan's bipartisan credentials and collegiality. Current and former colleagues, as well as family members and friends, describe him as a doting father, loyal friend, fanatical University of Kansas basketball fan and open-minded attorney who doesn't come to each case with a predisposition. read full story

05/23/2013 – Statement by the President on the Confirmation of Sri Srinivasan
I’m pleased the Senate unanimously confirmed Sri Srinivasan to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. read full story

05/23/2013 – It’s Not Packing, Just Filling the D.C. Bench
"Packing" is an odd description of the president's constitutional duty to nominate people to fill vacant seats on the federal bench. Congress has authorized this important federal appellate court to have a total of 11 judges, and it currently has only seven. read full story

05/23/2013 – A major breakthrough in judicial nominations
For five years, Senate Republicans led by the Septegenarian Ninja Turtle, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), have systematically abused the Senate filibuster rules in partisan warfare to block President Obama's judicial nominees. Today there is one less vacancy. read full story

05/23/2013 – D.C. Circuit Vacancies: One Down, Three to Go
The Senate today unanimously confirmed Sri Srinivasan to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Srinivasan’s confirmation is historic: he’ll become the first federal appeals court judge of South Asian descent. He will also become the first Obama nominee on the hugely influential D.C. Circuit. read full story

05/22/2013 – McConnell Bobs and Weaves on Judicial Nominations
On the Senate floor this morning, Republican leader Mitch McConnell again showed how utterly without merit his party's obstruction techniques are. read full story

05/22/2013 – Scuttling a President’s ‘Popular Imprint’ on the Judiciary
The real reason that Senate Republicans and their allies don’t want Obama to appoint any judges to the court beyond Srinivasan is because they want to maintain the conservative jurisprudence that results from the dominance of the court’s active and senior status Republican appointees. read full story

05/22/2013 – The Climate-Change Wars Begin This Summer
Since President Obama took office, four vacancies have opened on the D.C. Circuit Court, and Obama has not managed to seat a single justice to fill any of the slots. read full story

– Reid To McConnell: Yes, You Are Abusing The Filibuster
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Wednesday rebuffed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) warning not to follow through with his threats to weaken the filibuster for nominations via the nuclear option. read full story

05/22/2013 – Things Fall Apart: the Gang of 14 Eight Years Later
As talk increasingly turns to Harry Reid’s potential invocation of the “nuclear option” to do away with the filibuster – at least on nominations – as early as July, it’s tempting to think back to the last time we heard such atomic language in the U.S. Senate. read full story

05/22/2013 – Procedural Madness Wednesday: A Nominee and the Nuclear Option
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., fought Wednesday morning over when a vote should be held for a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals judge, which isn’t uncommon C-SPAN2 fare. But this battle got particularly heated because it served as a proxy war over the filibuster — and Reid’s threat to go nuclear. read full story

05/21/2013 – On U.S. Senate rules, a prospect of a nuclear July
Michael McShane had it easy. Monday, the U.S. Senate confirmed him to a seat on the federal district court for Oregon, a mere eight months after he was nominated. Considering that he sailed through both the Judiciary Committee and the full Senate on voice votes, you might wonder why it took that long. read full story

05/21/2013 – Wall Street Journal Supports Ridiculous Idea For Keeping Obama’s Judges Off The Bench
The Wall Street Journal seems to run on both sides of the issue when it comes to discussing GOP obstructionism. One week ago, their Washington Bureau Chief blasted obstructionism in the Senate regarding judicial nominees, and then on May 19 ran an editorial that endorses Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) ridiculous idea of reducing the number of judges in the D.C. Circuit. read full story

05/21/2013 – Sorry, Senator Grassley, We Need More Judges on the D.C. Circuit
So let's agree to call out this preemptive filibuster threat for what it is: a naked attempt to keep what is widely considered the second-most important court in the country barely functioning and, more importantly, keeping all who rely on the courts for justice from receiving the timely and well-reasoned judgments to which they are entitled. read full story

05/21/2013 – Sen. Grassley’s Misleading Effort to Block D.C. Circuit Court Nominations
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) a champion of obstructing President Obama’s nominations to the federal bench and some to executive branch positions, has focused special attention on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. read full story

05/21/2013 – Quick and decisive action needed to resolve judicial emergencies
Close to 100 attorneys, progressive advocates and Triangle-area residents gathered today to discuss the continuing judicial vacancy on the U.S.District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, growing numbers of federal judicial vacancies elsewhere, delayed U.S. Senate confirmations of presidential nominees, and the ongoing need for increased diversity on the bench. read full story

05/21/2013 – Grassley’s reach hampers court
The war on federal agencies is succeeding because the D.C. Circuit is dominated by conservatives — four of the court’s seven current active judges are Republican appointees, as are five of the six senior judges, who also regularly hear cases. read full story

05/20/2013 – ABA Ratings Of Article III Judicial Nominees: 113th Congress
Unanimous committee ratings appear as a single rating. In other situations, the rating from the majority or substantial majority (constituting ten to thirteen votes) if the Standing Committee is recorded first, followed by the rating or ratings of a minority of the Standing Committee. read full story

05/20/2013 – WSJ Supports Dismantling Federal Court In Order To Block Obama Nominees
The Wall Street Journal is endorsing Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley's absurd claim that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit doesn't need to fill its judicial vacancies, a position the senator didn't take when he was helping confirm former President George W. Bush's right-wing judges. read full story

05/20/2013 – The Wall St. Journal’s Bizarre Attack on Potential DC Circuit Nominations
The Wall Street Journal published a remarkable editorial yesterday accusing President Obama of acting like a "king" and acting illegitimately "for political ends" because he wants to fulfill his constitutional responsibility to nominate people for each of the judgeships that Congress has created on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the second most influential court in the country. read full story

05/20/2013 – Republicans seek to obstruct Obama executive, judicial nominees
It’s no wonder that Republicans also are trying to prevent the president from restoring balance to the D.C. Circuit, which is currently dominated by Republican appointees. read full story

05/20/2013 – Still hoping for a filibuster compromise
Democrats should not be willing to accept a full blockage of certain seats (such as what may be a blockade of multiple seats on the DC Circuit court). And Republicans should be willing to go along, because if they don’t, they could lose the possibility of blocking any judges at all. read full story

05/19/2013 – Benched: 10 percent of federal judgeships are vacant
Eighty·five federal judgeships now sit vacant, about 10 percent of the federal judiciary. at a time when those who run the court system think there should be new judicial posts created because of an escalating workload. read full story

05/17/2013 – Heller’s Obstructionism On Full Display
Perhaps the most under-reported scandalous behavior in Washington, D.C. is the continual obstruction of Presidential nominations to fill vacancies in administrative and judicial posts, and Nevada junior Senator Dean Heller has been right in the middle of it. read full story

05/17/2013 – GOP Obstruction of Judicial Nominees Continues
Behind the good news that the Senate is finally moving to confirm more district nominees, it should be noted that many of the nominees getting votes are ones that could easily have been approved last year. read full story

05/16/2013 – Srinivasan’s Judiciary Committee Approval, a Rare Respite from Rampant Obstructionism
Showing how distorted the nominations process has become, what made this story unusual wasn’t the nearly one-year long wait he endured (unfortunately such waits are now so commonplace that they don’t draw much mention), rather it was how he was unanimously approved. In today’s Senate such bipartisan actions are rare. read full story

05/16/2013 – Grassley deserves “A” for creativity, “F” for content on “pre-emptive filibuster” of D.C. Circuit nominees
The hypocrisy is clear when one looks at Sen. Grassley’s own record. When the caseload on the court was lighter than it is now, Sen. Grassley supported President George W. Bush’s nominees to fill all eleven seats on the court. read full story

05/16/2013 – Two GOP Judges Just Voted To Eliminate Union Rights, Here’s How The Senate Can Stop Them
When the Senate minority filibusters nominees to a powerful court, the other judges on that court can continue to issue decisions (even if those decisions are likely to reflect the ideological preferences of past presidents). read full story

05/16/2013 – Srinivasan’s Nomination Moves, But Will Senate Republicans Keep Remaining D.C. Circuit Vacancies Unfilled?
Given a proposal by Senator Grassley to eliminate three seats on the D.C. Circuit – effectively a mass filibuster of President Obama’s future nominees – the comity exhibited by Senate Republicans this morning is not likely to last very long. read full story

05/15/2013 – Courting Disaster: GOP Obstruction and The Courts
With 82 empty seats in our federal district and appellate courts, nearly 10 percent of federal judicial seats are vacant, and have been since President Obama took office. That’s the longest period of judicial vacancies in 35 years. read full story

05/15/2013 – Cornyn should shoulder blame for judicial vacancies
Last week, during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, sought to blame President Obama for the lack of nominees to fill these vacancies. Cornyn clearly was seeking to score political points against the president as well as absolve himself and his Republican colleagues of any responsibility for the dismal situation in Texas and on other federal courts. read full story

05/15/2013 – Obama needs a fresh approach to naming judges
What should Obama do to take advantage of this momentum? It is time for him to focus on a neglected but important part of the nominations process: the problems with how senators supply the president with candidates to be nominated to the federal bench. read full story

05/14/2013 – News Media Should Clearly Inform Public About Obstruction, Filibuster
Both parties have been guilty in the past of misusing the confirmation process for political gain. But we have never seen anything like this. And instead of standing against the abuses, Senator Lamar Alexander is participating in way too many of them. read full story

05/14/2013 – Glimmer of Hope For Filibuster Reform?
Underneath the current “scandal”-frenzy is the continuing scandal of Senate Republican obstruction of the basic functioning of government via routine filibustering of executive-branch appointments. read full story

05/14/2013 – Did Senator Cornyn Forget About His Letter To President Obama?
There’s something else Senator Cornyn should be reminded of: the March 2, 2009 letter that he and all 40 of his Republican Senate colleagues sent to the newly-elected President Obama basically threatening to block judicial nominees from their own states unless they were consulted about and approved of those nominees. read full story

05/14/2013 – Nuking the filibuster
If Senate Republicans won't give Obama nominees an up-or-down vote, it may be time to change the body's rules. read full story

05/14/2013 – Why Just Fixing The Filibuster Is Not Enough To Unbreak The Senate
So, while filibuster reform is essential in the wake of unprecedented obstruction of cabinet-level nominees and similar tactics, it is not sufficient in and of itself. The Senate’s rules and the rules governing its various committees are pervasively broken, and require a complete overhaul to prevent future obstruction. read full story

05/13/2013 – The Supreme Court is About to Get Another Chance to Gut Obamacare
A major reason is that ACA bitter-enders have insisted that they have an ace in the hole: right-wing federal judges sympathetic to their avid distaste for Obamacare. read full story

05/13/2013 – Sen. Grassley’s DC Appeals Court-Shrinking Bill Under Fire
Another critic of a controversial ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is taking aim at both the highly influential court and Sen. Charles Grassley’s proposal to reduce it from 11 authorized judges to eight. read full story

05/13/2013 – Two Judges Confirmed Last Week
Compared to nominees like Cailtin Halligan, who did not receive a floor vote more than two years after she was first nominated, or Rosemary Marquez, who was nominated to a judicial emergency seat on the District of Arizona in June 23 but has not even yet received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Dick and Judge Roman are lucky. read full story

05/13/2013 – D.C. Circuit v. Worker Rights
The latest example of the federal court bending over backward to defend business interests is yet another reminder of why judicial appointments matter. read full story

05/13/2013 – There is no low to which the Party of No won’t stoop
The unprecedented Republican obstruction of President Barack Obama’s nominees, not to mention his agenda, will continue unabated, it appears. Obstructionism is just another name for dirty politics. read full story

05/10/2013 – Packing the Courts
Far more than Presidents Obama and Clinton, Presidents Reagan and both Bushes cared intensely about the selection of judges. Brett M. Kavanaugh, now a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, said that George W. Bush “devoted more attention to the issue of judges than any other president.” read full story

05/10/2013 – Grassley aims for GOP political spin on federal judiciary
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s stunning decision this week to strike down a National Labor Relations Board rule requiring employers to post signs reminding workers of their right to organize, is a clear indication of why this D.C. court has become an ideological battleground. read full story

05/10/2013 – Judges, Please
Republicans are in fact, in many states, obstructing the normal process of selecting nominees in the first place (and Pat Leahy and the Judiciary Committee Democrats are basically allowing it to happen). read full story

05/10/2013 – How Vacancies on the D.C. Circuit Court Are Swaying Policy in America
Senate Republicans have succeeded in preventing President Obama from filling any of the four seats now open on the DC Circuit. As a result, conservative judges on the court have been able to block a number of the administration's initiatives. read full story

05/10/2013 – At Ninth Circuit, Moderates Do the Talking
Over a three-year stretch, judges like Milan Smith and Ronald Gould published almost three times as many majority opinions as their more circumspect colleagues, a Recorder review showed. Judges regarded as centrist or moderately liberal tended to produce the most opinions, while conservatives — who are outnumbered on the court — dissented more frequently. read full story

05/09/2013 – No Right to Know Your Rights
It is no coincidence that the rule was struck down by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Four of the court’s 11 seats are empty and no new judges have been confirmed since 2006, leaving the court with a marked pro-business, deregulatory bias at a time when Senate Republicans have delayed and blocked President Obama’s judicial nominees. read full story

05/09/2013 – Sen. Grassley Takes Aim at Judicial Review, Immigration Reform
It seems whenever given the opportunity to weaken the judiciary, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) runs with it and in the process spreads lots of misinformation about the federal courts. read full story

05/08/2013 – Historic Obstruction: Republicans Block Obama’s Nominees at EPA, Labor, Justice
Whether cabinet or judicial, the pattern by Senate Republicans is familiar: Run out the clock on Obama’s presidency and blunt his power by blocking the people he selects to work in his Administration. Regarding judicial nominations, Senate Republicans have created record wait times on President Obama’s nominees. read full story

05/08/2013 – Graphic: Restoring Balance to the D.C. Circuit
Why is the D.C. Circuit still wreaking havoc on the government’s ability to protect the rights of workers and consumers? Because Republicans in the Senate have yet to allow a single one of President Obama’s nominees to the court reach a confirmation vote, making Obama the first president since Woodrow Wilson to serve a full first term without placing a judge on the D.C. Circuit. read full story

05/08/2013 – Proposed Amendment to Immigration Reform Bill to Create New District Court Judgeships
A proposed amendment by Senators Feinstein, Cornyn, Cruz, Flake and to the immigration reform bill working its way through the Senate would add new judgeships to the U.S. District Courts for Arizona, California, and Texas. read full story

05/07/2013 – Conservative D.C. Circuit Strikes Again, With Pro-Corporate Ruling
The three-judge panel, all consisting of Republican-appointed judges, invalidated the NLRB's posting rule, saying it went beyond the Board’s authority, the Los Angeles Times reports. read full story

05/08/2013 – A Senate Republican Goal: Keep the D.C. Circuit Business Friendly
While the Obama administration has done much to diversify the federal bench, Senate Republicans have so far successfully kept one of the nation’s most important appellate courts free of any diversity. read full story

05/08/2013 – Reid federal judge sale — just a bad timeline
The questions swirling around the federal judge appointment by Sen. Harry Reid -- the one in which he took $150,000 in contributions from the candidate's law firm -- are many and substantial. Sen. Reid says it was purely coincidental and for some Nevadans that settles it. read full story

05/07/2013 – Some whiskey-talk suggestions for Obama and McConnell
The president also needs to streamline the process for vetting appointees. For a president who has occasionally ruled by fiat, this should not be too hard. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. read full story

05/07/2013 – The High Price of the Federal Bench
A minor scandal is brewing in Las Vegas. In a city known for its impeccable ethics and strictly above-board dealings, the legal community is astir over suggestions that a nominee to the federal bench earned her nomination by engineering a windfall for her political sponsor, Senator Harry Reid, with conveniently-timed donations from her law partners. read full story

05/07/2013 – Even Obama’s unopposed judicial nominees endured long waits
President Obama's judicial nominees who were confirmed during his first term endured a longer confirmation process on average than the nominees of the four previous presidents, an analysis from the Congressional Research Service shows. read full story

05/06/2013 – Obama Claims Senate Republicans Not Sporting on Judicial Nomination Process
I don’t doubt that Republican Senators are jacking Obama around on filling judge seats. But the President has leverage that he can use. I’ve written repeatedly during the Obama administration that the President does not appear to make filling judicial seats a priority. If he would, Republicans would probably jack him around less on this. read full story

05/06/2013 – CRS Confirms Historic Obstruction of President Obama’s Judicial Nominees
It should not take 263 days after being voted out of Committee for a nominee to be confirmed 93-0, as it did Robert Bacharach. Or 347 days for a nominee to be confirmed 91-0, as it did Richard Taranto. That’s just partisan obstruction, pure and simple. read full story

05/05/2013 – Get federal judges into open slots
Lawmakers are playing politics with federal judicial nominees, which means important cases get delayed, courts are overloaded, nominees endure months of waiting in limbo, judicial integrity is compromised, and the American people get poor service from one the country's three branches of government. read full story

05/04/2013 – Republican obstruction of judicial nominations is unprecedented
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has released an important new report that details Barack Obama’s record on nominating judges during his first term. It’s no surprise: Republican obstruction against his selections was unprecedented… read full story

05/03/2013 – Obama’s Cabinet is almost filled, but what about his other nominations?
But if the Cabinet is filling out, the Obama administration’s puzzlingly slow pace of non-Cabinet nominations continues. As Jonathan Bernstein notes, there are around 60 open judicial vacancies, including 11 at the appellate level and three on the D.C Circuit. read full story

05/03/2013 – Statistical Analysis of Judicial Nominations from CRS
For a variety of reasons, from institutional lethargy to calculated tactical opposition, the rate at which the Obama Administration’s judicial nominees are confirmed by Congress has become painfully slow, to the detriment of the judicial system and the possibility of justice itself. read full story

05/02/2013 – Another crack at the filibuster
Senators need to return to their rules and amend them again. If they're unwilling to abolish the filibuster, they must fashion limits that allow Americans to be represented by their Senate, not thwarted by it. read full story

05/02/2013 – President Obama’s First-Term U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominations: An Analys is and Comparison with Presidents Since Reagan
President Obama’s first term, compared with the first terms of Presidents Reagan to G.W. Bush, had the second-fewest number of district court nominees confirmed (143 compared with 130 for President Reagan) and the second-lowest percentage of district court nominees confirmed (82.7% compared with 76.9% for President G.H.W. Bush). read full story

05/02/2013 – Politics and Vetting Leave Key U.S. Posts Long Unfilled
Vacancies, attributed to partisan politics and lengthy White House vetting, are slowing policy making in a capital already known for inaction, and embarrassing a president who has had more than five months since his re-election to fill many of the jobs. read full story

05/01/2013 – The GOP’s War Against Obama’s Court Picks
There’s only reason for the more than 7 times longer time frame it takes for Obama’s picks to come to vote in the Senate than it took for Bush’s. The GOP simply doesn’t want Obama’s picks to become judges. read full story

05/01/2013 – Obama agenda slowed by delayed nominations and confirmations
Whether President Barack Obama’s second-term agenda picks up some momentum depends partly on him persuading senators, once they return to Washington after a week off, to confirm his nominees. read full story

05/01/2013 – On the Importance of Judges
You could not be in the environmental community without recognizing the critical importance of a well-informed judiciary in the upward trajectory of environmental policy. read full story

04/30/2013 – Senate Republicans totally boycott judicial nominee process
Out of the 61 vacancies without a nominee, 25 are in states with two Republican senators and another 14 are in states with one Democrat and one Republican. The Senate is constitutionally charged with providing both advice and consent on nominations. They're refusing to do either. read full story

04/30/2013 – Study Investigates Nominee-Less Judicial Vacancies
A recent study by IAALS board member Russell Wheeler, a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, analyzes the politics behind the high number of judicial vacancies without nominees. read full story

04/30/2013 – How Republicans Block Obama’s Judicial Nominations
Republican Senators are not only blocking Obama’s judicial nominations by the arbitrary use of the filibuster, they are refusing to recommend potential federal judges in the first place. read full story

04/29/2013 – Consider All Judicial Nominess Without Delay
The Federal Bar Association urges the Senate to work in a bipartisan fashion to promptly confirm qualified judicial nominees to vacant Federal district and appeals court positions. read full story

04/29/2013 – How Much Is That Judgeship In The Window?
We all know that being a friend of Harry Reid in Nevada has its perks, but this peek behind the curtain is surprising and disconcerting. read full story

04/29/2013 – Obama’s Judicial Nominees Blocked On All Sides By Senate Republicans
It's bad enough that there are 82 vacant federal judge slots around the country, a level so high that many observers have deemed it a crisis situation. But perhaps even more startling is the fact that of those 82 vacant slots, 61 of them don't even have a nominee. read full story

04/29/2013 – Why Judges Matter: Obama-appointed judge gives immigrants a measure of justice
Last week's decision by Judge Dolly Gee is one more illustration of why it’s so important to find the right judge for every federal court vacancy and fight Republican stalling tactics. read full story

04/27/2013 – Newspaper details most of the contributions that poured into Reid PACs from law firm of federal judge nominee
The Review-Journal managed to find a law professor to call suspiciously timely campaign contributions to PACs tied to Sen. Harry Reid from partners in the law firm of a federal judicial nominee “problematic.” They couldn’t find anyone to say it smelled to high heaven. read full story

04/26/2013 – Women in the Federal Judiciary: Still A Long Way to Go
Since 1992, women’s representation in law school classes has approached 50%.[1] But the number of women in the federal judiciary has largely stagnated. It is of critical importance to increase the representation of women on the federal bench. read full story

04/25/2013 – Ongoing Obstruction in Senate Rekindles Calls for Filibuster Reform
Last year, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took to the Senate floor to bemoan his Republican colleagues’ ongoing use of the filibuster to block or greatly delay the president’s nominations to executive branch agencies, the federal bench, and to defeat consideration of legislation. read full story

04/25/2013 – The Vacancy Crisis in the Federal Judiciary: What’s at Stake for Women
The number of vacancies on the federal bench has a huge impact on people all around the country, including women, particularly as the number of civil lawsuits and appeals continues to rise. read full story

04/25/2013 – Why The Confirmation Of An Outstanding Judge Still Proves The Senate Is Terrible
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. Thanks in large part to Grassley’s intervention, Kelly was confirmed just 83 days after her nomination. read full story

04/24/2013 – Confirming Eighth Circuit Judge, Sen. Leahy Blasts Effort to Hobble D.C. Circuit
If you’re one of the president’s nominees to the federal bench it helps to have a signficant connection to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). read full story

04/24/2013 – Grading the Senate
By lifting the Thurmond Rule, GOP senators were deferring to the preferences of their own GOP colleagues—not necessarily to concerns about abiding with the spirit of reforms to speed up the Senate’s practice of advice and consent. read full story

04/24/2013 – Tentative Report Card on Senate Reform
But again, and this is important: reform wasn't designed to change the 60 vote de facto requirement; it was designed to eliminate delays, or at least improve efficiency, while leaving the 60 vote Senate in place. read full story

04/24/2013 – Judges, Please
The good news, as I discussed in the earlier item, is that the Senate is getting better at processing judicial nominations. The bad news? They're running out of nominations to process. read full story

04/24/2013 – Confirm the judges
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 receiving high ratings from the American Bar Association and majority support from senators. read full story

04/23/2013 – On Judges, Senate Democrats Lack Evidence
Last week, Senator Grassley set the record straight on Senate Democrats’ false charges of Republican obstructionism on judicial confirmations. The Ranking Member’s call for an end to the “crocodile tears” from Senate Democrats was warranted. read full story

04/19/2013 – Time for the ‘Nuclear Option’ in the Senate
The American people have become fed up with gridlock in our federal government. Since the House of Representatives came under Republican control in November 2010, there have been constant and prolonged partisan battles between Congress and President Obama over taxes and spending, raising the debt limit, judicial nominations, and now gun control legislation. read full story

04/20/2013 – Prioritize appointing U.S. judges
Through the first two centuries of our republic, the Senate was renowned as the world’s greatest deliberative body, the home of lawmakers and statespeople who understood not only the impact of soaring rhetoric but also the value of collaboration and compromise. Senators assiduously exercised their authority to provide advice and consent on judicial nominations. read full story

04/20/2013 – Senate epitomizes do-nothingness
The U.S. Senate is a broken institution, and for that its members have no one to blame but themselves and their inflated sense of self-importance and privilege. The problem is, the consequences of that breakdown are becoming increasingly unsustainable. read full story

04/19/2013 – Former USPTO Solicitors write in favor of Chen
"Ray has an excellent temperament, one particularly suited for serving the country as a judge." read full story

04/19/2013 – Federal Circuit Bar Association writes in favor of Chen
"We know from personal experience that Mr. Chen has the experience and expertise to preform at the highest level at the Federal Circuit." read full story

04/19/2013 – Grassley wants to whittle down court
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. read full story

04/19/2013 – Judicial gridlock felt in Texas
Instead of adding judicial seats to expand presidential appointment power, the so-called Court Efficiency Act will eliminate some of the vacant seats on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. But this meddling with the fundamentals of our judiciary is court packing by another name, and it does not pass the smell test. read full story

04/18/2013 – Grassley to Democrats: ‘quit crying’ over judges
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has advice for Senate Democrats griping about the Senate’s pace on President Obama’s judicial nominations. His counsel goes something like this: stop yer whinin’. read full story

04/18/2013 – What’s Behind all Those Judicial Vacancies Without Nominees?
Both the Obama White House and at least some of the senators bear some responsibility for the high number of long-lasting nominee-less vacancies, and the long times from vacancy to nomination. read full story

04/18/2013 – Help wanted: Judges
The "push me pull you" process of filling judicial vacancies is part of the balance of powers engraved in the Constitution. Traditionally, the Senate has allowed a president to have his nominees, barring gross unfitness. But during the last 30 years, partisan politics have marred the process, with nominees delayed or blocked based on their political philosophy. Can you say "borked"? read full story

04/17/2013 – Did Senator Grassley Not Check His Inbox? — His Proposal to Gut the D.C. Circuit Ignores the Judicial Conference
That Senator Grassley’s proposal to eliminate the 9th, 10th, and 11th seats on the D.C. Circuit is a partisan ploy is evidenced not only by the numbers but also because it is not based on any study and in fact ignores recent recommendations of the Judicial Conference to Congress regarding the number of judgeships on the federal courts. read full story

04/17/2013 – President and Congress must act to fill judicial vacancies
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. read full story

04/17/2013 – News flash: Senators work together
The conservative Republican Ron Johnson and the liberal Democrat Tammy Baldwin actually worked together and made a joint announcement about doing something good — together — for Wisconsin. read full story

04/17/2013 – Of Judges and Judging
To say that the D.C. Circuit has been a political football in recent years is an understatement. read full story

04/15/2013 – Meet the Lawyers Appointed to Texas Senators’ Screening Committee for Federal Judgeships, U.S. Attorney Positions in the Lone Star State
U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, Republicans of Texas, today announced their bipartisan Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, which will screen and recommend nominees for federal judicial and U.S. attorney vacancies in Texas. (subscription required) read full story

04/15/2013 – Labor fight one front in GOP war
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has written a bill to cut the number of seats on the D.C. Circuit from 11 to eight. His clear intent is to stop Obama and the Democrats from ever having a majority on the court. read full story

04/15/2013 – Former Kansan’s judicial nomination key for Obama
President Obama is hoping his latest nominee for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Sri Srinivasan, will avoid a GOP filibuster. Srinivasan, who played basketball in high school with Danny Manning while growing up in Lawrence, is the Obama administration’s principal deputy solicitor general and has been endorsed by the likes of Kenneth Starr. read full story

04/15/2013 – Senators must stop filibustering well-qualified judicial appointments
Democrats may have started down the dark road of blocking judicial appointments on political grounds in the nasty scrum over the 1987 Supreme Court nomination of conservative Robert H. Bork, but Republicans have now made delaying virtually any nominee into a mad science. It needs to end. read full story

04/14/2013 – A little homespun common sense
Although there is almost certainly going to be some backlash from the judges involved, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced legislation on Thursday aimed at evening out the workloads of judges serving the federal Circuit Courts of Appeal. read full story

04/11/2013 – Republicans Now Officially Opposed to Confirming Any Democratic Nominees for the DC Circuit Court
Just cut the size of the court from 11 to 8 and there's no need to confirm any more pesky Democratic nominees. The court can continue handing off its overflow caseload to its retired senior judges, almost all of whom are safely Republican. read full story

04/11/2013 – Sen. Grassley’s ‘Court Fracking’ Scheme
If “fracking” is one of the buzzwords in the energy policy world these days then “court fracking” might become a new legal catchphrase. read full story

04/11/2013 – Grassley’s big idea: Don’t block the nominee, do away with the nominee’s seat
There's no good reason to oppose Srinivasan on the merits, so they won't oppose him, just the seat he would fill. Because there is no length to which Republicans won't go to obstruct this president. read full story

04/11/2013 – Republican Senators Work to Maintain D.C. Circuit’s Conservative Tilt
Sri Srinivasan, President Obama’s second nominee to a vacant seat the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, sailed through yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing largely because he did a masterful job of detailing his career, which offers few hints of an ideological leaning. read full story

04/11/2013 – Working the Refs By Taking Them Off the Court
Looks like Grassley—or whatever Federalism Society alum who is advising him—understands that the regulatory and legal arenas are where the actual policy legacy of the Obama administration will be determined, often by split decisions in the D.C. Circuit read full story

04/11/2013 – A court-packing scheme — in reverse
It's against the backdrop of the filibuster that Grassley and seven of his Republican colleagues effectively argue, "Instead of filling the vacancies, why don't we just eliminate them?" read full story

04/11/2013 – D.C. Circuit Court Limps Along With Four Vacancies
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing on Wednesday for Sri Srinavasan, who is nominated to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. That key court has four vacancies, and no one has been confirmed since before President Obama took office. read full story

04/11/2013 – Pare down the D.C. Circuit? Unlikely, but not unheard of
he latest Republican proposal to remove three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — as unlikely as it seems to happen at this point — isn't unprecedented. But this time it brings with it an ideological battle about the political makeup of the nation's second highest court. (registration required) read full story

04/10/2013 – Can a Flood of Nominees Plug the Holes in the D.C. Circuit?
After four years of unfilled vacancies on the nation’s so-called second-highest court, the media is finally giving this confirmation crisis the Pay-Per-View boxing-worthy buzz it deserves. read full story

04/10/2013 – What McConnell considers ‘very fair’
By objective standards, Obama's district court nominees have to wait three times as long as Bush/Cheney nominees before receiving a confirmation vote, and Obama's circuit court nominees have to wait four times as long as Bush/Cheney nominees. read full story

04/10/2013 – Who Is Sri Srinivasan, Obama’s “Supreme Court Nominee in Waiting”?
The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin calls Sri Srinivasan, the government lawyer Barack Obama has nominated to the prestigious US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, "the Supreme Court nominee in waiting." But you could also call him a mystery. read full story

04/10/2013 – Showdown on the D.C. Circuit Court
Five years into his presidency, Barack Obama may finally be close to getting his first nominee confirmed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on the nomination of Sri Srinivasan after Republicans delayed his nomination for almost a year. read full story

04/10/2013 – Is Sri Srinivasan Our Next Supreme Court Justice?
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is a big one for both Obama and Srinivasan, because as Jeffery Toobin pointed out in a breakdown of Srinivasan's record, this is basically his audition to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the next Associate Justice at the highest tribunal in the land. read full story

04/09/2013 – The Sri-St. Paul Connection
Srikanth "Sri" Srinivasan deserves to be questioned about his role in a quid pro quo with the City of St. Paul, Minnesota, that his Justice colleague Tom Perez—now Obama's labor secretary nominee—hatched in 2011. read full story

04/09/2013 – Media Misrepresenting Judicial Confirmations
While Obama is seeking to “shift” the “conservative tilt” of a key court, as reported by The Washington Post, Bush’s legacy is that of pervasive conservatism with the “potential to affect the law in America for decades.” read full story

04/09/2013 – Obama’s Empathy Rule: Alive and Well in the Second Term
When announcing criteria for his first nomination to the Supreme Court, President Obama offered his personal litmus test for judicial nominees, now commonly known as the “empathy standard.” read full story

04/09/2013 – The Supreme Court Nominee-in-Waiting
The next Supreme Court confirmation hearing begins on Wednesday afternoon, April 10th. Technically, Sri Srinivasan is just a candidate for the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but few are misled. read full story

04/09/2013 – Republicans’ D.C. Circuit barricade
It’s Republicans who are doing the obstructing now, and, no matter who started it, it has to stop. If it does not, a frustrated majority party will at some point give in to temptation and strip the minority of its senatorial prerogatives. read full story

04/07/2013 – All White Federal Courts
The N.C. NAACP is again voicing its concern about the lack of racial diversity on the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of N.C. bench. read full story

04/06/2013 – Courts Without Judges
The number of vacancies on the nation’s federal courts has reached an astonishingly high level, creating a serious shortage of judges and undermining the ability of the nation’s court system to bestow justice. read full story

04/05/2013 – Court nominees stalled for six years in D.C.
Of the 11 seats on the court, four are empty. No nominee has been confirmed since 2006. read full story

04/05/2013 – Obama Judicial Vacancies Continue To Rise In Second Term, Face Issues
According to Alliance for Justice's Nov. 19, 2012 report on the State of the Judiciary, Obama began his first term with 55 Article III openings to fill. By mid-December 2012, that number had ballooned to 83, sparking questions of whether the system was broken. read full story

04/05/2013 – Networks Remain Silent On D.C. Circuit Court Crisis As Another Possible Filibuster Approaches
Evening network news shows have largely ignored the filibuster brinkmanship of Senate Republicans in blocking President Obama's judicial nominees, as well as the resulting vacancy crisis at the important D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. read full story

04/04/2013 – White House Spins Wash Times Reporter in Circles on D.C. Circuit
To see how the White House is spinning President Obama’s Keystone Kops escapades on D.C. Circuit nominations, take a look at this Washington Times (yes, Times!) article. read full story

04/04/2013 – Will Sri Srinivasan’s confirmation process be seamless?
Next Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up the confirmation of Sri Srinivasan, President Obama's latest nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest joins the discussion. read full story

04/04/2013 – Radical Republicans, Not the President, Have Created the Judicial Vacancy Crisis
The inability of President Obama to fill vacant seats on one of the nation’s most powerful courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, has belatedly caught the attention of a few beltway reporters. read full story

04/04/2013 – W.H. spokesman compares GOP to Syracuse
White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest had a chance to watch Syracuse play in the NCAA Tournament recently, and it apparently got him to thinking about game strategy in Washington. On MSNBC's "Now With Alex Wagner" on Thursday, he compared Republican obstructionism with Syracuse's scrappy defense. read full story

04/04/2013 – Senate GOP could over-play its hand
Barack Obama has gone longer than any previous president without putting someone on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. read full story

04/04/2013 – Charts: Look At How Badly Obama Lags on Judicial Appointments
Because Obama has been slower to nominate than Bush or Clinton, the average number of days from the opening of a seat to a nomination increased by 44 percent between Bush's and Obama's first terms. read full story

04/04/2013 – Sri Srinivasan’s uncertain future
Obama's judicial nominees are routinely blocked by the Senate Republican minority -- there are, tragically, more vacancies on the federal bench now than when the president took office -- but it's the D.C. Circuit that's of particular interest read full story

04/03/2013 – The Next Filibuster Reform Test?
We’ve reached a point in the power struggle between the White House and Senate Republicans where it’s unclear whether President Obama can get a judicial nominee supported by Ken Starr — yes, that Ken Starr — confirmed to a federal appellate court. read full story

04/03/2013 – Judicial vacancies: show us the numbers
There are dramatic differences in the handling of judicial vacancies during the first term of George W. Bush and the first term of Barack Obama. read full story

04/03/2013 – Obama Appeals Court Nominee Perfect Fit for Conservatives
The president has been pressing senators to confirm Sri Srinivasan, currently the Principal Deputy Solicitor General for the U.S. Justice Department, as a federal judge, and, unlike Obama’s last nominee, Caitlin Halligan, some conservatives seem more than willing to support his confirmation. read full story

04/03/2013 – We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Democrats on the DC Circuit Court
As we all know, Republicans filibustered President Obama's nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the DC Circuit Court last month, so now we're moving on to the second of his nominees to fill one of the court's vacancies: Sri Srinivasan read full story

04/03/2013 – Let’s Try This Again – Judiciary Committee Hearing for Srinivasan the Next Step to Fixing the D.C. Circuit
The Senate Judiciary Committee has announced that on April 10, 2013, it will hold a hearing on President Obama’s nomination of Sri Srinivasan to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. read full story

04/03/2013 – Filibustering Federal Judges
Despite the importance of the D.C. court, it currently has four vacancies on an 11 member bench; notably, Halligan was being nominated for a seat vacated by John Roberts when he left to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court - in 2005. read full story

04/03/2013 – Bankers’ Court Wins Could Come Back to Haunt Them
President Barack Obama should put more focus on appointing judges to vacant positions. This would help correct an ideological tilt to the right that has made the courts particularly receptive to Dodd-Frank challenges. read full story

04/03/2013 – How controversial are President Obama’s judicial nominees?
As the White House makes a concerted push to change the conservative makeup of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, it’s worth asking, are his judicial nominees really controversial? read full story

04/02/2013 – Ken Starr (!) Pleads With Senate GOPers to Confirm Obama Nominee
Monday a bipartisan group of former solicitors general sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) urging the confirmation of Sri Srinivasan to the D.C. Circuit. read full story

04/02/2013 – The moment of truth on D.C. Circuit nominations
Barack Obama has gone longer without putting anyone on the critical D.C. Circuit appeals court than any president before him. read full story

04/02/2013 – Who Is Worried About Four Vacancies on DC Federal Appeals Court?
That’s one reason argued by some to explain the Court vacancies – this isn’t on Obama’s priority list. read full story

04/02/2013 – Obama falls behind on key federal court; faltering nominations set a dubious record
President Obama’s record on nominating federal judges lags behind those of his predecessors, and nowhere is his failure more glaring than on the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. read full story

– In Case You Missed It: U.S. Courts Reflect on History of Women on the Federal Bench for Women’s History Month
Although we have turned the calendar page, here’s one last piece from the U.S. Courts website about women in the federal judiciary in honor of Women’s History Month. read full story

04/01/2013 – The next SCOTUS battle
Sooner or later, there’s going to be another Supreme Court nomination — indeed, if Ruth Bader Ginsburg wants to maximize the chances of being replaced by a justice with similar views, it could be as early as this summer. What can we expect? read full story

03/30/2013 – How Jimmy Carter imperiled Roe v. Wade
Jimmy Carter had significant impact on judicial selection in several ways. The first involved the Supreme Court. read full story

03/30/2013 – Small victory for Party of No
The President again played the victim card recently, as well as the tired “obstruction” cliché, in commenting on the withdrawal of Caitlin Halligan as nominee to the Second District Court of Appeals. read full story

03/30/2013 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg must go
It’s time for Ruth Bader Ginsburg to step down. Retiring and giving up her final years on the nation’s high court is a lot to ask from Ginsburg, who has been a liberal hero for many years. But just as she was a liberal hero before serving on the Supreme Court, she can be a liberal hero again by leaving it. read full story

03/29/2013 – Decades After O’Connor, Role of Women Judges Still Growing
When the United States celebrates Women’s History Month every March, images like Rosie the Riveter posters or pictures of marching suffragists come to mind. However, another image can be introduced in the framing of women’s history: a judicial robe. read full story

03/29/2013 – How to block a presidency
Senate Republicans, for example, blocked Caitlin Halligan's D.C. Circuit nomination, which was an outrageous move on its own. But as Dave Weigel noted the other day, there's an ancillary effect that's easy to miss -- the D.C. Circuit hears cases related to federal regulations, and Haley Edwards explained very well that its conservative judges have already begun chipping away at the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory-reform law. read full story

03/29/2013 – Spotlight on Judicial Junkets
Even the perception of impropriety doesn’t go over well with the public, and a report from the Center for Public Integrity is reminding everyone just how human judges are. According to the center’s investigation, about 185 federal judges took advantage of expense-paid trips to “judicial education seminars” underwritten by conservative-leaning groups. read full story

03/28/2013 – Malicious Obstruction in the Senate
Earlier this month, during one of his new across-the-aisle good-will tours, President Obama pleaded with Senate Republicans to ease up on their record number of filibusters of his nominees. He might as well have been talking to one of the statues in the Capitol. Republicans have made it clear that erecting hurdles for Mr. Obama is, if anything, their overriding legislative goal. read full story

03/27/2013 – Courts hurt by GOP roadblocks
One of the side effects of our recent political polarization in Washington is the lack of cooperation within the Senate to fill judicial vacancies. read full story

03/27/2013 – Speaking of Courts…
While everyone is focused on courts, let's talk about the terrible situation at the DC Circuit court, where four of the 11 seats are vacant and where Senate Republicans have by every appearance just decided that they are not going to let Obama appoint anyone ever. read full story

03/27/2013 – NC NAACP Open Letter to Sen. Richard Burr
It is time for the President to appoint someone to this position. Senator Burr, like your predecessor Jessie Helms, you are standing in the way of the appointment of an African-American to this position. Only whites have been appointed to serve as judges on the Eastern District of North Carolina Court and the continued intentional exclusions of qualified African-Americans from this position will not be tolerated. read full story

03/27/2013 – States making it harder to get timely justice
Across the country, scores of federal judgeships sit vacant, thanks in part to political games in Washington. These vacancies are making it harder for Americans to get timely justice. Given the broken system practiced in our nation's capital, it's hard to imagine why state capitals would even consider embracing Washington-style gridlock. The real surprise is that lawmakers in more states are moving in that direction. read full story

03/26/2013 – Judicial nominations thwarted
The Senate's habit of filibustering judicial nominees must end. Both Republicans and Democrats are to blame. Nearly two and a half years after she was first nominated, a candidate for a seat on a federal appeals court in Washington has been denied an up-or-down vote by Senate Republicans who persist in obstructing President Barack Obama's judicial appointments. But the blame must be shared by the Senate's Democratic leadership, which can't bring itself to repudiate the undemocratic institution of the filibuster. read full story

03/26/2013 – My view: Why I voted ‘present’ instead of ‘no’
By Sen. Orrin Hatch - Now that Democrats have entrenched filibusters in the confirmation process, I still have to balance my general opposition to judicial filibusters with my specific opposition to certain judicial nominees. read full story

03/26/2013 – Filibusters on judicial nominees are wrong by GOP and Democrats
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee last Friday recommended full Senate confirmation of Cedar Rapids lawyer Jane Kelly’s appointment to the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which includes Iowa read full story

03/25/2013 – President Obama, where are the judges?
Is Barack Obama finally starting to make judicial appointments a higher priority? If so, it’s about time, with the combination of GOP obstruction and White House apparent indifference potentially dooming many of Obama’s initiatives. read full story

03/25/2013 – Workers Die Awaiting U.S. Justice as Companies Make Limbo
“Employers are taking the [Noel Canning] decision and stretching it beyond really what the DC Circuit ruled on, and using that to try to delay NLRB action in elections and other sorts of cases,” Lynn Rhinehart, general counsel for the AFL-CIO, said in an interview. read full story

03/24/2013 – Obama’s climate agenda may face setbacks in federal court
President Barack Obama's plan to use federal agencies, and the Environmental Protection Agency in particular, to drive his second-term climate change agenda might be in peril if he cannot fill vacant seats on the federal court that has jurisdiction over major national regulations, legal experts say. read full story

03/21/2013 – Another element of (civil) justice is, duh, judges
I write a lot about what it would mean if more people had lawyers in the civil courts. But another thing they need to achieve justice is judges, and those are kind of in short supply these days. The White House last week released a big infographic detailing the delays in confirmation of Obama’s judicial appointees, and the implications for the justice system. read full story

03/22/2013 – Senate filibustering amounts to contempt of the courts
Nearly two and a half years after she was first nominated, a candidate for a seat on a federal appeals court in Washington has been denied an up-or-down confirmation vote by Senate Republicans who persist in obstructing President Obama's judicial appointments. But the blame must be shared by the Senate's Democratic leadership, which can't bring itself to repudiate the undemocratic institution of the filibuster. read full story

03/21/2013 – America’s Progress At Risk: Restoring Balance To The D.C. Circuit Court Of Appeals
But even in electoral defeat, the far right retains the power to undermine progressive laws and thwart the agenda that Americans elected President Obama to pursue. One measure of that power is the outsized influence far-right ideologues have on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. read full story

03/20/2013 – Reid Again Hints At Changing Rules Amid GOP Filibuster
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is threatening to revisit the Senate rules amid the latest Republican filibuster — his second such threat this month. read full story

03/19/2013 – Judicial Nominations and Competing Constitutional “Mainstreams”
If the Republicans really tried to filibuster any Obama nominees with whom they have strong disagreements, they would have filibustered virtually all of them, not just a few. In reality, they have targeted nominees who they thought were even more liberal than the average nominees put up by a Democratic administration and/or had a “paper trail” that made them unusually vulnerable to attack. read full story

03/13/2013 – How many filibusters will it take?
One of the consequences of this maximum obstruction plan by Mitch McConnell and the Republicans is that is renders even perfectly reasonable actions by Republican Senators highly suspicious. read full story

03/20/2013 – Federal Court Nominations of Gay and Brown People And What It Means For Diversity
“I think diversity is important for any court system including judges,” Vickie Henry, senior staff attorney for the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, told Campus Progress. “I think people who are coming before the courts for justice want to make sure that they feel heard and that they will be treated fairly. And I think seeing that there is inclusion and diversity among judges…really helps with that.” read full story

03/20/2013 – Obama Administration Fails To Act On Court Appointments
In 2012, Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, warned conservatives that an Obama second term could be detrimental to their hold on the Court. “If Obama wins reelection, he will likely appoint one – and perhaps three – more Supreme Court Justices,” he said. “It’ll be the end of our freedom forever.” Fortunately for conservatives, the Obama administration has been inactive concerning the judiciary. read full story

03/20/2013 – Judiciary Committee set to consider Obama nominees, including Reese prosecutor
While it would appear both nominees should be rejected by serious Constitutionalists, the focus of this appeal is on Gonzales, and there are several ways to communicate concerns, including calling or faxing the majority and minority offices. read full story

03/18/2013 – Opposition without quasi-filibuster?
Lost in last week’s shuffle was this piece from the Las Vegas Sun, about U.S. Sen. Dean Heller‘s potential opposition to yet another federal judicial nominee. Only this time, there’s a spirit of fairness prevailing instead of a one-man quasi-filibuster. read full story

03/18/2013 – Are Republicans Abusing the Filibuster on Nominees?
No one denies that the Senate is entitled to consider whether executive-branch nominees are competent and honest. But even here, the Senate must be circumspect and careful. Its authority shouldn’t be turned into a license to conduct an unbounded and humiliating Life Audit, in which a nominee is subjected to limitless economic and personal inquiries that would put the most obsessive Internal Revenue Service employee (or divorce lawyer) to shame. read full story

03/17/2013 – Gazette opinion: Watters, Morris: 2 great choices for federal bench
Montana is facing a judicial emergency. Only one of the three U.S. District Courts in Montana will have an active, full-time judge as of next month. Filling the vacancies in Billings and Great Falls must be a top priority for Montana’s senators and the White House. read full story

03/17/2013 – Carl Tobias: Move quickly to fill Circuit Court openings
Kansas has had only one active judge on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for more than two years. The Denver-based court had three vacancies until Feb. 25, when Judge Robert Bacharach won Senate approval. read full story

03/17/2013 – Going nuclear
Senate Republicans are filibustering President Barack Obama’s nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. A recent cloture vote failed. Republicans will not allow her nomination to receive the up-or-down vote that only a few years ago they considered every nominee’s birthright. read full story

03/17/2013 – At 80, Ginsburg Needs to Know When to Step Aside
Fresh from celebrating her 80th birthday, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will take her place on the Supreme Court bench this week as the twelfth justice in history to serve past that milestone. Completing her 19th term, Ginsburg walks slower these days, but her age has not visibly affected her work as a justice, either in her questions on the bench or in her written opinions. read full story

03/16/2013 – The judicial confirmation crisis
Among the many things not getting done in Washington these days, filling up the bench of the Judicial branch is still near the top of the list. This backlog of judicial nominees has been going on for at least a decade now, with some ebbs and flows in high profile cases. The D.C. Circuit Court – one of the most influential on national matters and a frequent launching point for Supreme Court justices – currently has four of its eleven seats vacant. read full story

03/16/2013 – Filibuster wars in the Senate, again
Since January, Republicans have continued their filibuster abuse. One example: blocking a vote on the nomination of attorney Caitlin Halligan for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. read full story

03/15/2013 – Hollow judiciary: Obstructionist senators are hobbling the courts
Once again Congress, in not doing its job -- this time, on the confirmation of judges -- is, first, denying Americans the effective functioning of their three-branch system of government and, second, creating a jam-up in the federal courts system. read full story

03/13/2013 – A Tale of Two Filibusters
Caitlin J. Halligan, a superbly qualified lawyer nominated to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, was blocked for the second time via a partisan filibuster in which 40 Republican senators voted against cloture. read full story

03/14/2013 – Blue Slips vs. Filibusters
The reason for distinguishing between filibusters and blue slips is that these two modes of obstruction — both of which I would like to see abolished — operate quite differently.  Put simply, the costs and benefits of exercising each method of obstruction are quite different, and this affects how and when each is used — and affects the likelihood of reforming or eliminating either. read full story

03/14/2013 – Who’s to Blame for the Congressional Judicial Meltdown? Everybody.
It's one thing to use the filibuster as an extraordinary check on extraordinarily bad nominees. But the Hobbesian war of all against all has to stop. read full story

03/14/2013 – Judicial vacancies still a problem for Texas federal courts
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt in Houston recently took senior status after 25 years of dedicated service. His action leaves the federal bench with 85 vacancies among 856 judgeships. read full story

03/14/2013 – Not Even a Hawkeye Could Break through Senator Grassley’s Obstruction of the President’s Judicial Nominees
Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to vote on the nomination of Jane Kelly to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  Nonetheless, even though Kelly is a highly qualified, uncontroversial nominee and her confirmation hearing on February 27 was a virtual love fest, no vote took place. read full story

03/14/2013 – Sen. Graham’s filibuster flip-flop is disappointing
Occasionally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, throws out his stated principles when it becomes politically convenient. That is what happened on Wednesday, when Graham joined all but one of his Republican colleagues in filibustering the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. read full story

03/14/2013 – Tea Party Relationship: South Carolina Senator Shows Limits Of Movement
Despite conservative attacks on Republican senators who have voted to confirm Obama's judicial nominees, Graham says presidents should get their choices barring something that's clearly disqualifying read full story

03/13/2013 – Down a judge and four years to trial in the Eastern District of North Carolina
Federal caseload statistics released this week by the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts show that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina is feeling the strain of being down a judge for the past seven years. The court, which is based in Raleigh but has courthouses in Wilmington, New Bern, Greenville, Fayetteville and Elizabeth City, has had an open seat on the bench since December 31, 2005, when U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard took senior status – the second longest vacancy in the federal courts. read full story

03/13/2013 – Standing up, hiding behind
Whether or not you agree with Sen. McConnell – or whether or not you agree with Sen. Paul – at least Sen. Paul filibustered in its true sense. Simply invoking the rule of a 60-vote majority is nothing more than a way to ensure a legislative quagmire. read full story

03/13/2013 – The Jacobins And The Judiciary
No president should be required to rush all his judicial appointments in that recently rare window of controlling 60 votes in the Senate. This should be a steady, reasonable process – especially for utterly uncontroversial nominees. read full story

03/13/2013 – Stop blocking judicial nominees
Sen. Charles Grassley needs to stop the political games and confirm President Barack Obama’s well-qualified judicial nominees. read full story

03/12/2013 – Ruling ensures minority tyranny
In January, judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia virtually eliminated the power given presidents by the Constitution to make recess appointments when Congress is not in session. read full story

03/12/2013 – A court blockade by Kansas senators
In the spring of 2011, Kansas’ two U.S. senators caved in to political pressure and derailed a judicial nomination. As a result, a seat on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has been vacant for 777 days. read full story

03/12/2013 – For Obama’s Judges, It’s Already Late
On the same day as Rand Paul’s celebrated filibuster against drone strikes last week, the Senate engaged in a less noticed but more typical form of delay and obstruction. read full story

03/12/2013 – Roberts, Moran must help fill court vacancies
In the spring of 2011, Kansas’ two U.S. senators caved in to political pressure and derailed a judicial nomination. As a result, a seat on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has been vacant for 777 days. read full story

03/11/2013 – Appellate vacancies must be filled by Senate
Now that the 113th Senate has entered its third month, the upper chamber must immediately address the looming judicial cliff, which comprises 17 vacancies in 179 appellate judgeships. read full story

03/11/2013 – The Laboratory of Judicial Nominations
Last week was a depressing week for those who want the Senate to confirm more of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees. Precisely because there had been several months of progress, the successful filibuster last week by the Republicans of President Obama's nomination of Caitlin Halligan to a seat on the D.C. Circuit represents an enormous disappointment. read full story

03/11/2013 – Judicial filibuster shows same old Senate
The supposed reforms to the filibuster negotiated by McConnell and Democratic leader Harry Reid have not ended minority rule and dysfunction in the U.S. Senate. McConnell and some other Republicans were very clear on why they blocked the nomination. They disagree with various arguments Halligan has made on behalf of clients and predict that she would be an "activist" judge. read full story

03/11/2013 – The Filibuster We Missed Last Week: Caitlin J. Halligan
Rand Paul's old-fashioned filibuster was a principled and admirable protest against the use of drones in extrajudicial killings. Because Paul stood on the Senate floor and talked for 13 hours, he dominated the news cycle in which Republicans filibustered—without actually filibustering—a critically important nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. read full story

03/11/2013 – Filibuster on judges
While the dramatic talk-a-thon of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky got the headlines, his filibuster doesn’t reflect today’s Senate reality. Rather, it was a slip of paper from his Kentucky colleague, GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, that in the same week sank a nomination of a New York lawyer to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. read full story

03/10/2013 – Tradition trumps Cadish
Perhaps the saddest aspect of Clark County District Court Judge Elissa Cadish's failed nomination to the federal bench is that nothing has changed. read full story

03/10/2013 – Judicial vacancies should be filled
For more than a year, the nomination of District Judge Elissa Cadish to fill a vacancy in the federal court for Nevada remained in limbo, held up by U.S. Sen. Dean Heller because of an answer she gave to a question on gun rights long before here nomination. read full story

03/09/2013 – Will of the Senate
Two years ago, President Obama nominated Caitlin Halligan to sit on the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia. Unfortunately, the Xenia native, former New York solicitor general and current general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney’s office has been the target of a filibuster. On Tuesday, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and all but one of his Republican colleagues blocked a final vote on her nomination. read full story

03/09/2013 – Will of the Senate
Two years ago, President Obama nominated Caitlin Halligan to sit on the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia. Unfortunately, the Xenia native, former New York solicitor general and current general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney’s office has been the target of a filibuster. read full story

03/08/2013 – Not allowing a vote on Caitlin Halligan’s nomination to U.S. Court of Appeals was a missed opportunity
How disappointing that the Senate failed to allow a vote on Caitlin Halligan’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Halligan, nominated in 2010, would bring a wealth of experience to the court, having devoted her career to public service, currently serving as General Counsel to the Manhattan District Attorney. It is especially disappointing that Texas senators Cornyn and Cruz both voted “no.” read full story

03/08/2013 – Making Progress, Albeit Slowly, on Diversifying the Federal Bench
In celebration of International Women’s Day, ACS highlights the progress made over the last four years to diversify our federal judiciary. read full story

03/08/2013 – Senate Must Return to the Prompt Consideration of Judicial Nominations
In October 2011, President Obama nominated Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Shwartz is widely respected, having earned the highest possible rating from the American Bar Association – “unanimous well qualified” -- and has bipartisan support, including from Governor Chris Christie, who has praised her as “hard working, bright, articulate, great with people and conversant in the law.” And yet, today marks the one year anniversary since Judge Shwartz has been waiting for a floor vote in the United States Senate. read full story

03/08/2013 – A double standard for judges on the Second Amendment?
On Friday, a candidate for to the federal bench nominated by President Barack Obama withdrew from consideration. Her name is Elissa Cadish and she’s a state judge in Nevada. read full story

03/08/2013 – How Just One Senator Vetoed A Judge And Gave A Big Gift To The NRA
Judge Elissa Cadish, a state court judge in Nevada who President Obama nominated to a federal district court, asked the President to withdraw her nomination, according to a letter that became public today. Cadish was the victim of an arcane senate tradition that allowed just one senator, Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV), to unilaterally block her nomination. read full story

03/08/2013 – Democrats Cry Foul Over Wednesday’s Other Filibuster
Senator Rand Paul may have staged a Senate-shaking filibuster Wednesday, but his was actually only the second most significant Republican filibuster of the day. read full story

03/08/2013 – Republicans Filibustering Judicial Nominees
As the Washington Post reported yesterday, Republicans are filibustering an appeals court nominee, Caitlin Halligan. There’s only one way that I could ever support a filibuster like this, and that’s if the filibusterers are supporting a rule change to get rid of judicial nomination filibusters. These are awful for the country, but it’s understandable that Republicans would be doing it now, after Democrats started doing it during the GW Bush administration. read full story

03/07/2013 – Mark Pryor’s Intriguing Federal Judicial Recommendations
For attorneys, one of the most coveted legal positions is being appointed federal judge by the President. It’s a prestigious position with vast powers and is a lifetime appointment, meaning guaranteed job security. read full story

03/07/2013 – Grassley is not taking justice system seriously
Sen. Chuck Grassley and the Senate Republicans have shown they care more about petty politics than our justice system. read full story

03/07/2013 – Judicial vacancy is inexcusable
Considering the outrageous mess that Congress and the president have made of the federal budget, no one should be surprised that a San Antonio-based federal district court seat has been vacant for five years. read full story

03/06/2013 – Give Caitlin Halligan an up-or-down vote
Caitlin Halligan has been waiting to become a federal circuit judge ever since President Obama nominated her — in 2010. Since then, she has languished in Senate confirmation hell, repeatedly renominated but refused a simple up-or-down vote. On Wednesday, Democrats tried to break the unjustifiable impasse. Once again, Republicans successfully filibustered, denying a qualified nominee a fair shot at a seat on the bench and leaving the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit short-staffed. read full story

03/06/2013 – Halligan Filibuster: “A breathtaking example of partisan dysfunction”
Today's vote is a breathtaking example of the partisan dysfunction that is crippling Washington, DC. This Senate Republican filibuster leaves the second most important court in our Nation with nearly 40% of its judicial seats vacant, impairing justice and putting an enormous toll on the judiciary as well as on the lives of extraordinarily well-qualified nominees such as Caitlin Halligan. read full story

03/06/2013 – Halligan Cloture Vote Shows Republican Senators Are “Addicted To Obstruction”
Earlier this week, we urged Republican senators finally to put partisanship and obstruction aside and vote for cloture on the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to serve on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. But it appears that urging Republican senators to rise above partisanship is like urging three-pack-a-day smokers to “just say no” to tobacco. read full story

03/06/2013 – Senate Fails to Confirm Judicial Nominee Caitlin Halligan to D.C. Circuit Court
After two years of waiting for a floor vote in the Senate, this superb nominee was blocked from serving on the D.C. Circuit Court. Women rely on the federal court system for justice: they come to the courts when they've suffered sex discrimination at work or at school, when states try to take away their constitutional right to make personal and private decisions about their health, or when there are threats to important economic, health and safety protections that keep them and their families safe. read full story

03/06/2013 – Obstruct and Delay
Republicans will delay and grumble but eventually approve high-level nominees like Mr. Brennan. The real damage is just beneath, where judges and regulators are routinely blocked, in some cases to prevent agencies from doing their jobs, or in this case to keep liberals off the important D.C. Circuit, a traditional launching pad to the Supreme Court. read full story

03/06/2013 – Three Quotes That Explain Why Another Obama Judicial Nominee Was Just Filibustered
Republicans say Halligan is too liberal to sit on U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and cited [sic] her work on lawsuits against gun manufacturers... A majority of senators, 51, supported her nomination, but Democrats needed 60 votes in the 100 member Senate to get it past Republican objections. read full story

03/06/2013 – Patricia Wald’s Fuzzy Math
On the American Constitution Society’s blog, Kristine Kippins tries to take issue with my recent post that contested former D.C. Circuit judge Patricia Wald’s dubious claim about a dramatic rise in the D.C. Circuit’s caseload since 2005. But Kippins engages in rank flimflammery. read full story

03/06/2013 – Filibuster of Caitlin Halligan ‘Destructive’ and ‘Politically-Motivated’
Senate Republicans have once again decided to put their own partisan interests above the will of American voters and the health of our system of justice. Caitlin Halligan is an exceptionally qualified, widely respected and unquestionably mainstream nominee. But a minority of U.S. senators, egged on by conservative activists and a party leadership with its own narrow agendas, have cherry-picked and misrepresented her record in order to keep her off the federal bench. read full story

03/06/2013 – GOP opposes nominee over guns
Consistently labeled “controversial” by Republicans, Halligan was first nominated in 2010, and two votes have already been held to try to overcome Republican objections. Both times, Democrats failed and her nomination was returned to President Barack Obama, who continues to renominate her. read full story

03/05/2013 – The AFL-CIO Encourages the U.S. Senate to Approve President Obama’s Nominee to the D.C. Circuit, Caitlin Halligan
The AFL-CIO supports the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and urges the Senate to support cloture and to vote for her confirmation. read full story

03/05/2013 – Senate should move quickly to fill vacancies on D.C. Circuit
Wednesday's cloture vote on D.C. Circuit nominee Caitlin Halligan is a valuable reminder that the D.C. Circuit, the nation’s “second most important court,” now experiences four vacancies in eleven judgeships. read full story

03/05/2013 – The Time Has Come to Fill Important Judicial Vacancies
Tomorrow, the Senate will again consider the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a court which is in critical need of additional judges. President Obama first nominated Ms. Halligan to that important court in September 2010, but two and a half years later, Republicans in the Senate have yet to allow an up-or-down vote on her nomination. read full story

03/05/2013 – Here Comes the Biggest Judicial Vote of the Year
Wednesday’s vote on whether to keep Caitlin Halligan off the nation’s second-most-important federal bench is a bellwether test about the future of the judicial wars. read full story

03/05/2013 – Senate Delays [are] Negatively Impacting our Judicial System
There will be a cloture vote on the nomination of Caitlin Halligan tomorrow, 726 days after her nomination, and strongly urged the Senate to support an up-or-down vote for this well-qualified nominee. read full story

03/05/2013 – The Unfortunate Filibuster of Caitlin Halligan
The filibuster of Caitlin Halligan shows just how broken the Senate has become. In 2005, a bipartisan group of senators agreed to filibuster judicial nominees only under ‘extraordinary circumstances.’ Since then, the Senate GOP has radically redefined the meaning of ‘extraordinary,’ stalling and blocking nominees on the flimsiest of threads. read full story

03/05/2013 – Where Does Lindsey Graham Stand On Caitlin Halligan?
There are reports that Graham will not support the blocking of Caitlin Halligan. On the other hand, I’ve been told that Graham has announced no decision regarding the nominee. read full story

03/05/2013 – President Obama’s Judicial Nominees: Historic Successes, Historic Delays
President Obama’s nominees embody an unprecedented commitment to expanding the racial, gender and experiential diversity of the men and women who enforce our laws and deliver justice. read full story

03/05/2013 – Judicial Selection At the Beginning of President Obama’s Second Term
The American people deserve a federal court system that is fully staffed and able to fulfill the promise of justice for all. The country cannot afford to wait any longer for the confirmation process to return to a rational and fair basis. read full story

03/05/2013 – Confirm Caitlin Halligan for the Federal Bench
The Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the long-stalled nomination of Caitlin Halligan for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This will show whether there are Republicans who care enough about the proper functioning of the federal courts to help defeat their party’s filibuster attempt. read full story

03/05/2013 – Lindsey Graham Backs Extremist Obama Appointee
While Senator Lindsay Graham has been a strong opponent of Caitlin Halligan's nomination in the past, he inexplicably seems prepared to flip-flop on this extremely significant appointment to the second most powerful court in the country. read full story

03/05/2013 – GOP Talking Points Against Caitlin Halligan Are Off to a Bad Start
The Senate Republican Policy Committee has released the party's official talking points to justify their leadership's decision to filibuster Caitlin Halligan's nomination to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. read full story

03/04/2013 – Shameful echoes of Scalia
Coalition for Justice President Curt Levey’s insinuated that the Administration might have “a lower threshold of qualifications for minorities.” Not only does Levey’s sentiment mirror Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s notorious “racial entitlement” language last week in the Voting Rights Act oral argument, it is outright false. read full story

03/04/2013 – Senator Leahy and the Blue Slips
One of the Senate's oldest traditions is that judicial nominees require approval from their home-state senators before they can move forward, and that approval comes in the form of a blue slip returned to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The recent history of the blue slip is surprisingly slippery, if you'll excuse the pun, but here's my best take at a handy potted history of the blue-slip rule... read full story

03/04/2013 – Halligan, Gun Rights & Racial Preferences
Perhaps Democrats believe that their campaign for increased gun control makes Halligan look a little less extreme this time around. To the contrary, we suspect it has made GOP senators more sensitive to the Second Amendment records of judicial nominees who, if confirmed, will determine the constitutionality of any new gun laws. read full story

03/04/2013 – Celebrate Women’s History Month with More Diversity on The Federal Bench
President Obama’s Administration has nominated more women and people of color for judgeships than any previous Administration in history. President Obama already has appointed more minority women judges than President Bush or President Clinton. As a result, the percentage of active women judges on the federal bench has increased from slightly above 25% to over 30% since 2009. read full story

03/04/2013 – No Time to Go Wobbly!
Senator Harry Reid, plans to file a motion to set a cloture vote on Halligan’s nomination later this week. As the title of this post suggests, now is not the time for the Senate Republicans to lose their nerve. read full story

04/04/2013 – Pace quickens for Obama judicial nominations; diversity is a priority
President Obama is quickening the pace of federal judicial nominations and focusing on diversity in his picks. read full story

03/04/2013 – Conservative Blogger’s Wobbly Take on D.C. Appeals Court’s Need for Judges
In a recent piece for The Washington Post retired federal appeals court Judge Patricia M. Wald cogently explains why the Senate needs to confirm some judges for one of the nation’s most important courts – the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Judge Wald served 20 years on that court five of them as its chief judge. In part of her argument that the Senate needs to fill vacancies on that court, she noted the court’s swelling caseload. read full story

03/04/2013 – Ten Reasons Why DC Circuit Court Nominee Caitlin Halligan Should Get an Up-or-Down Vote
President Obama is the first president in 65 years not to have a single D.C. Circuit Court judge confirmed during his a full first term. In contrast, the Senate confirmed three of President Bush's nominees to this Court. read full story

03/04/2013 – Extremist Gun Owners of America Goes to Bat Against D.C. Circuit Nominee
Gun Owners of America, a fringe group that hovers to the right of the National Rifle Association, is wading into the debate over Caitlin Halligan, one of President Obama's nominees to the hugely influential DC Circuit Court of Appeals. GOA's beef with Halligan is that when she was solicitor general of New York, she represented the state in its suit against gun manufacturers – a position she took for a client rather than one she espoused herself. read full story

03/03/2013 – Obama Plans to Pick Up the Pace on Judges
Liberals have been griping for a long time that President Obama bears some of the blame for the slow pace of judicial confirmations during his first term. Sure, Republicans in the Senate have been obstructionist, but Obama himself has nominated many fewer judges than other presidents have during their first years in office. Apparently that's about to change... read full story

03/03/2013 – Please urge Republican Senators to block anti-gun Caitlin Halligan
There is considerable disagreement about whether, or under what circumstances, a nominee should be filibustered on the basis of “ideology.” But when a nominee provides dishonest or misleading testimony about his or her past positions, the case for a filibuster becomes manifest. read full story

04/01/2013 – Patricia Wald’s Fuzzy Math?
In an op-ed in today’s Washington Post in which she urges the Senate to act on two pending nominations to the D.C. Circuit, former D.C. Circuit judge Patricia M. Wald makes the surprising assertion that the “number of pending cases per judge [in the D.C. Circuit] has grown from 119 in 2005 to 188 today.” I don’t know what numbers Wald is using, but I suspect that she—or whoever is feeding her the numbers—may be using inconsistent denominators to generate the supposed growth. read full story

02/28/2013 – How Chuck Grassley Plans To Give The NRA Veto Power Over Judges
The highest ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee still believes he should follow the NRA’s lead on judges. Earlier this week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced he would rekindle the filibuster against Halligan when she comes to the Senate floor because “she’s got gun problems.” Grassley previously cited the NRA’s opposition to Halligan in a statement explaining why he was filibustering her. read full story

03/01/2013 – No Excuse To Filibuster Caitlin Halligan For D.C. Circuit Court Of Appeals
An attempt to filibuster the nomination of a highly-qualified nominee for a powerful appellate court is a test of whether Senate rules reform is real or just an empty promise, the Alliance for Justice said Friday. read full story

03/01/2013 – Obomination: Ramming Through a Questionable D.C. Circuit Judicial Nominee
Caitlin Halligan has been nominated by President Obama five times now. Next week, the Senate will be voting on her nomination to fill a seat on the bench of the D.C. Circuit. Concerns about her nomination should justify Senators voting nay next week. read full story

02/28/2013 – Has the American Bar Association kept our judges white and male?
Maya Sen, a political scientist at the University of Rochester, has a new working paper** arguing that the ABA has for the past 50 years been systematically less likely to recommend the judicial confirmations of women or racial minorities than that of white men. read full story

02/28/2013 – Senate must act on appeals court vacancies
Judge Patricia M. Wald - The D.C. Circuit has 11 judgeships but only seven active judges. There is cause for extreme concern that Congress is systematically denying the court the human resources it needs to carry out its weighty mandates. read full story

02/28/2013 – Has one logjam in Washington been broken?
There is a case to be made for requiring a supermajority to approve lifetime judicial appointments to which a minority objects strongly. But when minority lawmakers abuse the process by filibustering judges they don't even oppose, they are asking for the elimination of the rules that give Senate minorities a chance to block some nominations. read full story

02/27/2013 – Supporting Matthew Brann in new role as federal judge
Bradford County can be proud that one of its' own now holds the title of federal judge. Matthew Brann, a native of Canton, was sworn in on Monday at the U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in Williamsport in the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania. read full story

02/27/2013 – Republicans now so obstructionist they block their own nominees
On Tuesday night’s edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow informed viewers that Republicans in Congress are being so obstructionist that they are now blocking and filibustering the nominations of their own candidates for federal position as well as members of their own party. read full story

02/26/2013 – Those constant GOP filibusters
Since I hit President Obama last week for being slow to make appointments, it’s only fair to remind everyone what he’s up against, and yesterday’s confirmation, finally, of new appeals court Judge Robert Bacharach is a good opportunity. read full story

02/26/2013 – Senator Graham’s Curious Vote Switch on Halligan
At the Senate Judiciary Committee markup on February 14, Republican senator Lindsey Graham initially joined all of his Republican colleagues in voting against favorably reporting to the full Senate the D.C. Circuit nomination of Caitlin Halligan. But later in the day, without offering any explanation, he changed his vote to “pass.” read full story

02/26/2013 – Judges deserve up-or-down vote
Obstruction and delay unquestionably do great harm to our justice system when seats on the federal bench go unfilled because senators can’t agree to vote on nominees. read full story

02/26/2013 – When the judicial confirmation process gets ‘stupid’
As Senate Republicans take obstructionist tactics to levels unseen in American history, the effects are seen throughout government, most notably on the federal courts. Because the GOP minority cares about blocking President Obama's judicial nominees than the courts' ability to function, there are an extraordinary number of judicial vacancies, with more on the way. read full story

02/26/2013 – Halligan Vote Could Rekindle Judges Fight
The battle over judicial nominations in the Senate could reignite as soon as next week as Democrats look to fill what they argue are pressing vacancies. read full story

02/25/2013 – Would-Be Federal Judges Face The Washington Waiting Game
To understand what's happening with federal judge vacancies, consider this: The Senate votes Monday night on the nomination of Robert Bacharach to sit on the federal appeals court based in Denver. read full story

02/25/2013 – Dems urge Reid to reconsider filibuster deal if GOP continues to block Hagel
Some Senate Democrats think Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) should revisit filibuster reform if Republicans continue to block Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s pick for secretary of Defense. read full story

02/25/2013 – GOP blockade hurts us all
There are 35 judicial nominees waiting for confirmation. Thirty-three of them have been blocked in the Senate. read full story

02/25/2013 – Senate at Last Confirms Bacharach, Example of GOP’s Extreme Obstruction
In a 93-0 vote today, the Senate confirmed Robert Bacharach of Oklahoma to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, almost nine months after the Judiciary Committee first sent his nomination to the full Senate. His nomination faced extraordinary delays despite public support from his homestate Republican senators James Inhofe and Tom Coburn. read full story

02/25/2013 – The Tortuous, Protracted Wait to Confirm Judges—From Abe to Obama
The tortuous nomination and confirmation saga on the D.C. Circuit is just a part of the broken judicial nomination process playing out over the last several decades. read full story

02/22/2013 – Is Obama repeating his biggest mistake?
There are dozens of judicial vacancies without a nominee, including nine Appeals Court spots. Just to take the most glaring: while Obama has named picks for the two DC Circuit Court vacancies that have been open since before he was president (yes, before), he hasn’t named replacements for the two other DC Circuit spots. read full story

02/21/2013 – The Other Crisis Facing the Federal Judiciary
By effectively cutting judicial compensation -- and make no mistake, that is what has happened -- Congress is reducing the incentives to remain on the bench for life. The framers would have been appalled. read full story

02/21/2013 – Ron Johnson, Tammy Baldwin are most divided same-state senators
The big question is how the two will work together on major Wisconsin issues, such as advancing federal judicial nominations for the state through the U.S. Senate, a process that requires some consent between home-state senators and one that has foundered in the past two years. read full story

02/20/2013 – Will Judicial Shortage Shortchange Nevada Overtime Laws?
With vacancies remaining on judicial benches in Nevada, the system is in danger of becoming backlogged. When that happens, worthy claims for justice get pushed further and further back. If not dealt with in a reasonable time frame according to law, the action is in danger of dismissal or deferment. read full story

02/20/2013 – When the Judicial Nominations Process Works
The Senate Judiciary Committee announced today that it will hold a hearing next week on the nomination of Jane Kelly to be a judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. This is great news, and not only because she's an excellent nominee: It also shows how efficiently the nomination and confirmation process can work. read full story

02/19/2013 – Hagel vote shows minority still rules
Frankly, I do not understand opposition to the Hagel’s confirmation. He served two terms in the Senate as a Republican from Nebraska and then retired voluntarily. He broke with the Bush administration over some aspects of the war with Iraq but for the most part his voting record was quite conservative. read full story

02/18/2013 – Vacancy and Vacant Visions
At some point Chickens Do Come Home To Roost. Republican obstructionism in the United States Senate is now having an impact on federal cases in Nevada. read full story

02/18/2013 – Stall tactics continue
The Senate historian noted that while filibustering of judicial nominees is more common, Republican obstructionism was so bad in the Senate during Obama’s first term that the Senate actually changed the rules. read full story

02/17/2013 – Collins can take lead on judicial nomination backlog
Maine Senator Susan Collins doggedly led a bipartisan effort to send William Kayatta’s nomination for a judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to a floor vote. read full story

02/15/2013 – Caitlin Halligan Belongs on the DC Circuit
Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Caitlin Halligan's nomination to the critically important DC Circuit. President Obama chose wisely in nominating her. read full story

02/15/2013 – What’s the plan to move stalled judge nominations?
It was clear earlier this year that something was up when U.S. Sen. Harry Reid again nominated District Judge Elissa Cadish for the federal bench. read full story

02/15/2013 – Orrin Hatch Votes Present: Obstruction By Another Name
While no one else in the Senate routinely uses “present” votes on cloture motions, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch has repeatedly done just that on cloture votes for President Obama’s nominees. read full story

02/15/2013 – Now Hiring: A Few Good Judges
The D.C. Circuit Court is a critical battleground for national issues that affect millions of Americans. Why, then, is Obama not filling its four vacancies? read full story

02/15/2013 – Not enough judges, not enough justice
Our federal judiciary is overloaded, which means judges can't handle the mountains of cases they face every day. Justice is delayed, and people involved in criminal and civil matters are denied resolution of their cases, sometimes for a long time. Too many cases, too few judges. read full story

02/14/2013 – Three Hispanic nominees for district judges pending approval in Congress
Three Hispanic nominees for district judges pending approval in Congress read full story

02/14/2013 – PFAW Applauds Senate Judiciary Committee Approval of 13 Nominees, Including D.C. Circuit Court Nominee Caitlin Halligan
This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Caitlin Halligan to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the D.C. Circuit and Patty Shwartz to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit. The Committee also approved nine District Court nominees and two nominees for the U.S. Court of International Trade. read full story

02/14/2013 – Here We Go Again: Right-Wing Media Goad GOP To Extend Court Vacancy Crises They Created
Conservative media are gearing up to target Caitlin Halligan - President Obama's nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. read full story

02/14/2013 – Approve Caitlin Halligan for the D.C. Circuit Today
The D.C. Circuit now officially has four vacancies out of 11 seats, as a result of another judge taking senior status this week. Imagine the U.S. Senate with 36 empty seats, which would be the equivalent. We can be quite confident that the Senate would address the problem expeditiously. read full story

02/13/2013 – Two Openly Gay Judicial Nominees Considered in Same Congressional Hearing, Marking a Historic First
Today, two openly gay judicial nominees, Michael J. McShane and Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro, faced confirmation hearings before the Senate. The hearing marked a historic first, as two openly gay judicial nominees have never been considered during the same committee hearing. read full story

02/12/2013 – Obama Nominates Attorney to Be Nation’s First Openly Homosexual Federal Circuit Judge
Barack Obama recently nominated what could be the nation’s first openly homosexual federal circuit judge to the bench. read full story

02/11/2013 – Justice Ginsburg: The Senate Is ‘Destroying The United States’ Reputation… As A Beacon of Democracy’
Two years ago, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lamented that if she were nominated today to her current job on the Supreme Court, her “ACLU connection would probably disqualify” her from being confirmed. read full story

02/11/2013 – What’s in the Pipeline for Judicial Vacancies?
In recent months, a number of long-serving judges have retired or taken senior status, and new judges have been or are being selected to fill those vacancies. read full story

02/11/2013 – Arduous Judicial Nomination Process Continues
Nominees for federal judgeships are putting their lives and careers on hold to await a confirmation vote while senators continue to drag their feet on judicial appointments. read full story

02/11/2013 – N.J Gov. Christie Writes Leahy in Support of Patty Schwartz
"I am sure that if she were elevated to sit on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, she would prove an excellent judge for all of the same reasons she was an excellent prosecutor and Magistrate Judge. She has my full support for the position for which I believe she is well suited." read full story

02/11/2013 – Role of Home State Senators in the Selection of Lower Federal Court Judges
Supported by the custom of “senatorial courtesy,” Senators of the President’s party have long played, as a general rule, the primary role in selecting candidates for the President to nominate to district court judgeships in their states. read full story

02/10/2013 – Judicial confirmations shouldn’t be this hard
Being nominated for a job on the federal bench now comes with a large amount of personal risk. Nominees have to put their lives and careers on hold while senators sort out political differences that have nothing to do with the courts. If not fixed, this problem makes recruiting the best for these positions a much harder job. read full story

02/08/2013 – Judicial Nomination Materials: 113th Congress
The following judicial nominations have been sent to the Senate in the 113th Congress. read full story

02/08/2013 – Obama Nominee Would Be First Openly Gay Federal Court of Appeals Judge
Since taking office, President Obama has quadrupled the number of openly gay judges on the federal bench — although this is as much a testament to America’s long legacy of discrimination as it is to Obama’s commitment to diversity. read full story

02/08/2013 – Judge Not: Conservatives Fight Pick for First Circuit
Yesterday, over the objection of conservative groups, the Judiciary Committee agreed to send William Kayatta to the full Senate. Originally, Kayatta's nomination had been held in the Senate, but earlier this year, President Obama renominated him to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. With the help of fellow Mainer Sen. Susan Collins (R), Kayatta's nomination now heads to the Senate floor. read full story

02/07/2013 – And Then There Were Seven
On February 12, 2013, Chief Judge David Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (infamous of late for his stunningly sweeping ruling that essentially reads the Recess Appointments Clause out of the U.S. Constitution) will take senior status, bringing to four the number of vacant seats on what is widely regarded as the second most important court in the country. read full story

02/07/2013 – Failure to confirm judges goes far beyond Senate, Court chambers
It is time for the president and the Democrats in the Senate to insist on a more efficient process for confirming federal district judges. District court nominees have become mired in the confirmation mess because they follow the same procedural path as appellate judges. Yet no one in the Senate or elsewhere has articulated a rationale for politicizing and obstructing trial judge nominations. read full story

02/06/2013 – Justice(s) At Work
A little-noticed Supreme Court decision last summer raises concerns about the future of labor law in the hands of an anti-union conservative majority. read full story

02/04/2013 – Political games over White House appointments not serving country
The political gamesmanship between the White House and the Senate over appointments of senior federal officials has gotten out of hand. It’s creating unnecessary trauma and drama within the U.S. government. read full story

02/03/2013 – The Obama Judicial Revolution that Wasn’t
Obama’s legacy is largely written because second presidential terms are usually disappointing. But in assessing his legacy, one needs to look at how successful Obama has been in remaking the federal courts with his appointees. By that score he has squandered an Obama judicial revolution. read full story

02/02/2013 – Senators must put aside partisanship and confirm Jane Kelly
President Barack Obama must promptly nominate, and senators expeditiously approve, judges to fill the empty seats. The chief executive did just that by nominating Jane Kelly, a longtime assistant federal public defender in the Northern District of Iowa, to Judge Melloy’s vacancy on Thursday, the day before he took senior status. Now the Senate must swiftly process this well-qualified nominee. read full story

02/01/2013 – Senate Judiciary Committee – the More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
Thanks to epic delaying tactics (blue slips, committee delays, filibusters, cloture votes, and the Thurmond Rule) by Senate Republicans since 2009, there are 87 judicial vacancies as of today. 19 more vacancies are pending later in 2013, and 35 nominees are pending for those 106 lifetime appointments. read full story

02/01/2013 – Filling the Northern District of Georgia vacancies
President Barack Obama must swiftly nominate, and senators promptly confirm, judges to fill empty positions in the Northern District of Georgia. read full story

02/01/2013 – New Subcommittee to Focus on Federal Courts and Bankruptcy System
The Senate Judiciary Committee has created a new subcommittee this year to specifically oversee the federal courts and the nation's bankruptcy system, including administration and management, judicial rules, the creation of new judgeships. read full story

01/31/2013 – Coalition Calls for Swift Approval of Jane Kelly, Nominee for Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
President Barack Obama nominated Jane Kelly to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. If confirmed, Kelly would become the second woman to ever sit on the Eighth Circuit. As a federal public defender, Kelly would bring great professional diversity court, as well. read full story

01/30/2013 – Judicial overreach to redefine presidential power
In invalidating Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit issued a troubling decision. And one that should spark a response. For it shows us, yet again, that it matters who sits on our courts. read full story

01/30/2013 – Filibuster Reforms Could Aid Judicial Confirmations Process
New changes in the Senate's procedures governing filibusters could trim the amount of time it takes to approve federal district judicial nominations. The set of relatively modest changes approved by the Senate shortens the time limit on debate before the Senate casts an up-or-down vote on federal district nominees, as well as some executive branch nominees. read full story

01/30/2013 – Will the Filibuster Rules Changes Speed up District Judge Confirmations?
A modest change to Senate procedures may shorten the time between district nominees’ Judiciary Committee hearings and any floor votes to confirm the nominations read full story

01/29/2013 – Can ‘Continuing Breakdown’ on Judge Nominations Be Fixed?
New rules adopted by the Senate “may ameliorate” the long wait for nominees to district court judgeships, expert Russell Wheeler of Brookings says, but the rules won’t reduce the wait from announcement of a vacancy to nomination. read full story

01/29/2013 – Georgia’s Eleventh Circuit judicial openings need filling
Last summer, Eleventh Circuit Judge J. L. Edmondson assumed senior status after a quarter-century of valuable service. His decision leaves the bench with 17 vacancies in the 179 appeals court judgeships and the Eleventh Circuit with two in twelve. read full story

01/28/2013 – ACS Issue Brief Offers Suggestions to Reform Dysfunctional Judicial Nomination Process
The judicial nomination process remains deeply flawed with President Obama’s judicial nominees facing massive delays between nomination and confirmation, a new ACS Issue Brief reports. read full story

01/28/2013 – How Chuck Grassley Plans To Maintain The GOP’s Stranglehold On America’s Second Most Powerful Court
Currently, there are four vacancies on the DC Circuit, which means that if President Obama fills all of these open seats, he would break the Republican Party’s hold on this court and Democratic appointees would enjoy a 7-4 majority among the court’s active judges. read full story

01/27/2013 – The D.C. Circuit Court’s Chaos Theory
It's not a coincidence that three reactionary Republican appointees on the D.C. Circuit reached this strained and illogical result on recess appointments. read full story

01/27/2013 – Filibusters reign: How far will new rules go to fix Senate?
In a rare display of bipartisan agreement, the U.S. Senate last week revised its rules to slightly ease the gridlock that has, in recent years, turned a great deliberative body into a continually delaying chamber. read full story

01/26/2013 – Progress in the Senate
The Senate’s leaders deserve praise not only for what they did but for how they did it. Instead of jamming more ambitious reforms through on a partisan, simple-majority vote, Mr. Reid hashed them out with Mr. McConnell. In so doing, he offered a rare example of bipartisan accord, dodged the threat of partisan blowback hobbling the Senate and avoided setting a dangerous precedent for minority rights in his chamber. read full story

01/25/2013 – U.S. judicial appointments too slow in coming
in Texas are vacant. These openings — nearly 10 percent nationwide and 12 percent in the Fifth Circuit and Texas districts — erode justice. Accordingly, President Barack Obama must swiftly nominate, and senators promptly confirm, judges to fill the empty positions. read full story

01/25/2013 – Yet More G.O.P. Obstruction
In his first term, President Obama tried to fill two vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. No luck: Senate Republicans blocked both of his nominees. Unsurprisingly, they’re showing no signs of letting up. As Legal Times reported on Wednesday, they’re delaying hearings for Srikanth Srinivasan, an exceptional and moderate candidate. read full story

01/24/2013 – Former Judge: Senate Confirmation Delays Erode Public Trust
Will federal Public Defender Raymond Moore, nominated in November for a district court judgeship in Colorado, be subjected to a “snail’s pace” confirmation process in the U.S. Senate? read full story

01/24/2013 – Three Winners And Three Losers In Today’s Filibuster Deal
The list of reforms is short and unlikely to fundamentally repair the broken Senate, but it does include some genuinely helpful reforms to the nominations process. read full story

01/24/2013 – Filibuster Deal Trivial for Judicial Nominations
On the matter of judicial nominations, a knowledgeable Senate source informs me that (1) the deal makes no changes at all for Supreme Court and federal appellate nominations; and (2) for district-court nominations, the only change is that if and when cloture is achieved, the post-cloture time on the nomination is limited to two hours, rather than the 30 hours under the current rule. (The deal makes no changes to the pre-cloture procedures for district-court nominations.) This strikes me as a trivial change. read full story

01/24/2013 – Filibuster Reform Provides Only Modest Relief for Ending ‘Unprecedented GOP Obstruction
People For the American Way called the filibuster reform deal agreed to by both parties and set to be announced by Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) only a modest step in addressing the extraordinary GOP abuse of Senate rules. read full story

01/24/2013 – Judicial Filibuster Survives; Hillary Clinton Wrong
For those of us concerned about judicial nominations, the takeaway from today’s filibuster agreement is that the judicial filibuster survived untouched, but for a change in the rules on post-cloture debate of district court nominations read full story

01/24/2013 – Filibuster Deal Restricts Senators’ Rights to Debate Judicial Nominees
This afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced a potential filibuster deal that, among other problematic provisions, limits post-cloture debate on federal district court nominees (and non-Cabinet-level officials). read full story

01/23/2013 – Congress and Obama need to fill California judicial vacancies
The Northern District of California has openings in three of 14 judgeships, and Republicans and Democrats share responsibility. The district's enormous docket led the U.S. Courts to characterize all three as "judicial emergencies." read full story

01/23/2013 – Bipartisan Filibuster Deal Is Taking Shape in the Senate
Senate Democratic and Republican leaders are nearing an agreement on new limits to the filibuster, an effort to speed action in the often-clogged chamber by prohibiting senators from using a common tactic to slow the legislative process. read full story

01/22/2013 – Reid to Senate Republicans: Filibuster deal in 36 hours or face nuclear option
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is giving Republican colleagues 36 hours to agree to a deal on filibuster reform or he will move forward with the nuclear option. read full story

01/22/2013 – Eastern Washington’s next federal judge should sit in Richland courtroom
The presence of a federal judge in Richland is a big deal for our community. read full story

01/22/2013 – NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous: Pick black female justice
NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous says he wants to see President Barack Obama name an African-American woman to the Supreme Court, speaking as the president has faced criticism, including from within his own party, for a lack of diverse appointees. read full story

01/18/2013 – Nominate a judge for every open federal judicial seat by the end of 2013 and push the Senate for prompt action on them
The pace of nominations and confirmations of judges to Article III courts has been very slow, and it has left federal courts short-handed in the performance of their duties. A President's slate of nominees also shapes profoundly the meaning of justice in the U.S read full story

01/18/2013 – Obomination: The Audacity of Renominating a Failed Nominee
The 44th President is thumbing his nose at the many Senators who expressed legitimate concerns about Caitlin Halligan. read full story

01/18/2013 – The President’s Running Room—and Ours
One of the inexplicable failures of Obama’s first term was the lethargy with which the White House sent up judicial appointees. read full story

01/18/2013 – Filling the Third Circuit judicial opening
The Senate must immediately vote on U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz, the experienced nominee for the Third Circuit. read full story

01/17/2013 – ‘Grim fun’? Supreme Court justice death calculator offers odds
There is a 64 percent probability that at least one Supreme Court justice will die in the next four years, according to a new “Supreme Court justice death calculator." read full story

01/17/2013 – Forget Executive Orders; Obama’s judges are the real threats to the 2nd Amendment
While the President’s new executive orders on guns is the current target for all the heated rhetoric, both the left and right are missing the mark and ignoring the impact that federal judges will have on the gun legislation debate. read full story

01/17/2013 – GOP Strategy Halts Approvals of New Judges
Numerous areas of the U.S. are mired in judicial emergency, meaning the courts can't keep up with the workload of justice. Some of Obama's appointees who have waited the longest for confirmation are women. read full story

01/17/2013 – Diversity in the Federal Judiciary: Obama achieving it at twice the rate of Bush
Obama has successfully appointed almost the same number of women to federal judgeships in one term as his predecessor George W. Bush did in two terms. read full story

01/17/2013 – Harry Reid seeks middle path on filibuster
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) doesn’t plan to advance a “talking filibuster” proposal envisioned by liberals who want sweeping changes to the stodgy Senate. read full story

01/16/2013 – Sen. Leahy Lays Out Judiciary Committee Agenda, Urges Judicial Confirmations
It’s time for the Senate Judiciary Committee to follow the president’s lead and ensure these nominees are processed quickly. read full story

– Balance in the Courts
While we don't know of any empirical data that could show improvement, stagnation, or decline as a result of growing balance in the upper two-thirds of the federal judiciary over the last four years, our own experience suggests that more balance yields higher-quality decisions. read full story

01/14/2013 – Even as court cases are backlogged, at least one important seat goes unfilled
There is absolutely no good reason why a federal judgeship representing Eastern North Carolina has been empty for more than seven years. read full story

01/14/2013 – Itchin’ for a Fight
President Barack Obama last week re-nominated 33 individuals to federal benches, several of whom faced stiff resistance when originally nominated. read full story

01/10/2013 – Obama’s judicial philosophy
With one term gone, President Obama’s judicial legacy is unfinished. read full story

01/10/2013 – The shifting political winds…
The same GOP senators threatening to hold up confirmation of some of President Obama's nominees once eschewed similar tactics when it came to Republican nominees. read full story

01/09/2013 – How the NRA Seeks to Influence the Makeup of the Federal Bench
The National Rifle Association doesn’t confine its lobbying to proposed legislation affecting gun rights. The group also seeks to influence the nominations of federal judges. read full story

01/09/2013 – Robert Bork’s Tragedy
Even before Robert Bork died last month, he had achieved something close to martyrdom. read full story

01/09/2013 – White House Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney
White House Press Secretary says both Supreme Court Justices and 47% of Obama confirmed appellate and district court judges are women versus 22% under President George W. Bush an 29% under President Clinton. read full story

01/08/2013 – Circuit court confirmations an imperative
This week, Judge William Bryson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit assumes senior status after 18 years of dedicated service. His action means that the federal judiciary has 17 vacancies in 179 active appellate court judgeships. read full story

01/08/2013 – Ending the Judicial Vacancy Crisis
The judicial problem is a real one. According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, there are currently 78 judicial vacancies—more than when President Obama took office in 2009. read full story

01/08/2013 – Easton’s empty federal courthouse a waste
Since 2007, the Easton Federal Courthouse has sat mostly empty and unused. read full story

01/07/2013 – If Judges Aren’t Politicians, What Are They?
Journalists and academics have a lot to say about what U.S. judges do and why they do it. Many veteran court-watchers believe that the Supreme Court now is, and has long been, almost equally divided between “conservatives” and “liberals.” read full story

01/06/2013 – Bacharach confirmation to 10th Circuit needs (finally) to be completed
President Barack Obama has nominated Oklahoma City jurist Robert Bacharach to a seat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Where have we heard this before? read full story

01/06/2013 – Let Senate vote on Obama’s nominee for Nevada court
Sen. Dean Heller is entitled to oppose the president’s nomination of District Judge Elissa Cadish, but the Senate should have the opportunity to vote on her appointment. read full story

01/05/2013 – Senate needs to confirm 33 judges
How long is too long? Ask any of the 33 people who've waited in the wings for months - some even years - to be confirmed for federal judgeships by a mule-stubborn Senate. read full story

01/04/2013 – What will Cruz’s seat on Senate Judiciary Committee mean for vacancies in Texas district courts and the 5th Circuit?
The confirmation process for Texas federal judges just became really interesting. read full story

01/04/2013 – Media Ignore GOP Senators’ Change Of Heart On Up-Or-Down Votes For Federal Court Nominations
As President Obama seeks to fill judicial vacancies, the media have failed to acknowledge the unprecedented obstructionism of his nominees by Republican senators, a complete reversal of their former insistence that then-President George W. Bush's judicial nominees receive up-or-down votes. read full story

01/04/2013 – Judicial vacancies are undermining justice
U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks recently took senior status after 11 years of service. This left the District of Nevada with openings in three of seven active judgeships. Because the vacancies undermine justice, senators must promptly fill them. read full story

01/04/2013 – Editorial: U.S. Senate should vote quickly on federal judges
You could call them casualties of the "fiscal cliff" talks that consumed far too much time and energy. Before ending its term Wednesday, the U.S. Senate failed to act on 11 judicial nominees awaiting floor votes, including two for federal courts in Northern California. read full story

01/04/2013 – U.S. Senate should vote quickly on federal judges
You could call them casualties of the "fiscal cliff" talks that consumed far too much time and energy. Before ending its term Wednesday, the U.S. Senate failed to act on 11 judicial nominees awaiting floor votes, including two for federal courts in Northern California. read full story

01/02/2013 – Senate should not wait any longer to confirm nominees for the US Middle District of Florida
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida has two judicial vacancies. The U.S. Senate should have filled the Middle District openings before it adjourned for the year, so that the court could promptly, inexpensively and fairly resolve cases. read full story

01/02/2013 – Judicial nominations in Obama’s first term
At the end of President Obama’s first term, there were 77 vacancies on the federal bench, or almost 9 percent of total judgeships, with 33 nominations pending. read full story

12/31/12 – Another Voice: Senate Republicans must act to approve judicial nominees
Carl Tobias: This month Judge Charles Siragusa of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York assumed senior status after 15 years of service. His action means that the judiciary has 57 vacancies in the 679 district court judgeships and that the Western District of New York has one in four. read full story

12/31/12 – Judicial Vacancy
Houston Chronicle: As President Obama begins his second term, it is time for him and the Senate to address a major issue that has gone largely ignored over the last four years: judicial vacancies. Our nation relies on three active branches of government, but during President Obama's first term, growing vacancies on the federal bench have left unacceptable gaps in our judiciary. read full story

12/30/12 – The GOP is to blame for court vacancies
Carl Tobias: Robert Barnes’s Dec. 24 High Court column [“Obama’s impact on the federal judiciary”] accurately stated that there are more federal judicial vacancies now than when President Obama assumed office, but it assigned him too much, and Republicans too little, responsibility for delayed appointments. read full story

12/29/12 – Commentary: Filling the Texas Federal Court openings
Carl Tobias: On Monday, U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle assumes senior status after 14 years of dedicated service. That means the judiciary has 78 openings in 856 judgeships, the Fifth Circuit has two in 17 and the Texas District Courts has five in 41. read full story

12/29/12 – Senate delays on nominees hurts U.S. justice system
Tampa Bay Times: The U.S. Senate is given the power of "advice and consent" to confirm or reject the president's choices, but the process was never intended as a tool to obstruct the very operation of justice. That is what irresponsible Republican Senate leaders are doing by stalling the confirmation votes for judicial nominees, including one in Florida's Middle District for close to a year. read full story

12/28/12 – A Necessary Beginning To Ending Capitol Gridlock: Filibuster Reform
John Dean (Verdict): In too many instances, one senator (who is never identified or named) has blocked a judicial nominee by merely threatening to filibuster the nomination, yet when that nominees is voted on—if they make it to the Senate Floor—he or she is overwhelmingly confirmed. read full story

12/28/12 – How the NRA is Working with Senate Republicans to Block Judicial Nominees
People for the American Way: The NRA didn’t get involved with these judicial nominations because it had substantive reasons to oppose the nominees. It got involved because it is, in effect, a codependent wing of the Republican party. read full story

12/28/12 – The toxic fallout of ‘to bork’
The Post and Courier (SC): Robert Bork, though nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan, never served on it. But his death last week at age 85 delivered a reminder that his name will live on not only as a famous jurist, but as an infamous verb. read full story

12/28/12 – EDCA Struggles Over Workload, Judicial Shortage
Eastern District of California Blog: A piece in yesterday's Daily Law Journal indicates that EDCA Judicial nominee Troy Nunley may get a voice vote in the Senate before year's end. read full story

12/28/12 – Taking Stock of Diversity in the Federal Judiciary; Significant Progress Has Been Made, But Much Remains to Be Done
Marcia Greenberger (National Women's Law Center): Although, thanks to a determined minority in the Senate, there is a record number of judicial seats that remain empty, the most recent additions to the federal bench are remarkable not only for their excellence and qualifications, but also for how they are changing the face of the judiciary. read full story

12/28/12 – Opponents Of Filibuster Reform Offer Empty Proposal
Ian Millhiser (ThinkProgress): Opponents of reform have now offered a counterproposal — and, according to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), it essentially amounts to doing nothing. read full story

12/28/12 – Liu’s Put Together a Record of Restraint
Scott Graham (The Recorder, CA): Others wonder privately if Liu will be content to spend the rest of his career on the state's highest court, and whether he might be tapped again for the Ninth Circuit or even the U.S. Supreme Court. read full story

12/28/12 – Clevert a trailblazer in federal court
John Diedrich (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel): Charles Clevert came to Milwaukee 40 years ago, planning to stay just long enough to break in as a lawyer and then return to his native Richmond, Va., hang a shingle and start litigating on behalf of the little guy. But Clevert never did leave Milwaukee. read full story

12/27/12 – The Role of Advocacy Groups in the Judicial Confirmation Process
Orin Kerr: Is the fact that the NRA has tried to influence the confirmation process improper? It seems to me that the answer is “no,” just like it was not improper for abortion rights groups to try to block several of George W. Bush’s nominees. read full story

12/27/12 – President, Senate must fill judicial vacancies
Robert Post and Daniel Schuker: The federal judicial bench is dangerously understaffed: 10 percent of district judgeships lie vacant and 8 percent of appellate judgeships languish unoccupied. Meanwhile, the press of federal judicial business has become so great that the Administrative Office for the United States Courts has classified about half of existing vacancies as “judicial emergencies.” read full story

12/26/12 – Greenberg on “Borking” Before Bork
Jonathan Adler: As the Washington Post reported on November 12, 1985, Senate Democrats were reluctant to premise their opposition on ideology so they “trained their fire on other issues — credibility, temperament, discrepancies in testimony — to wound the most conservative nominees” to block those they could. And once the Democrats took back control of the Senate in 1986, their efforts bore fruit, and multiple appellate nominees were defeated before the Bork nomination took center stage. These efforts, as much as the Bork fight, triggered the ever-escalating obstruction that has plagued lower court judicial nominations ever since. read full story

12/26/12 – The N.R.A. at the Bench
Linda Greenhouse: There has been plenty written about the National Rifle Association in recent days. But nothing that I’ve seen has focused on the gun lobby’s increasingly pernicious role in judicial confirmations. So here’s a little story. read full story

12/24/12 – Fake Centrism Regarding Judicial Nominees (or, Let’s Talk About Bork Again)
Neil Buchanan: The bottom line is that a lot of smart people should never serve on the Supreme Court. Bork was one of them. Pretending that he was the victim of some unfair process is simply to deny history. read full story

12/24/12 – Senate should fill Nevada federal court vacancies swiftly
Carl Tobias: This month, Judge Larry Hicks of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada assumes senior status after 11 years on the bench. His decision means that the court has vacancies in three of seven judgeships, which can erode the delivery of justice. To bring the district to full strength, the Senate must swiftly confirm President Barack Obama's three Nevada nominees. read full story

12/24/12 – The filibuster and the judicial crisis
Jonathan Bernstein: Still, the bottom line is that Senate reform is urgent, and the same thing I’ve said regarding many parts of that reform apply here: Those who care about the traditional Senate and the rights of minorities and individual senators should be fighting hardest for change. read full story

12/23/12 – Senate must confirm judicial nominees
Carl Tobias: The Senate must accord up-or-down votes to Bacharach and 15 other well-qualified nominees, especially the circuit nominees, who have been languishing months on the floor, so the courts can deliver justice. read full story

12/23/12 – Fill the bench
Carl Tobias: The story "New Utah vacancy on the 10th Circuit appeals court" (Tribune, Dec. 18) accurately reported that Judge Michael Murphy will assume senior status, opening up the spot on the court that has traditionally been reserved for a Utahn. However, it is important to know that Murphy will step down on Dec. 31, and create three vacancies out of 12 judgeships on the 10th Circuit read full story

12/21/2012 – Judge dismisses anti-filibuster lawsuit
A long-shot lawsuit challenging the Senate filibuster rules has been tossed out by a federal judge. read full story

12/20/2012 – ‘Borking’ Before Bork
THE death on Wednesday of Robert H. Bork, the conservative judge whose Supreme Court nomination was rejected by the Senate in 1987, has prompted a flood of commentaries describing his confirmation battle as a historic turning point. read full story

12/19/2012 – Robert Bork’s Supreme Court Nomination ‘Changed Everything, Maybe Forever’
Robert Bork, whose failed Supreme Court nomination provoked a lasting partisan divide over judicial nominations, died Wednesday at age 85. read full story

12/19/2012 – Bork nomination fight altered judicial selection
Conservatives wanted Robert H. Bork on the Supreme Court. They wound up with Anthony Kennedy, the key vote in reaffirming a woman's right to an abortion. read full story

12/19/2012 – Unlikely Lame-Duck Vote in 1980 Still Reverberates
Thirty-two years ago this month, one day after John Lennon was killed, the Senate confirmed Stephen Breyer to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Looking back, this 1980 vote on a future U.S. Supreme Court justice was remarkable and historic in its timing, speed, and long-term consequences. read full story

12/18/2012 – Some unfinished work remains on judicial vacancies
Now that the Senate is nearing the conclusion of its lame duck session after President Barack Obama secured a second term and Democrats increased their Senate majority, it is appropriate to analyze court appointments. The judiciary experiences 60 vacancies in the 679 district court judgeships, two of which are Middle District of Pennsylvania openings. Thus, President Obama must promptly nominate, and the Senate swiftly approve, nominees, so that judges can dispense justice. read full story

12/18/2012 – Some unfinished work remains on judicial vacancies
Now that the Senate is nearing the conclusion of its lame duck session after President Barack Obama secured a second term and Democrats increased their Senate majority, it is appropriate to analyze court appointments. read full story

12/18/2012 – Some unfinished work remains on judicial vacancies
Now that the Senate is nearing the conclusion of its lame duck session after President Barack Obama secured a second term and Democrats increased their Senate majority, it is appropriate to analyze court appointments. read full story

12/18/2012 – Judge Shwartz deserves Senate confirmation vote, finally
It is past time for the Senate to vote on U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz, the highly qualified consensus Third Circuit nominee whom President Obama nominated in October 2011 with the robust support of Gov. Chris Christie read full story

12/17/2012 – Past time to confirm Mainer for First Circuit
A Senate vote is long overdue for William Kayatta, the highly qualified and uncontroversial nominee whom President Obama nominated for the First Circuit Court of Appeals opening last January. read full story

12/16/2012 – U.S. senator’s objections to Judge Davis ring hollow
Frank discussions on race relations are rare in Jacksonville, a city that has long struggled to shake its civil rights-era failings. But few could have envisioned the topic being used to trip up a man viewed as a leader in healing wounds of the past. read full story

12/14/2012 – Filling the federal bench
President Obama needs to fight harder, and the Senate needs to give his nominees up-or-down votes. read full story

12/14/2012 – Move faster on judicial confirmation
The recent history of nominations and confirmations is not encouraging. Nationwide, district court vacancies, which decreased in President Clinton's and President Bush's first terms, have increased under Obama, from 43 on Inauguration Day to 60 as of Wednesday. read full story

12/13/2012 – Judicial Nominations and Confirmations in Obama’s First Term
President Obama's first term saw comparatively fewer nominations, submitted relatively later, with greater times from district vacancy to nomination and confirmation, and an increase in vacant judgeships. read full story

12/13/2012 – It’s about time federal court vacancies were filled
Common sense appears to be breaking out in at least one chamber of Congress. The Senate this week finally approved the nomination of Tulsa attorney John Dowdell to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District. Not a moment too soon, we'd add. read full story

12/13/2013 – Time to fill the Western District of New York bench
Now that the 112th Senate has reconvened for its lame duck session after President Barack Obama captured a second term and Democrats retained a Senate majority, this is an ideal moment to analyze the federal judicial vacancy crisis. read full story

12/13/2012 – Time to confirm judicial nominees
Now that Obama has won re-election, Cornyn and other Senate Republicans need to get a move on and work to end the crisis in our courts. They need to stop dragging their feet and quickly hold long-overdue confirmation votes on the 20 people whose judicial nominations have been languishing on the Senate floor all this time. read full story

12/13/2012 – The Courts: How Obama Dropped the Ball
The president’s slow pace and anemic support for judicial appointments has kept the courts in conservative hands. read full story

12/13/2012 – Judges Needed for Federal Courts
There has been a severe breakdown in the process for appointing federal judges. At the start of the Reagan years, it took, on average, a month for candidates for appellate and trial courts to go from nomination to confirmation. In the first Obama term, it has taken, on average, more than seven months. read full story

12/13/2012 – Johnson, Baldwin should work to fill court vacancies
Wisconsin's Senators must work to identify possible nominees for the three vacancies on Wisconsin's federal courts. One vacancy, in the Western District of Wisconsin, has been open for almost four years. The other vacancies, in Wisconsin's Eastern District and on the very important Seventh Circuit, have been formally designated as "judicial emergencies." read full story

12/13/2012 – It’s about time federal court vacancies were filled
Common sense appears to be breaking out in at least one chamber of Congress. The Senate this week finally approved the nomination of Tulsa attorney John Dowdell to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District. Not a moment too soon, we'd add. This Senate, with its partisan gridlock, had not approved a district court judgeship in six months. read full story

12/11/2012 – With nominations on hold, justice delayed becomes democracy denied
Republican senators tried, with success, to keep judicial vacancies open under President Obama for candidates from their own party, hoping that there would be a different outcome in the presidential election last month. read full story

12/11/2012 – Senate should act on judicial openings in Central District of California
The Senate must promptly approve President Barack Obama’s three nominees, so the courts of the Central District of California can operate well. read full story

12/11/2012 – Six Months Without a Circuit Court Confirmation Vote
Tomorrow, due to Republican obstruction, it will be six months since the Senate has been allowed to vote on a circuit court nomination. read full story

12/11/2012 – Urgent case for Senate reform; McConnell even filibustered himself
Sen. Mitch McConnell has only himself to blame for the growing sentiment to tame, if not kill, the filibuster. read full story

12/11/2012 – Lag on Kayatta nomination calls for immediate Senate action
It is past time for the Senate to vote on William Kayatta, the highly qualified consensus nominee whom President Obama nominated for the Maine 1st Circuit opening this January. read full story

12/11/2012 – Progress on Judicial Nominees But Grassley Still Being Iowa Stubborn
Chuck Grassley has been under fire from 16 Iowa legal groups urging him to quit dragging his heels on confirmation. read full story

12/10/2012 – Time to fill Rochester-area judicial vacancy
Senators should make use of their lame-duck time to at least act on judicial nominees — especially one that would fill a long-vacant federal judgeship in western New York. read full story

12/10/2012 – Why Do We Need Senate Rules Reform? Look at Our Judiciary
Renewed focus on how Senate obstruction is hurting our judiciary offers a reminder of why Senate rules reform – including a focus on streamlining the nominations process – is so sorely needed. read full story

12/10/2012 – Obama’s Empathy
Criticizing how conservatives have made judicial "empathy" a code word for "activist judges," Thomas B. Colby rehabilitates Obama's praise of the concept. read full story

12/10/2012 – Iowa View: Bipartisanship isn’t up to Republicans alone
Was professor Carl Tobias being serious in his fantastical op-ed article, “Grassley Has a Chance to Quell ‘Confirmation Wars’ ”? read full story

12/10/2012 – Filling the First Circuit vacancy
It is past time for the Senate to vote on William Kayatta, the highly qualified consensus nominee whom President Barack Obama nominated for the Boston-based First Circuit last January. read full story

12/10/2012 – Obama, Senate must fill judicial vacancies
Now that President Obama has been reelected and Democrats have retained a Senate majority, he must swiftly nominate, and the upper chamber expeditiously approve, judicial nominees, especially for the four Florida vacancies, so that the courts can deliver justice. read full story

12/07/2012 – Senate panel OKs Troy Nunley for judgeship
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to approve President Obama's nomination of Troy Nunley, a native of Hunters Point in San Francisco, to become a federal judge in Sacramento. read full story

12/07/2012 – Senate Moving on Stalled Judicial Nominees
The freeze on federal judicial nominations appears to be thawing for the first time since the presidential election, at least when it comes to district court nominees. read full story

12/07/2012 – Pending Judicial Nominations Pile Up
This week, Republicans agreed not to block confirmation votes on four of the consensus district court nominations. That's four out of 19 people whose lives have been on hold while the Senate GOP made them wait. read full story

12/07/2012 – Sen. Merkley Gives Progressives Reason To Be Optimistic About Filibuster Reform
Under current Senate rules, the minority can force up to 30 hours of floor time to be wasted even after a supermajority of the Senate votes to break a filibuster on a nominee. read full story

12/06/2012 – Holly Herman: Obama’s moves on judges timely
President Barack Obama did not waste time nominating federal judges in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. read full story

12/06/2012 – Commentary: Time to fill Middle District of Pennsylvania judicial vacancies
The White House has assiduously pursued the guidance and support of Republican and Democratic senators from jurisdictions where vacancies arose before actual nominations. read full story

12/06/2012 – Republicans hold up judge nominees for no reason
While President Barack Obama has been slow in making nominations, getting qualified jurists through the U.S. Senate has been far too tedious. read full story

12/06/2012 – Senate should confirm judicial nominees
It is now past time for the Senate to consider the 19 well qualified nominees who have been languishing on the floor. read full story

12/06/2012 – Still No Explanation From Grassley on Judiciary Committee Delays
A week ago, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley postponed votes on all five nominations without giving a reason, a delaying tactic that he has used on 97 percent of President Obama’s judicial nominees who the committee has voted on. Sen. Grassley did not explain the reason for the delay last week, when a coalition of Iowa and national groups urged him to stop such routine delays. And the reason remained unclear today, as all five nominees were approved without opposition. read full story

12/05/2012 – Senate should advise and consent to pending judicial nominations
The Hill’s Congress Blog - As the Senate lame duck session continues after President Barack Obama won reelection and Democrats increased their Senate majority, this is an excellent time to assess the judicial openings crisis. read full story

12/05/2012 – The Broken Confirmation Process
American Judges Association Blog - Blocking nominees to the federal bench has increased in recent years, according to the Congressional Research Service... read full story

12/05/2012 – Iowa View: Obama can quell confirmation wars
Des Moines Register - Sen. Chuck Grassley is right to oppose unqualified and biased judicial appointments by President Obama. read full story

12/05/2012 – Our View: One senator shouldn’t delay justice
Why should a U.S. senator from Iowa hold up a much-needed federal judge for our region? The Eastern District of California, which serves 34 counties, has one of the biggest caseloads in the country and officially is in "emergency" status. That means 7 million people -- more than twice the population of Iowa -- have to wait far longer than most Americans to get their cases heard. read full story

12/05/2012 – Opinion – Our Views: Bad politics of judgeships
The Advocate [Baton Rouge, LA] - The blue slip is now abused by senators of both parties as a way to block nominees who deserve an up-or-down vote on a nomination. read full story

12/04/2012 – Senator Grassley and federal judicial selection
On November 29, veteran Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking member during the 112th Senate, eschewed a valuable opportunity to temper the "confirmation wars" that have troubled judicial appointments for 25 years. read full story

12/04/2012 – The Broken Confirmation Process
Blocking nominees to the federal bench has increased in recent years, according to the Congressional Research Service. Only 5.1 percent of uncontroversial circuit court nominees had to wait 200 or more days to be confirmed by the Senate under President Ronald Reagan. read full story

12/04/12 – Mitch McConnell Supported Filibuster Reform in 2005 To Boost Republican Judges
Senator Harry Reid wants to reform the filibuster rule that won't get rid of it, but will actually make it a real rule again. McConnell is calling it a massive power grab and says he's defending minority rights. read full story

12/04/2012 – Schmehl an excellent choice to serve on federal bench
Congratulations to Berks County President Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. read full story

12/04/2012 – Get on with confirmations so judiciary can dispense justice
Scranton Times-Tribune - Now that the Senate has reconvened for its lame duck session after President Barack Obama captured a second term and Democrats kept a Senate majority, this is a good time to assess the judicial vacancy crisis. read full story

12/04/2012 – The Senate should shy from ‘nuclear option’
Washington Post - As we said seven years ago, the filibuster has been abused and is in need of reform. As we also said, using the nuclear option is the wrong way to achieve those changes. The changes to the filibuster Mr. Reid is contemplating are rather restrained; if anything, they would go not far enough. read full story

12/04/2012 – Editorial: At least agree on judges
Philadelphia Inquirer - Not all business in Congress has to be afflicted by partisan gridlock. Sens. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) have been working across party lines to find capable nominees for federal court vacancies in Pennsylvania. read full story

12/03/12 – Editorial: Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is delaying California justice again
Sacramento Bee - Why should a U.S. senator from Iowa hold up a much-needed federal judge in Sacramento? Isn't this the kind of mindless political gamesmanship that sours people on Washington? Californians are well within their rights to ask such questions. read full story

12/03/12 – Editorial: The president’s judicial nominees should get approval
Patriot News - Republicans in Washington like to deny accusations that during Barack Obama’s first term as president they have played the role of obstructionists. But it is hard not to come to that conclusion when you look at federal court bench vacancies. read full story

11/30/12 – Time to confirm all those judicial nominees
Dallas Morning News - Now that he is the second-highest-ranking member in the Republican caucus, it’s time to hold Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn to his word. read full story

11/30/12 – Senate should act on Oklahoma federal court vacancies
The Hill - The federal courts now experience 83 openings in 858 appeals and district court judgeships. read full story

11/29/12 – Fewer Judges Confirmed Under President Obama Than Any First Term President Since Kennedy
According to data from the Federal Judicial Center, the rate of judicial confirmations under President Obama is slower than the rate during any president’s first term since the term begun by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. read full story

11/29/12 – Grassley’s Non-Response on Judicial Nominations
People for the American Way - Sen. Chuck Grassley has provided a weak and misleading response to a letter sent yesterday by 16 Iowa and national organizations (including People For the American Way) holding him accountable for a type of obstruction of judicial nominees that he has perpetrated as ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. read full story

11/27/12 – Can “Human Drama” Help To Fill the D.C. Circuit’s Three Empty Seats?
D.C. Circuit Review: David Fontana of George Washington School of Law has a piece on the Huffington Post suggesting that President Obama can pick up the pace of judicial confirmations if he “create[s] nomination hearings that have more human drama and less legal theory.” The D.C. Circuit may offer the best opportunity to test Fontana’s theory. read full story

11/27/12 – U.S. Senate is wrong to block Maine man’s judicial appointment
Bangor Daily News (ME): It is nonsensical that the U.S. Senate has held up for so long the confirmation of William Kayatta Jr., of Cape Elizabeth, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First District. Even though he was approved by a bipartisan majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee, his nomination has sat on the Senate calendar since April. read full story

11/27/12 – Confirm the 19 Judicial Nominations Pending on the Senate Floor Before Year End
The undersigned organizations, which represent the interests of everyday Americans, strongly urge you to work to ensure that all 19 of the currently pending judicial nominees are given confirmation votes in the Senate during the current lame duck session, and that all judicial nominees are given timely confirmation votes in the 113th Congress. read full story

11/27/12 – Senate filibuster rules need reforming
Tampa Bay Times: A window of opportunity will open in January to reduce the partisan gridlock in Congress. That's when reforms can be made to the Senate's filibuster rules by a simple majority vote rather than the 67 votes normally required. read full story

11/27/12 – Obama Should Recess-Appoint His Picks for PA Eastern District Court
Keystone Politics: It’s a huge scandal that Senate Republicans have confirmed so few of Obama’s judicial nominees. If Republicans want more conservative judges, then they should try to win more Presidential elections. read full story

11/27/12 – Another View: Grassley has chance to quell ‘confirmation wars’
Carl Tobias: On Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia., the highly experienced member of the Senate, will have a wonderful chance to rectify or temper the “confirmation wars” that have troubled federal judicial appointments for a quarter century, most recently in the administration of President Barack Obama. read full story

11/26/12 – Circuit Judge Nomination Stalled Since February
Judicial Clerk Review: Anyone interested in clerking for a federal judge, especially second- and third-year law students who did not apply for a clerkship by the day-after-Labor Day deadline this year, should watch very closely these vacancies, the President’s nominations, and the Senate confirmation process. read full story

11/26/12 – GOP Bad Faith on the Pace of Confirmations
People for the American Way: Our judicial branch is experiencing an unprecedented vacancy crisis, depriving millions of Americans of their day in court. read full story

11/24/12 – Out of order: Vacancies in federal courts can’t be further delayed
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: It will be no surprise to anyone that nominations to fill the federal bench are highly politicized -- and not just for the U.S. Supreme Court. read full story

11/23/12 – Out of order
Toledo Blade: Nominations to fill the federal bench — and not just the U.S. Supreme Court — are highly politicized Both parties play this game, but Republicans, in their general spirit of non-compromise of the past few years and their particular fear of seating liberal activist judges, have played a greater role in gumming up the machinery of justice. read full story

11/23/12 – Court system isn’t place to play politics
The Olympian (WA): The American people deserve a federal court system that is fully staffed with judges. A federal judiciary riddled with vacancies negates the ability to provide justice for all. read full story

11/23/12 – Justice for all
Hammond Star: Americans deserve a federal court system that is fully staffed and able to fulfill the promise of “justice for all.” However, the ceaseless obstruction of judicial nominees has left the federal bench with more vacancies than when President Obama first took office, according to a new study from the Alliance for Justice. read full story

11/20/12 – President Obama’s next choice for the Supremes?
Wayne Dawkins, Politics in Color: Now that President Barack Obama was elected to serve through January 2017, it is likely he will replace one, even two U.S. Supreme Court Justices. read full story

11/20/12 – Give up-or-down votes to nominees
Express-News Editorial Board: Further delays on non-controversial Obama nominees only serve to weaken the judicial system. read full story

11/20/12 – Judicial Nomination Reform?
Jonathan Bernstein: I think the strongest case for protection of minorities in the Senate is in confirmation of judges. read full story

11/20/12 – 83 judicial vacancies awaiting Senate action
Carl Tobias: On this Thanksgiving holiday, the United States circuit and district courts have reason to be thankful that a number of the 83 lower court vacancies which have existed for more than three years may finally be filled. read full story

11/20/12 – Can the Senate Be Saved?
Jeffrey Toobin: The most important action the Senate takes in January may not involve any legislation at all. Early next year, when the latest group of senators convene for the first time, the “world’s greatest deliberative body” may finally do something worthy of its nickname: reform the filibuster. read full story

11/20/12 – Hold-Outs Spoil Republicans’ Call To Fill Federal Court Vacancies
Nicole Flatow: Support for post-election confirmations is not shared by all senators, and it only takes one to hold the process and the courts hostage. read full story

11/19/12 – Unfinished Business: Judicial Selection During the Remainder of the Obama Presidency
People for the American Way: In short, while the President has enjoyed some major judicial selection victories—most notably his appointments to the Supreme Court—his first term has largely been a missed opportunity to fully staff the lower federal courts. read full story

11/19/12 – What Next?
Ed Whelan: [T]he most likely scenario during Obama’s second term is that the only vacancy he will have to fill is Ginsburg’s seat. But conservatives shouldn’t take much solace from this forecast. read full story

11/19/12 – Fair or Foul: Shining the light; put the judges to work
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Most Americans never find themselves in the federal court system. Perhaps that’s why the U.S. Senate has such a horrendous record of obstructing the president’s nominees to the federal bench. read full story

11/18/12 – Guest commentary: Time to break logjam of judicial appointments
Carl Tobias: Now that the 112th Senate is returning for its lame duck session after President Barack Obama won a second term and Democrats retained a Senate majority, this is an ideal time to evaluate the judicial vacancy crisis. read full story

11/16/12 – The judicial vacancy crisis
Carl Tobias: Therefore, starting with the lame-duck session that began on Tuesday, the president must promptly nominate, and the Senate expeditiously confirm, nominees, so that the courts can deliver justice. read full story

11/16/12 – SCOTUS Shortlist Gets Shorter
Ben Jacobs: Stanford University Professor Pamela Karlan has long been a fixture of the media’s shortlist for Supreme Court justices–but she may have removed herself today. read full story

11/15/12 – President Obama Nominates Out Judge to Federal Bench
Human Rights Campaign: Three of the President's openly gay nominees have been confirmed and one withdrew his nomination after significant obstructionism in the Senate. read full story

11/15/12 – Obama’s Supreme Choices
Chris Geidner: Some of the country's leading court watchers weigh in with their picks for who Obama will appoint to a vacant Supreme Court seat. Harris, Karlan, Liu, and Watford lead the pack — but it “depends who quits, if anyone.” read full story

11/15/12 – The Judicial Bush Doctrine
Ian Millhiser: President Obama needs to be more like George W. Bush. We are still living the legacy of Bush’s appointments. read full story

11/15/12 – Lame Duck – Time to Confirm All the Pending Nominees
People for the American Way: For the entirety of President Obama's first term, the GOP has grossly abused Senate rules in order to stymie his every initiative, including addressing our nation's courtroom vacancy crisis. read full story

11/14/12 – Judge William Thomas officially nominated to District Court
Southern District of Florida Blog: This is great news and fast. Let's hope that this is how it's going to be in the President's second term. read full story

11/14/12 – In Border States, Judges Face Criminal Caseloads More Than 11 Times The National Average
Nicole Flatow: With judicial nominations stalled by obstructionist Senate Republicans, and immigration and drug prosecutions skyrocketing, federal trial judges in states on the U.S.-Mexico border are facing criminal caseloads as much as 11.5 times the average, according to a new report. read full story

11/14/12 – ABA on Judicial Nominations and Confirmations
ABA: A significant and lasting reduction in the number of vacancies on the federal bench will require your administration and the Senate to engage in a concerted, sustained, and cooperative effort. read full story

11/13/12 – Iowa’s Rose becomes youngest on federal bench
AP: Former prosecutor Stephanie Rose was sworn in Tuesday as the nation’s youngest federal judge and the first female federal judge in Iowa’s Southern District. read full story

11/13/12 – Senate Republicans Should Drop the Lame Excuses, and Place Judges on Federal Bench
Jeremy Leaming: A week after President Obama handily won re-election - and his party gained in the Senate - one might think the other party would finally understand that elections have consequences. For example, the president has a duty to appoint judges to the federal bench, and the Senate should be ready to provide some advice and consent, not obstructionism. read full story

11/13/12 – Democrats Hopeful About Changing Filibuster Rules
Niels Lesniewski: After being beat back by their own leaders two years ago, rank-and-file Democratic senators are newly optimistic about the prospect that Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will move ahead with a filibuster overhaul at the start of the new Congress. read full story

11/12/12 – Courts provide Obama a chance to leave his mark
Manilla Bulletin: As US President Barack Obama dives into his second term and looks to build his legacy, his appointments of federal judges, especially to the Supreme Court, appear certain to make a lasting impact. read full story

11/09/12 – President Obama and the bench
Carl Tobias: Obama deserves credit for cooperating with Virginia's senators to seat well-qualified, consensus judges in the federal court vacancies. read full story

11/09/12 – Filling Connecticut District Court Seats Urgent
Carl Tobias: Now that the 112th Senate is returning for its lame duck session after President Barack Obama captured a second term and Democrats retained a Senate majority, this is a perfect moment to analyze the judicial vacancy crisis. read full story

11/08/12 – Will Obama Get to Pack the Supreme Court?
Damon Root: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has often said she intends to remain on the Supreme Court for at least as long as progressive judicial hero Louis Brandeis, who retired at the age of 82. read full story

11/08/12 – Get those federal judges confirmed
Owen Canfield: The re-election of President Barack Obama should be good news for two Oklahoma men who have waited a long time to be confirmed to federal benches. read full story

11/07/12 – The Election’s Effect on the Judiciary
Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy: Although the presidential candidates rarely discussed it, much ink has been spilled in recent months over the effect that the presidential election would have on the Supreme Court. Although often overstated, the effect is significant. read full story

11/06/12 – What Does a Second Obama Term Mean for Gun Owners?
Katie Pavlich: Obama has a long history of holding anti-Second Amendment views, despite portraying himself as pro-hunter and reasonable about gun control. read full story

11/06/12 – Fate of High Court at Stake
Mark Joseph Stern: The current Supreme Court is among the most radically conservative courts in American history. And if Mitt Romney wins today’s election, things are about to get a whole lot worse. read full story

11/06/12 – How Will Today’s Election Change the D.C. Circuit?
D.C. Circuit Review: The D.C. Circuit could lose one of its judges during the next presidential term if the President is called on to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. read full story

11/06/12 – Judicial Fundamentalists
We are one Supreme Court appointment away from the extremist Republicans' dream becoming the nation's nightmare. read full story

11/5/12 – Obama’s success at filling judicial vacancies in Virginia
President Obama has effectively cooperated with Virginia’s senators to fill the federal courts with exceptional judges. read full story

11/05/12 – Obama vs Romney: A Romney Win Means a Far Right SCOTUS, Obama Will Keep it Liberal
Angela Duffy: The economy has been by far the biggest issue on the national stage this election cycle. However, it is not the most important issue to vote on this coming Tuesday. read full story

11/05/12 – Morning Bell: The Next President and the Supreme Court
Ed Meese: Every vote counts. And this year, it could count double. One vote could decide both the immediate election and the course of constitutional law for decades to come. read full story

11/05/12 – A Romney court would set back the clock
Tampa Bay Times: Romney's judicial picks would be out of touch with the values of most Americans. This legacy would last for decades after Romney left office, and voters should reflect on the long-term implications for the nation as they cast their ballots for president. read full story

11/05/12 – The Election and Racial Preferences
Roger Clegg: Just imagine the decisions we will get if a third Obama appointee next term joins his first two (Elena Kagan and the “wise Latina” Sonia Sotomayor), along with Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Very, very scary. read full story

11/05/12 – DON’T FORGET THE COURTS, SAYS CROUSE
Chad Groening: The nation's largest public policy women's organization thinks voters need to keep in mind that the man who wins Tuesday's election will be able to shape the Supreme Court for decades to come. read full story

11/05/12 – An Election for the Supreme Court
Steven Mazie: When you enter the voting booth on Tuesday and pull a lever or jab a touchscreen for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, you will be registering a vote not only for president but for the ideological tilt of an institution that will likely have more influence on your life over the coming decades: the Supreme Court. read full story

11/04/12 – What’s at stake: The Supreme Court
Armando: Any progressive who is considering not voting for President Obama need only consider this one issue. The next president will reshape a 5-4 Supreme Court. read full story

– Obama Supreme Court Is the Stuff of Nightmares
Breitbart: Conservatives rightfully fear a second term for President Obama, but seem barely aware of the biggest threat posed by his re-election. read full story

11/03/12 – Kamala Harris: Focused on Job, Not SCOTUS
Mary C. Curtis: High court prospects aren't on her mind now, Cali's chief lawyer told us while stumping for Obama. read full story

11/02/12 – OK Go’s Damian Kulash: Supreme Court Balance Is Election’s Critical Issue
Damian Kulash: The most important result of this election isn't who gets to propose budgets and tax policy. It's who gets to pick the lifelong terms of the people who shape America even more than the President: Supreme Court justices. read full story

11/1/12 – Feldman: Supreme Court trumps economy as No. 1 issue
Vote your conscience this time around, but for heaven’s sake, vote on the Supreme Court. It’s going to matter. read full story

11/1/12 – It’s the economy, stupid — and the courts
So finally both candidates are focused on the central concern of most voters.  But if voters are concerned about the economy, they would be well advised to think about the effect the election will have on the courts. read full story

11/1/12 – Romney or Obama and the Supreme Court: Does it even matter?
A Romney presidency isn't an automatic judicial disaster. Not if Democrats get principled and oppose his nominees. read full story

11/01/12 – Obamaney Cluelessness: Supreme Court Division
Scott Lemieux: Will the difference between Obama and Romney matter for the Supreme Court? Professional obfuscator of significant partisan differences David Sirota says no. And if a pundit who doesn’t actually know anything about the Supreme Court has made a bad argument, we’re likely to see it here! read full story

11/01/12 – Huge consequences for post-election Supreme Court
Jami Floyd: This week in Iowa, the Des Moines Register asked Mitt Romney about abortion. Romney replied, “There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.” read full story

11/01/12 – The Supreme Court: The Best Reason to Vote Against Mitt Romney
Lisa McElroy and Eric Segall: Mitt Romney's intended use of the appointment power to make the court even more conservative is reason enough to vote against him for president. read full story

10/31/12 – PRESSER: High judicial stakes come Nov. 6
At this curious moment in judicial history, there is a deep division on the court, a division that also is reflected in  the two parties’ attitudes toward the judiciary. read full story

10/31/12 – The Supreme Court Should Be a Key Election Issue
Although the ideological composition of the US Supreme Court could be the most significant long-term consequence of the 2012 presidential election, judicial appointments have been virtually a non-issue during the autumn campaign and the primaries that preceded the party conventions. read full story

10/31/12 – The Frightening Prospect of a Romney Court
Jamie Raskin:  One reality that sinks in quickly is that, while a presidential administration is for four or eight years, Supreme Court and other federal judicial appointments last for decades. read full story

10/31/12 – This is the Supreme Court election: Vote on the justices the next president would choose
Noah Feldman:  One-issue voters have always seemed like cranks to me. It's natural enough to have priorities, but who thinks one of them is more important than all the other political issues combined? read full story

10/31/12 – Supreme Court above politics? Not in the climate of Washington, D.C.
Emily Bazelon:  The Supreme Court this week punted on whether to hear a major challenge to part of the Voting Rights Act. They will probably still hear the case this term, but they just have put off saying so. The justices’ nondecision decision is perfectly in keeping with the low profile they have managed to keep in the 2012 election. read full story

10/31/12 – It’s the Supreme Court, Stupid (Not the Economy)
Robert Levine:  But with judicial activism growing on both the left and the right, the direction the Court takes in the future on the above issues and others of national import will be determined by the election of the next president and who he selects. read full story

10/30/12 – It’s the economy, Supreme Court!
Today, the country is mired in a prolonged economic slump that has slowed growth to a crawl, reduced median family income and produced record increases in entitlement programs. Most people think responsibility for this impasse rests primarily with the political branches of government at both the state and federal levels. But that assessment overlooks the Supreme Court's role in facilitating the current malaise. read full story

10/30/12 – What Nov. 6 means for the Supreme Court
Erwin Chemerinsky: If Romney wins, we can expect a frighteningly conservative high court. A victory for Obama could mean a liberal majority for the first time since 1969. read full story

10/30/12 – The Case For Re-Electing Obama: The Supreme Court
The Reverend:  On the basis of future Supreme Court appointments alone, President Barack Obama deserves to be re-elected. read full story

10/30/12 – What Would Be Scarier Than A Romney Presidency? A Romney Supreme Court
John Gallagher:  With the Supreme Court mulling over whether to consider marriage-equality cases, it’s worth taking a moment to think about who President Romney would be appointing to the Court. read full story

10/26/12 – Reading Guide: Where Romney and Obama Stand on the Supreme Court
Suevon Lee:  The Supreme Court has remained a largely unspoken topic on the campaign trail — even though the Court plays a critical function in Americans' lives. (This past June's Affordable Care Act ruling, anyone?) read full story

10/26/12 – Supreme Court is the biggest issue in this election
Jonathan Bernstein: The future of the ACA is at stake, although if Democrats wind up holding even in the Senate or even gaining a bit, then some sort of deal is still very possible. But as important as that is, I don’t think it’s the No. 1 thing at stake. read full story

10/26/12 – One Of These Die-Hard Conservatives Could Land On The Supreme Court If Romney Wins
The U.S. Supreme Court is greying. Four justices are older than 70, and Ruth  Bader Ginsburg is pushing 80. There's an excellent chance one of these elders will step down in the next  four years, and that Mitt  Romney or Barack Obama will pick the next justice.   read full story

10/26/12 – Conservative Scholars Bullish That A Romney Supreme Court Could Reverse Longstanding Liberal Jurisprudence
Sahil Kapur:  Liberal-leaning Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 79, and Steven Breyer, 74, are likely candidates for retirement during a Romney administration, the GOP nominee has vowed to appoint staunch conservatives, and the influential conservative legal community will make sure he follows through. read full story

10/25/12 – USA Today’s Flawed Explanation On Why The Supreme Court Is Not An Election Issue
Media Matters:  Not only is Wolf's reasoning at odds with that of journalists, advocates, and experts across the political spectrum, in his discussion of the aging justices, Wolf cites facts about Supreme Court retirements that undercut his thesis. read full story

10/25/12 – 52 Reasons to Vote for Obama: #24, Supreme Court Appointments
Bernard Whitman:  An Obama victory this November is absolutely essential to protect the rights of all Americans, for decades and decades to come. read full story

10/25/12 – The Supreme Court Hangs in the Balance
Gary Halbert:  Depending on the outcome of the election, the balance in the High Court could shift significantly. read full story

10/25/12 – A Romney Supreme Court Wish list
Stephen Bainbridge:  It seems to me that the best (only?) reason for me to vote for Mitt Romney is to have a Republican picking Supreme Court justices. Well, that and taxes. read full story

10/24/12 – Beware Romney’s nominees for the Supreme Court
Rev. John C. Welch: But this is the resume of Robert Bork, failed Supreme Court nominee and chief legal adviser to Mitt Romney who would help a Romney administration pick the judges who interpret the constitutionality of America's voting rights laws. read full story

10/24/12 – How the Presidential Election Will Impact the Supreme Court
Damon Root:  President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney sparred over matters large and small in this month’s three presidential debates, yet when it came to one of the most pressing issues in American politics, the two candidates were strangely quiet. read full story

10/24/12 – Senate should act to fill court seats
Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre): On the political spectrum, Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators appear miles apart – not unlike much of today’s deeply divided Congress. read full story

10/24/12 – Supreme Court makeup not a top campaign issue
Richard Wolf: The Supreme Court could be transformed by the man elected president Nov. 6, but you wouldn't know it from the campaign the candidates are waging. read full story

10/23/12 – Selling the Supreme Court
Alex Ritter: Should we fail, right wing hegemony will likely be codified and impervious, a stain upon America’s global standing for generations to come. read full story

10/23/12 – Mitt Romney Had Dismal Record Naming Women Judges In Massachusetts
Jason Cherkis: When it came to nominating female judges in Massachusetts, Gov. Mitt Romney all but ignored any binders full of women. read full story

10/23/12 – Why It Matters: 1 New Justice Could Change A Lot
Mark Sherman, AP: The issue: With four justices in their seventies, odds are good that whoever is elected president in November will have a chance to fill at least one Supreme Court seat. read full story

10/22/12 – 9 Justices Who Sit in the Eye of Storms
Michiko Kakutani: In Mr. Toobin’s view, Mr. Obama “did not believe the courts were the principal vehicle for social and political change,” regarding “elections, rather than lawsuits,” as his “battlefield of choice,” and this “diffidence about the role of the courts” would shape both his own career and his presidency.” read full story

10/22/12 – Kagan: ‘I’m not sure that I would have been President Obama’s nominee if I weren’t a woman’
Caroline May: Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan acknowledged that she might not have been selected to the highest court in America had she not been a woman, during a conversation at the University of Tennessee with UT Law Dean Doug Blaze, Friday. read full story

10/22/12 – War on Women Becomes Law of the Land if Romney Chooses the Supreme Court
Brent Budowsky: For the poor, for workers, for consumers, for those who believe America should be a nation of justice for all, there is no more urgent matter than preventing Mitt Romney from having the power to make the war on women the law of the land. read full story

10/22/12 – The next president and Supreme Court picks, by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: In the midst of his debate with Rep. Paul Ryan last week, Vice President Joe Biden mentioned the most important issue largely forgotten in this year’s election season: The power of the U.S. Supreme Court to bring fundamental change to American society. read full story

10/21/12 – The Romney Court
Adam Winkler: The Supreme Court may be below the radar for most voters, who this year are concerned primarily with jobs and the economy. Republican leaders, however, have not forgotten about Roberts and the high court. They are not about to let themselves be burned again. read full story

10/21/12 – Despite a Failed Nomination, Robert Bork’s Legacy Lives On at the Supreme Court
Jessica Mason Pieklo:  There are few personalities in the legal profession that are divisive as Robert Bork. And, while his name has not often come up this election cycle, his legacy with the Supreme Court and possibility that his vision will shape its future deserves to be discussed. read full story

10/19/12 – Ready To Step Up
Brian Zabcik: Who are the most notable recent appointments to the federal bench? Top litigators say that these are 10 district court judges to watch. read full story

10/19/12 – The Court and the Future of Everything You Hold Dear
Jeffrey Rosen:  To point out the threats a Romney Court would pose isn’t demagoguery or alarmism; it’s the most compelling reason to support the president of all. read full story

10/19/12 – The American Debate: High court in absentia
Dick Polman: The presidential candidates have debated each other for 180 minutes, yet neither has expended even a second on a crucial campaign issue that has a profound impact on our lives. read full story

10/19/12 – Stocking the Cabinet: Who Might Serve in a Second Obama Administration?
George Condon, Jr.: Four years after promising to change Washington, President Obama has left everyone guessing just how much change will occur if he wins a second term. read full story

10/19/12 – 10 Legal Questions Bob Schieffer Should Ask the Candidates
Andrew Cohen: [A]nother election year has come and gone without the main presidential candidates being asked -- never mind candidly answering -- some of the great legal questions of our time. read full story

10/19/12 – Stocking the Cabinet: Who Might Serve in a Romney Administration?
Jim O'Sullivan: A decade later, a President Romney would again face immediate fiscal problems. But a vastly different set of circumstances would shape the personnel decisions that Romney could make during his transition to the Oval Office. read full story

10/18/12 – The Case Against Protest Voting (Remember Ralph Nader)
Andrew Cohen: Like so many others, I was moved by Conor Friedersdorf's piece last month here at The Atlantic, titled "Why I Refuse to Vote for Barack Obama," which touched profoundly on some of the great political and moral questions surrounding the coming election. read full story

10/18/12 – Which Supreme Court justices do Maine’s U.S. Senate candidates admire?
Bangor Daily News: The Senate candidates’ answers shed light on the attributes they appreciate in those who hold positions of great power, and the answers appear to reflect the qualities they have tried to emphasize in their political pursuits. read full story

10/17/12 – Power of the court: The next president could appoint two new justices
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: In the midst of his debate with Rep. Paul Ryan last week, Vice President Joe Biden mentioned the most important issue largely forgotten in this year's election season: The power of the U.S. Supreme Court to bring fundamental change to American society. read full story

10/17/12 – Debate Exposes Importance of Supreme Court to Working Women
People for the American Way: With as many as three vacancies on the nine-member Court opening up in the next four year, Mitt Romney could do untold damage to working women across America. read full story

10/17/12 – Chabot on Senate Influence on Supreme Court Appointments
Legal Theory Blog: Christine Kexel Chabot (Loyola University Chicago School of Law) has posted A Long View of the Senate's Influence over Supreme Court Appointments (Hastings Law Journal, Forthcoming) on SSRN. read full story

10/17/12 – NYT Commits Itself Against Judicial Filibusters?
Ed Whelan: It’s not encouraging, though, that the editorial provides a one-sided account in which Senate Republicans are entirely to blame for the dysfunction in the confirmation process. read full story

10/17/12 – Yet Another Debate that Ignores Judicial Nominations
Ilya Somin: The moderator should at least ask the candidates about the Supreme Court’s War on Terror decisions and about the role of international law in interpreting the Constitution. read full story

10/17/12 – Why Obama and Romney Don’t Talk About the Supreme Court
Garrett Epps: The high court came up so little in part because Obama doesn't want to talk about courts: His own philosophy is Congress- and president-centric, with judges ideally playing a secondary role. read full story

10/16/12 – Ideological balance on bench at stake as election approaches
Lawrence Hurley: Amid all the partisan gridlock in Washington, there's one institution the next president is likely to have a major say in shaping: the Supreme Court. read full story

10/16/12 – Politics and the Courts
New York Times: The winner of the presidential election will have scores of federal judgeships to fill and the chance to shape the courts — even aside from potential Supreme Court vacancies should one or more of the current justices retire. read full story

10/15/12 – Steven Pearlstein’s Smear of Judge Kavanaugh
Ed Whelan, NRO: To Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein, D.C. Circuit judge Brett Kavanaugh “is nothing more than a partisan shock trooper in a black robe waging an ideological battle against government regulation.” read full story

10/14/12 – Opinion: Supreme Court tilt hinges on election
Geoffrey Stone: What, then, will happen if President Romney has the opportunity to replace one of the moderate liberals or President Obama has the opportunity to replace one of the conservatives? read full story

10/13/12 – Supreme Court Notebook: Justices as Campaign Issue
Mark Sherman, AP: A closely divided Supreme Court. Four justices in their 70s. Presidential candidates with dramatically different views of the ideal high court nominee. read full story

10/12/12 – Obama vs. Romney on the Supreme Court—Part 2
Ed Whelan: The president will have the upper hand in getting his Supreme Court nominees confirmed. read full story

10/12/12 – Why the Presidential Race Should Not Ignore Judicial Nominations
Ilya Somin: I complained about the total lack of discussion of judicial nominations in last week’s presidential debate. Tonight’s vice presidential debate was only slightly better. The only mention of the courts was a brief reference by Joe Biden while discussing the issue of abortion. read full story

10/12/12 – Obama the Con Law Professor; Obama the President with Judicial Appointment Power
Terri Beiner: This essay explores whether, how or, perhaps, to what extent President Barack Obama’s time as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago is reflected in his approach to judicial appointments. read full story

10/11/12 – Obama vs. Romney on the Supreme Court—Part 1
Ed Whelan: The topic of the Supreme Court has received very little attention in the presidential race. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney referred to it at all in his convention speech, nor did the matter come up in the first presidential debate. read full story

10/10/12 – Will 2013 bring an Obama Supreme Court?
Gordon Todd: As the Supreme Court begins its 2012-13 term, it likely does so for the last time in its present configuration. The Court’s four septuagenarians surely have replacement on their minds. read full story

10/10/12 – A shameful roadblock on judicial confirmations
Carl Tobias: Just in case you did not notice, the 112th House returned to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 10 after a five-week summer recess. Never fear. The House quickly recessed after deciding to do nothing. read full story

10/10/12 – What would Obama’s Supreme Court look like?
Liz Goodwin: Whoever wins the election this fall may be in a position to radically change the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court, a legacy that far outlasts a four-year term. read full story

10/10/12 – Commentary: Time to fill Florida’s Federal District court openings
Carl Tobias: The federal judiciary still experiences 78 openings in the 858 appeals and district court judgeships, four of which are in Florida. These vacancies, that comprise nearly nine percent of the seats nationwide and even more in Florida, undermine expeditious, inexpensive and fair case resolution. read full story

10/10/12 – Senior Status Quo? Changes to Nevada’s Federal Bench Reflect Federal Judiciary’s Trend – Increasing Reliance on Senior Judges
Margaret Foley: The federal bench of the District of Nevada is in the midst of an accelerated generational transformation. Within the space of less than three years, nearly every active district judge has taken or will be taking senior status. read full story

10/09/12 – About Obama’s (Lack of) Judicial Nominations
Say It Ain't So Already: If you’re like me, over the years that Obama has been in office, you’ve read an article here or there or heard an interview and been reminded that Obama has lagged in making judicial appointments. read full story

10/09/12 – How Obama has jeopardized the future of liberalism
Jamelle Bouie: It’s not an overstatement to say that by neglecting the judiciary, Obama has placed the future of liberalism in doubt. read full story

10/07/12 – Suprme Court Is Vital but Overlooked
Charles Ellison: As contentious and downright nasty as this general election cycle has turned, neither incumbent President Barack Obama, nor the Republican nominee, former Gov. Mitt Romney, have touched it. read full story

10/05/12 – Obama and the D.C. Circuit: Three Vacancies, No Confirmations
Robyn Hagan Cain: With so much power at stake, presidents are typically itching for an opportunity to make judicial nominations for the D.C. Circuit, but that doesn't mean that they can deliver a confirmation. read full story

05/10/12 – Analysis: Republicans lead Obama in war for judicial dominance
Joan Biskupic: When Barack Obama was elected president, critics and supporters alike thought the Democrat would move swiftly to appoint strong liberal judges to balance out Republicans' longstanding push for a conservative judiciary. At the nation's 13 powerful U.S. appeals courts, that has not happened. read full story

10/05/12 – 70 Open Federal Judge Appointments Will Have Long-Term Latino Impact
When President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court in 2009, the appointment made headlines because of her credentials, including as a federal District Court judge, and her Latino heritage. But equal attention should be paid to the push to fill more than 70 appointment-for-life federal court vacancies in four heavily Latino states. read full story

10/03/12 – The Obama Judicial Record
William J. Haun: If it is true that much unhappiness in the world has come because of things left unsaid, then we would be wise to turn our attention to an issue left unsaid by both Governor Romney and President Obama during their respective convention speeches: the role of the courts, and their state after four years of liberal judicial nominees. read full story

10/02/12 – Obama and Romney: Where they stand on Supreme Court appointments
The Associated Press: With four justices in their seventies, odds are good that whoever is elected president in November will have a chance to fill at least one Supreme Court seat. The next justice could dramatically alter the direction of a court closely divided between conservatives and liberals. read full story

10/01/12 – Supreme Court possibilities if Romney wins election
Bill Mears (CNN):  The Republican nominee has not specified publicly on favorites for the court. Many names mentioned are relatively young judges named to the federal bench by President George W. Bush. read full story

10/01/12 – Election raises stakes for possible Supreme Court vacancies
Bill Mears (CNN):  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney wasted little time rushing to the cameras when the Supreme Court narrowly upheld the president's sweeping health care reform law. read full story

10/01/12 – October/November 2012: The Elections and Judicial Vacancies
Federal Bar Association:  Judicial vacancies have not been a headlinegrabber in the final phase of the Presidential and Congressional elections. But the speed of Senate action on judicial nominees has been distinctly affected by the approach of the elections. read full story

10/01/12 – What would Romney’s Supreme Court look like?
Liz Goodwin, Yahoo:  Should Mitt Romney win the presidential election this November, one institution stands to receive a substantial makeover: the Supreme Court. read full story

10/01/12 – Who would Romney appoint to Supreme Court?
Catalina Camia:  The Supreme Court is back to work today, prompting a round of stories about why possible vacancies aren't being discussed in the presidential election and who would Mitt Romney appoint if he gets elected. read full story

10/01/12 – Elections 2012: First Monday Debate – An Indian on the Supreme Court?
Mark Trahant:  But one problem is that too few Native Americans have even been appointed and confirmed to the federal district courts or to the courts of appeals. read full story

09/30/12 – Supreme Court possibilities if Obama is reelected
Bill Mears, CNN:  The Obama administration, like those before, keeps an informal list of possible high court nominees to consider in the event of a sudden vacancy. read full story

09/28/12 – Why are candidates silent on Supreme Court?
Jeffrey Toobin:  What's the most important issue that neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney ever mention on the campaign trail? The future of the Supreme Court. read full story

09/27/12 – Obama nominates judge despite boneheaded gun ruling
New York Daily News:  In time, assuming that Obama is reelected, the Senate will study the matter further. Meanwhile, the President gets to boast that he is pushing a Hispanic for a federal judgeship. Ah, politics. read full story

09/27/12 – The 200-Day Club
Doug Kendall:  The gist is this: The average confirmation time for uncontroversial circuit court nominees rose from 64.5 days under Reagan to 227.3 days under Obama. read full story

09/26/12 – Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 9/26/2012
Judgepedia:  There were two new confirmations and one new vacancy this past week. That leaves the final tally at 74 vacancies or approximately 8.5% of the total Article III posts currently unfilled. read full story

09/26/12 – Supremes: Retirements, Romney’s picks & more
Committee for Justice:  Committee for Justice president Curt Levey discussed the future direction of the Supreme Court in an interview in the Fall 2012 issue of The Objective Standard, the nation’s leading Objectivist journal. read full story

09/25/12 – Because of Minority’s Obstruction, Senate Accomplishes 2/17 of What It Could Have; Punts 19 Judicial Nominations To Lame Duck
National Women's Law Center:  Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow the Senate to vote on 17 district court nominees read full story

09/25/12 – Conservatives warily ponder prospect of an ‘Obama court’
Tom Curry:  There are still 42 days and four debates left before the presidential election and many signs point to a close outcome, but recent polling both nationally and in key battleground states like Ohio has conservatives concerned about the impact President Obama could have on the judiciary in a second term. read full story

09/24/12 – Length of Time from Nomination to Confirmation for “Uncontroversial” U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominees: Detailed Analysis
Barry McMillion, Congressional Research Service:  Average and median waiting times to confirmation increased steadily with each presidency, from Ronald Reagan’s to Barack Obama’s, for uncontroversial circuit court nominees and almost as steadily for uncontroversial district court nominees. read full story

09/24/12 – Confirming Federal Judges: Perspectives, Rancor, and Potential Reform
Stephen Feldman, ABA: The slow and partisan federal confirmation process is a real issue for federal court litigants and practitioners. If vacancies are not filled, caseloads will not be reduced, and federal judicial resources will remain scarce. read full story

09/23/12 – Lengthy vacancies on courts undermine justice
Carl Tobias: The federal bench now has 76 vacancies in 856 appellate and district judgeships. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals experiences two in 12, one of which is an Oklahoma seat, and the Northern District of Oklahoma has one in three. These openings erode justice. read full story

09/21/12 – Bipartisanship and filling the federal bench
Carl Tobias:  The Senate needs to consider all 17 highly qualified district court nominees whom President Barack Obama carefully submitted and the Judiciary Committee reported before the Senate departed for the summer recess. read full story

09/20/12 – Is Senate Halting Votes on Judges Until After Election Day?
Gavel Grab:  A Senate halt to all judicial confirmations, until after Election Day, appeared possible on Thursday. read full story

09/20/12 – Reid: Two-Thirds Of Confirmed District Judges Were Filibustered By Republicans This Year
Ian Millhiser:  Last June, Senate Republicans shut down all appeals court confirmations, relying on a false claim that appellate court judges historically are not confirmed in the sixth months leading up to a presidential election. read full story

09/20/12 – More Court Vacancies, More GOP Obstruction
People for the American Way:  During the last presidential election year, Senate Democrats and Republicans cooperated to confirm 10 district court nominees in one day. This year Senate Republicans are sabotaging efforts to confirm 17 district court nominees before leaving town until after the election. read full story

09/18/12 – What Does Judicial Activism Mean For The 2012 Presidential Election?
Cheryl Stanton:  The next President must have the courage to nominate individuals who will interpret the laws and Constitution as written. read full story

09/17/12 – Constitution Day and lower federal court vacancies
Carl Tobias:  On Constitution Day, it is fitting to scrutinize that responsibility’s discharge and ascertain whether selection is functioning as intended. Unfortunately, the answer is no. read full story

09/14/12 – Sen. Confirmed 10 Judges One Day After Committee Vote in Sept 2008
People for the American Way:  During the last presidential election year, we saw nothing even closely resembling the current level of obstruction. In September 2008, the Senate confirmed ten of President Bush's district court nominees. All ten were approved by the Judiciary Committee on September 25 and received a floor vote just one day later. read full story

09/14/12 – Overloaded Courts, Not Enough Judges: The Impact on Real People
People for the American Way: Federal judges are required to give priority to criminal cases over civil ones. This means long delays for Americans seeking justice . . . read full story

09/13/12 – The Way Forward
Nan Aron: Those of us who fear that decades of social progress may be undone in the span of a few Supreme Court terms need to persuade progressive voters, activists and citizens of all stripes that the courts truly matter. read full story

09/12/12 – Confirmation of Female District Court Judge Highlights Progress on Diversity of Judicial Nominees
National Women's Law Center: The Senate could – and should – quickly and easily address the pending nominations in September, so people across the nation can benefit from a fully functioning court system in which the judiciary more closely resembles our country’s diverse population. read full story

09/12/12 – Widespread Shortage of Judges Derails Civil Justice System
Feldman Shepherd: This shortage of judges has led to a backlog of cases both criminal and civil. And because the Constitution guarantees criminal defendants a “speedy trial” (or else charges may be dropped), civil litigants have to wait longer and longer before their cases are heard. read full story

– As election approaches, confirming judges should be Senate priority
Carl Tobias: As the 112th Senate returns from its summer recess in this presidential election year, this is an ideal moment to evaluate federal court judicial selection. read full story

09/11/12 – Obama Appoints As Many Women Judges In One Term As Bush Did in Two
Ian Millhiser: Obama achieved his milestone despite a campaign of obstruction by Senate Republicans severe enough that it drew criticism from conservative Chief Justice John Roberts. read full story

09/10/12 – Justice Delayed: A Case Study in Pennsylvania’s Middle District
Peter Hardin: It’s difficult to put a human face on the federal judicial vacancy crisis. Few parties to a case want to get on a judge’s bad side by sounding like whiners. read full story

09/10/12 – Why We Need More Women Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Minnesota Litigator: The Court (more specifically, a panel of three male judges) found that they could not find that such “boorish, chauvinistic, and decidedly immature” conduct (which was one of several such incidents) “created an objectively hostile work environment permeated with sexual harassment.” read full story

09/10/12 – Meet The Press Gives Romney Another Pass on Ties to Constitutional Advisor Bork
Sergio Munoz: Mitt Romney's embrace of rejected right-wing Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork received another pass in the media on Sunday when David Gregory, host of NBC's Meet the Press, failed to ask Romney about Bork and his outside the mainstream view of the Constitution in the course of a lengthy interview. read full story

09/09/12 – In Pennsylvania, the Human Costs of Judicial Confirmation Delays
Andrew Cohen: The story of the Middle District is one of basic governance. It's about the executive branch and the legislative branch failing to perform its constitutional function of ensuring a viable judicial branch. It's about politicians in Washington failing or refusing to provide to the American people -- in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, for example -- one of the most elemental services a government can provide to the governed -- functioning courts of law. read full story

09/07/12 – Judicial vacancies in Texas undercut delivery of justice
The Hill: President Barack Obama must promptly nominate, and the Senate expeditiously approve, circuit and district judges, so that the empty seats will be filled nationwide as well as in the Fifth Circuit and Texas Districts. read full story

09/07/12 – Election Likely To Tip Supreme Court Balance
Eugene Fidell: As the country enters the home stretch for the 2012 presidential campaign, it is critical that voters focus on the impact of the election on the federal courts. read full story

09/05/12 – Should Prez Obama become much more aggressive on judicial appointments if he gets a second term? How exactly?
Sentencing Law & Policy: I wonder if anyone would urge the Obama Administration to start gearing up for a massive post-election judicial appointment push soon if Obama is elected to a second term. read full story

09/05/12 – Empty Benches
Pamela Karlan:  Even the best players can be hamstrung by a hostile umpire. Unless liberals make sure the umpires are not all from deep right field, they will face serious difficulties down the line. read full story

09/04/12 – Who killed Washington? Republicans caught red-handed
Jon Perr: From its record-setting use of the filibuster and its united front against Obama's legislative agenda to blocking judicial nominees and its unprecedented (and repeated) threats to trigger a U.S. default, the most conservative Congress in over 100 years stopped Washington dead in its tracks. read full story

09/02/12 – Presidential election will have major impact as vacancies arise
Dion Farganis: Ever hear of Brett Kavanaugh or Kamala Harris? You may be about to put one of them on the highest court in the land. read full story

08/31/12 – Judicial Nominations Preview: Looking Ahead to September
National Women's Law Council:  One must-do priority is confirming the backlog of judicial nominees – and if longstanding Senate practices were followed, this could be accomplished quickly and easily. read full story

08/29/12 – Bush Judges Again Show Why the DC Circuit Matters
People for the American Way: Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Court issued two sharply divided opinions, both authored by ideological George W. Bush nominees, that show just how important it is to fill the DC Circuit's three empty judgeships with jurists who will put the law over political ideology. read full story

08/27/12 – GEORGE CURRY: Obama’s Mixed Record on Appointing Judges
George Curry: Part of the problem was that Obama made judicial appointments a low priority as he tried to push his health reform initiative through Congress. A second problem was GOP opposition to Obama’s nominees. Even so, Obama did make significant changes. read full story

08/24/12 – Court vacancies erode delivery of justice
Carl Tobias: His decision leaves the bench with 14 vacancies in the 179 appeals court judgeships and the 5th Circuit with two in 17, both of which are judicial emergencies. These openings, which constitute 8 percent of judgeships nationwide and 12 percent in the circuit, erode the delivery of justice. read full story

08/23/12 – Boston Globe Ignores Unprecedented Conservative Obstruction Blocking Obama’s Judges
Sergio Munoz, Media Matters: By ignoring Republican obstruction, the Globe gives its readers far less than half the story. read full story

08/23/12 – President Obama has been too slow to name federal judges
Boston Globe: Obama may also set a model for future presidents in choosing less contentious figures. But over almost four years he could have, and should have, done more. read full story

08/20/12 – Time past due for judge appointment
Williamsport Sun-Gazette: The U.S. Middle District of Pennsylvania covers 33 counties. Yet there is no sitting federal judge in the Williamsport federal court house. read full story

08/20/12 – A Romney Court, the Middle Class and 1% Justice
Jamie Raskin:  The middle class has already taken a beating at the hands of this ruling conservative bloc on the Supreme Court. read full story

08/18/12 – Obama And His Judges (Or Lack Thereof)
Ben Jacobs:  This can be addressed if Obama wins a second term. After all, he’ll have four more years to make up for lost time at the beginning of his administration. But, if not, it will give Mitt Romney a nearly unprecedented opportunity to remake the federal judiciary in his own image. read full story

08/14/12 – Senate should not invoke ‘Thurmond Rule’ to block Kayatta nomination
Carl Tobias:  Because Mr. Kayatta is a strong consensus nominee, he does not satisfy the Thurmond Rule and GOP senators must expeditiously allow a floor vote. Should the Republican leaders refuse to vote, Maine GOP Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins must join other senators in favoring cloture, so that Kayatta secures a merits vote. read full story

08/14/12 – WHERE WE STAND: Petty blocks of nominees must end
Courier Post (New Jersey):  In Washington, the shameless game of blocking judicial nominees for no other reason that straight partisanship is, at this point, almost a time-honored tradition in the U.S. Senate. read full story

08/13/12 – Judge Stephanie “Postville” Rose
Dave Leach:  When cruelty under color of law violates laws, and then lies to cover it up, in half the cases of a legal career, that points to discrimination so deep that any immigrant hauled before Rose’s court would be justified in asking Rose to recuse herself. read full story

08/08/12 – A Long View of the Senate’s Influence over Supreme Court Appointments
Christine Chabot: Taken as a whole, historical data show presidential ideology significantly predicts Justices' votes, while senatorial ideology does not. read full story

08/07/12 – Brookings Report on Judicial Confirmations
Ed Whelan:  The ever-reliable Russell Wheeler of the Brookings Institution has produced a report on President Obama’s judicial confirmations as of the summer recess in this election year. read full story

08/07/12 – Senator Who Blocked Nominees with Highest ABA Rating Tells ABA: Qualifications Matter More than Politics
Nicole Flatow, ACS:  At the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting this weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urged his conservative friends to stop obstructing President Obama’s qualified judicial nominees, even as Graham has moved to block a string of appeals court nominees rated unanimously well-qualified by the organization he was addressing. read full story

08/07/12 – Partisanship still thwarting judicial confirmations
Express-News Editorial Board: The threat to an independent judiciary is only one manifestation of the excessive partisanship that infects Congress, and it is a clear sign that the culture in Washington needs real change. read full story

08/06/12 – The Register editorial: Judges remain hostages in the Senate
Des Moines Register:  The continuing decline in statesmanship in the U.S. Senate has gotten to the point where even noncontroversial nominees for the federal trial courts are having trouble being confirmed. read full story

08/06/12 – With judicial nominations, what goes around can come back around
The Oklahoman Editorial:  Democrats and others critical of Bacharach’s languishing nomination for the appellate court slot are right in saying politics shouldn’t trump qualifications. But the same thing happened to Keating after President George H.W. Bush nominated him for a Court of Appeals vacancy in November 1991. read full story

08/05/12 – 3Qs: Dr. John Winkle, UM political science professor
Patty Brumfield:  In mid-July, the U.S. Senate confirmed perhaps its final judicial nomination from President Obama, unless he wins re-election. Now, the Senate Republican leadership says it won't act on any more judicial nominees until after the Nov. 6 election. read full story

08/05/12 – Cowardly lions
Julie Delcour:  Oklahoma Sens. James Inhofe and Tom Coburn consider themselves lions of the U.S. Senate, men standing on principle, men willing to take an unpopular stand whether it be earmarks or global warming, defense spending or the national debt crisis. So why did they look like cowardly lions last week? read full story

08/02/12 – Obama’s Judicial Confirmations at the Election Year Summer Recess, and Prospects for the Fall
Russell Wheeler, Brookings:  Confirmation rates and numbers of confirmations are only one comparative measure of presidential-Senate judicial confirmation politics. read full story

08/01/12 – Superficial Change on the Federal Bench?
Laurence Hurley:  But for those who had hoped Obama's election would herald an overhaul of the courts after eight years of conservative nominations from President George W. Bush, this progress has been met with muted applause. read full story

08/01/12 – NYTimes Changes Its Tune on the Filibuster
Meredith Jessup:  This is an interesting change in tone from the Times given the stance it took in support of the filibuster in 2005 when George W. Bush was president and Democrats controlled the Senate. read full story

08/01/012 – Obama’s judicial logjam
Al Kamen:  The Senate’s rejection Monday of Oklahoma Magistrate Judge Robert Bacharach for a U.S. Court of Appeals seat sent a clear message to the three other appellate nominees hoping for a vote on the Senate floor: Fuhgeddaboudit. read full story

08/01/12 – Senate on strike
Salt Lake Tribune:  Try this at work: Don’t do a very important part of your job for several months. When your boss finally catches on, say you are refusing to perform that task as a way of protesting the fact that some guy in another department is doing his job in a way you don’t like. read full story

08/01/12 – Coburn’s Tactics On Stalled Judge Gives Winning Gymnast Team Run For Money
Scott Crass, The Moderate Voice:  On the eve of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team capturing a gold medal, Tom Coburn’s maneuvering’s on the nomination of a home-state Judge would without question give the team a run for money. read full story

07/31/12 – Carl Tobias: Judicial vacancies alarming
Carl Tobias:  This month, District Judge Kent Dawson assumed senior status after 12 years of dedicated service. This means the federal district courts experience 63 openings in 677 judgeships, and the District of Nevada has two of seven. These vacancies — almost one-tenth systemwide and a third in Nevada — erode justice read full story

07/31/12 – Robert Bacharach and the Last Screw
Sid Howard:  Coburn claims he will push for Bacharach's nomination even if Mitt Romney becomes president. I'm sure that promise will be of great solace to the honorable Mr. Bacharach and Coburn's commitment to it will rank right up there with the many promises made to say, the Sioux Nation back in the 1800's. read full story

07/31/12 – Conservatives make the worst kind of history
Shannon Zhang: Senator Cornyn has long been opposed to a minority party blocking the nomination of a qualified, consensus nominee. Apparently that position changed yesterday as conservatives made the worst kind of history. read full story

07/31/12 – The Cannibals of the Senate Reveal All
Charles Pierce:  The basic problem with the government right now is that nothing gets done because the Republican party handed itself over to vandals and yahoos, and said vandals and yahoos would prefer to pose for the folks in the tricorns and knee breeches back home than actually, you know, govern the country. read full story

07/31/12 – Catch of the Day
Jonathan Bernstein:  It's just a really, really big deal, and one that will cost liberals for a long time, especially if Obama loses this fall. And if he wins: is he, and are liberal activists, prepared to make the judiciary a higher priority? read full story

07/31/12 – Barack Obama Has Been Mysteriously Apathetic About Nominating Judges
Kevin Drum:  At a bare minimum, if his legal team had done this in the first half of 2009, he would have had plenty of candidates to muscle through during the few months he commanded a filibuster-proof majority. So why didn't he? It's a helluva mystery. read full story

07/31/12 – Senate Republicans Have Spoken: No Votes on Judges Until After the Election
Elizabeth Garvey, The Foundary:  As long as the Senate recognizes the Thurmond/Leahy Rule, it should apply the rule regardless of which party controls the White House and Senate. As Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Charles Grassley (R–IA) quipped, “If ever there was an example of crocodile tears, this is it.” read full story

07/31/12 – Confirmation of highly qualified 10th Circuit nominee left to languish some more
The Oklahoman Editorial:  By placing party above all else with their vote on 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Robert Bacharach, U.S. Senate Republicans did a disservice to the court and to the good man caught in the middle. Oklahoma’s two senators deserve a share of the blame. read full story

07/31/12 – Obama’s Unfinished Judicial Legacy
Jeffrey Toobin:  The President’s lethargy on the matter of judicial nominations is inexplicable. So is his silence on the subject. George W. Bush complained loudly when he felt Democrats in the Senate had delayed or obstructed his judicial nominees. Obama has said little. read full story

07/30/12 – Heritage Supports Blocking Judicial Nominee Even Though He Is Consensus Bipartisan Pick
Media Matters:  The "Thurmond Rule" typically blocks a sitting president's judicial nominations at some point prior to a presidential election only if they are "cronies and ideologues." As a consensus pick, Judge Bacharach is clearly neither. read full story

07/30/12 – Senate Republicans Filibuster Judge They Don’t Even Oppose
Ian Millhiser:  So Bacharach enjoys widespread bipartisan support, including support from the Senate’s most ideological wing. He should be a shoo-in for confirmation — except, of course, for the fact that the Senate is run by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. read full story

07/30/12 – In Blocking Tenth Circuit Nominee, Senate Republicans Set New Record for Obstruction
Nicole Flatow, ACSblog:  Senate Republicans voted in favor of obstruction Monday evening simply because it is July 2012, blocking an up-or-down vote on a federal appeals court nominee many of them supported. read full story

07/30/12 – Statement by White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler on the Senate Filibuster of Judge Robert Bacharach
Kathy Ruemmler, White House Counsel:  The American people deserve better than this unprecedented partisan obstruction of the President’s efforts to ensure a fair and functioning judiciary. read full story

07/29/12 – Senate Opposition May Block Judicial Nominee Robert E. Bacharach
Heritage Foundation:  Now that Senate Republicans have laid down their marker, they should not, in the words of the Bard, hold their manhood cheap. read full story

07/29/12 – A Poor Excuse to Block Judges
New York Times Editorial:  It’s long past time to discard this rule — which is often broken by the Senate at its convenience, anyway — along with all filibusters of presidential appointments. read full story

07/28/12 – Filibustering Nominees Must End
New York Times Editorial:  The system for reviewing presidential appointments is broken. The Senate has a constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on the naming of judges and high-ranking executive branch officials. But the process has been hijacked by cynical partisanship and cheap tricks. read full story

07/27/12 – Filibuster of 10th Circuit Nominee Would Be Unprecedented
People for the American Way:  If this filibuster succeeds, it will be the first time there has ever been a successful filibuster of a circuit court nominee who was approved in committee with bipartisan support. read full story

07/27/12 – Obama Judicial Nominees Are Being Treated Fairly
Republican Policy Committee:  Senator Reid has scheduled Monday’s vote as an election-year gimmick to paint Senate Republicans as obstructionists. But a strategy of blaming Republicans doesn’t withstand scrutiny. read full story

07/26/12 – Filling the Eleventh Circuit vacancies
Carl Tobias:  This month, Eleventh Circuit Judge J. L. Edmondson assumes senior status after a quarter century of valuable service. His decision leaves the bench with 13 vacancies in the 179 appeals court judgeships and the Eleventh Circuit with two in twelve. read full story

07/26/12 – Senate Blinks on Judge Shipp, Onus Now On Reid For More Confirmtions
Scott Crass, The Moderate Voice:  Whatever the order, the onus is now on Reid. One per week is simply not acceptable given what’s at stake. Advocates of holding up the process have shown they’ll blink. Now is the time to move forward. read full story

07/25/12 – Obama and Romney high court options
Al Kamen:  But the election will certainly affect the court, though perhaps not right away. And it appears that a President Romney has far more potential to influence the court than does President Obama. read full story

07/24/12 – Youth Will Out: No Matter Who Wins, SCOTUS Nominees Will Get Younger
Mark Walsh, ABA Journal:  With three justices in their late 70s and a fourth in his mid-70s, chances are strong that a second-term Barack Obama or a first-term Mitt Romney will have the opportunity to nominate one or more replacements. read full story

07/23/12 – Reform the nominations process
Jonathan Bernstein:  So while it’s absolutely fair to blame Republicans for holds, filibusters, and otherwise dragging their feet, what’s really needed is a reformed process. read full story

07/23/12 – 2012 and the Court
Carrie Severino:  If President Obama is reelected, he could have the opportunity to appoint as many as three justices, maybe more, making him the first president since Eisenhower to appoint a majority of the justices on the Court. read full story

07/23/12 – Non-Controversial Judicial Nominee Stalemate Worsens,Turning Conventionality Upside Down
Scott Crass, The Moderate Voice:  In other words, the only thing that stands in the way of confirmation is a simple up or down vote. So Grassley’s reasoning for not confirming an abundance of nominees is that the President hasn’t filed a handful of others? Absurd. read full story

07/23/12 – GOP senators are blocking justice along with judges
S.F. Examiner:  These senators don’t have to reject Obama’s judicial appointees outright. They just have to slow down the process with parliamentary procedures. And that’s just what they’ve done. read full story

07/22/12 – Bench vacant too long
The Norman Transcript (Ok.):  By all accounts Robert E. Bacharach of Edmond is expected to make a fine judge on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But his appointment — and others — is caught up in the partisan politics of the presidency. read full story

07/22/12 – Filling judicial vacancies in Nevada
Carl Tobias:  His action leaves the federal district court bench with 64 vacancies out of 679 judgeships and the Nevada District with two in seven. These openings — nearly 10 and 30 percent, respectively — undermine the delivery of justice. read full story

07/20/12 – Letters to the editor: Election-year politics mar nomination
Sens. Collins & Snowe:  We were extremely disappointed with a recent editorial on Bill Kayatta's nomination to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. We both enthusiastically support Bill's nomination. read full story

07/19/12 – Letter to Senators Inhofe and Coburn
Jimmy Goodman, ABA State Delegate:  Oklahoma's current delegates to the ABA are writing to ask you respectfully to press the Republican Senate leadership for a floor vote on the nomination of Judge Robert Bacharach. read full story

07/19/12 – Senate Does 1/18 of the Work It Could Have Done
Amy Matsui, National Women's Law Center:  It used to be fairly routine for the Senate to confirm handfuls of judicial nominees – especially district court nominees – at a time. Instead, just as it has for the last two weeks, the Senate confirmed one district court nominee. One! read full story

07/18/12 – Pennsylvania’s federal-court vacancies are undermining justice
Carl Tobias:  With Judge Michael Baylson of Pennsylvania's Eastern District assuming semi-retired status this month, 77 of the federal judiciary's 856 appellate and district judgeships are vacant, including six of 22 in the Eastern District. These vacancies — affecting 9 percent of judgeships nationwide and 27 percent in the district that includes Philadelphia — undermine efforts to deliver justice. read full story

07/18/12 – The Dems invoked the ‘Thurmond Rule’ — where was The Times?
Sens. McConnell & Grassley:  The Times' July 12 editorial, "Reject the 'Thurmond Rule,'" omitted key facts. It ignored the most active proponent of the rule: the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. read full story

07/18/12 – Letters: Debating the ‘Thurmond Rule’
L.A. Times:  From Sens. McConnell and Grassley, "Your editorial omitted pertinent facts."  From Professor Carl Tobias, "Most critically, the rule's namesake violated it the year of its inception." read full story

07/18/12 – Compromise shouldn’t be a no-no
Idaho Mountain Express:  An underlying threat runs through much Republican campaign rhetoric. The re-election of President Barack Obama will result in a united opposition unwilling to compromise on any issue. read full story

07/18/12 – Our View: U.S. Senate should vote on judicial nomination
Portland Press Herald (Maine):  The late Strom Thurmond was one of the most divisive figures in American history since the Civil War. It is fitting that his name is attached to an ugly and obstructionist piece of governmental machinery that values partisan politics over the good of the nation. read full story

07/16/12 – What’s at Stake in 2012: The Lower Courts
Adam Freedman:  But the judicial stakes in November go far beyond the Supreme Court. Most cases don’t make it to the high court. Thus, it is the lower federal courts, especially the appellate (“circuit”) courts, that end up making much of the law that we live with. read full story

07/16/12 – William Kayatta and the Needless Destruction of the Thurmond Rule
Andrew Cohen:  Why do Republican leaders still play along with an informal Senate rule that prevents up-or-down votes on even those judges who have strong Republican support? read full story

07/16/12 – Will Tulsa ever get a new U.S. attorney?
Tulsa World:   The former Republican-appointed U.S. attorney, David O'Meilia, resigned from office three years ago.  Since then, the president and Oklahoma's two Republican senators could not agree on a name to put forward. read full story

07/16/12 – July 2012: The Lingo of Judicial Vacancies and Confirmations
Bruce Moyer, Federal Bar Assoc.:   What the heck do all these terms— Thurmond Rule, blue slips, cloture, judicial emergencies—mean? read full story

07/15/12 – Fowlkes’ credentials sweep Senate
Otis Sanford:  This is about one deserving guy whose impressive credentials transcended election-year theatrics in Washington. The 94-2 vote for confirmation is a clear testament to that. read full story

07/14/12 – What’s at Stake in 2012: The Supreme Court
Adam Freedman:  Now that John Roberts is officially a “swing vote,” the need to get conservatives on the Court is more pressing than ever. read full story

07/14/12 – Withholding confirmation, a new museum
Sun Journal (Maine):  The courts in this country have a lot of work to do, and defendants have a constitutional right to be heard in those courtrooms. None of that can happen without judges. read full story

07/12/12 – Reject the ‘Thurmond Rule’
LA Times:  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell invokes the legacy of Strom Thurmond to hold up judicial confirmations. It's bad for judges and bad for justice. read full story

07/12/12 – As Romney Embraces Judicial Extremism, Supreme Court Is a Winning Issue for Progressives
Michael Keegan, People for the American Way:  Voters are beginning to imagine a Romney Court -- and they're rejecting what they see. read full story

07/12/12 – Another view: President, senators need to fill judicial vacancies more quickly
Carl Tobias:  This month, the federal courts mark significant milestones when U.S. Chief District Judge Robert Pratt of the Southern District of Iowa assumes senior status after 15 years of dedicated service. read full story

07/11/12 – Editorial: John Fowlkes Jr.
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis):  Case backlogs in the federal Western District, like other districts cross the country, are increasing. Partisan rancor over judicial nominations is exacerbating the problem. Fowlkes' appointment comes at an opportune time on that score. Plus, he'll be an excellent addition to the federal bench. read full story

07/10/12 – Discretion & Deference in Senate Consideration of Judicial Nominations
Caprice L. Roberts: Thoughtful and honest consideration of judicial nominations, early articulated bases for objection, and greater transparency of genuine motives in the confirmation process will ideally lead to a deeper discussion and evaluation on the merits of what constitutes an ideal jurist on the federal bench and the judicial nominee’s qualifications towards that end goal. read full story

07/10/12 – State Supreme Court Justice Nelson Roman isn’t going anywhere
NY Daily News:  There go the hopes of one city judge to step up to the prestigious federal bench. This, most assuredly, is his future because he was on an appeals panel that issued a disastrous and dangerous stop, question and frisk ruling. read full story

07/09/12 – The Unfortunate Politicization of Judicial Confirmation Hearings
John M. Walker, Jr.:  The nomination and confirmation process for federal judges is broken. It politicizes the judiciary, misrepresents the judiciary's role in our democracy, demeans highly qualified nominees, and unjustifiably delays or jettisons confirmations altogether. read full story

07/09/12 – Commentary: Time to fill California’s Eastern District judicial vacancies
Carl Tobias:  Last week, the federal judiciary marked significant milestones when United States District Judge Garland Burrell of the Eastern District of California took senior status following two decades of valuable service. read full story

07/09/12 – Will Political Ties Secure a Federal Judge Appointment?
Malia Zimmerman:  Should Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, (D-Hawaii) win the U.S. Senate election this November, she will help select Hawaii’s next federal judge. If Hawaii’s most powerful Democrats get their way, that judicial candidate will be Andrew Winer, a tort lawyer and political strategist. read full story

07/09/12 – The Supreme Court Stakes in 2012
Clint Bolick:  Long after Barack Obama and Mitt Romney fade in our memories, the Supreme Court justices one of them appoints will still be rendering the rulings that determine the future course of our nation. read full story

07/09/12 – Federal Judicial Emergencies
Andrew Blotky/April Carson: More than one-half of Americans—160 million people—today are living in a jurisdiction that has been declared a judicial emergency meaning that in courtrooms across the country there aren’t enough judges to hear the cases that are piling up. read full story

07/07/12 – Senators should ‘Maine up’ on judges
Dan Webber:  The problem for Oklahomans is that Maine's GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe have taken a different stance than our own Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe. The Maine senators are simply not taking "no" for an answer from their party. read full story

07/05/12 – Do more GOP or Dem SCOTUS picks go awry?
The Arena:  Democrats have been virtually flawless in appointing reliable liberals to the court. Yet Republicans, more often than not, appoint justices who vote with the other side on critical decisions. Does this formulation make sense? read full story

06/29/12 – Mitt Romney: Can’t Be Trusted on Judicial Nominations
Christopher Barron, United Liberty:  According to Mitt Romney, Chief Justice Roberts, now enemy number one to many conservatives and constitutionalists, is EXACTLY the kind of justice he would nominate if elected President. read full story

06/29/12 – Republican Obstruction Impedes Efforts to Diversify the Federal Bench
People for the American Way:  Senate Republicans' ongoing obstruction of President Obama's judicial nominees is having a disproportionate impact on those who are women and people of color. read full story

06/27/12 – Justice Scalia must resign
E.J. Dionne Jr.: He’d have a lot of things to do. He’s a fine public speaker and teacher. He’d be a heck of a columnist and blogger. But he really seems to aspire to being a politician — and that’s the problem. read full story

06/27/12 – Our Views: A new abuse on judgeship
The Advocate (Baton Rouge): In an unfairness that he has denounced in others, U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is blocking the confirmation process for a new federal judge in the Baton Rouge-based Middle District court. Why? Attorney Shelly D. Dick was nominated to the bench on the recommendation of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat. read full story

06/26/12 – Senators Call ABA’s Bluff on Judicial Nominations
Bruce Hausknecht: It should surprise no one familiar with the American Bar Association’s left-leaning bias to hear that it wrote a letter to the U.S. Senate recently, urging them to ignore Senate traditions in an election year in order to push President Obama’s judicial nominees. read full story

06/25/12 – The Thurmond Rule Explained
Brian Darling: Stalling judicial nominations in the months prior to the potential selection of a new president has become a bipartisan tradition. But have Republicans jumped the gun and started stalling early? read full story

06/25/12 – Senators Grassley and McConnell respond to a letter from the American Bar Association regarding judicial nominations
Sens. Grassley and McConnell: By any objective measure--overall circuit court vacancy rate, vacancies on the respective circuit courts, or judicial emergency designation--our appellate courts are doing at least as well, and in most respects better, now than when our democratic colleagues invoked the Rule both times during the last administration. read full story

06/24/12 – Constitutional Principles: Filibusters
Richmond Times-Dispatch: The Senate GOP believes that only Republican nominees deserve up or down votes, or so it seems. read full story

06/22/12 – The Brian Davis Nomination
Roger Clegg: I don’t know whether the rest of Davis’s record assuages or aggravates these concerns, but the speech and the responses make it essential for the rest of the Senate Judiciary Committee to examine Brian Davis’s record very carefully. read full story

06/22/12 – Right-Wing Blogger Covers Up GOP’s Historic Obstruction Of Obama Judicial Nominees
Adam Shah, Media Matters: It would have been impossible for the ABA to send a "similar letter" on behalf of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees, because Bush's judicial nominees were not subject to the type of obstruction experienced by the Obama nominees in question. read full story

06/22/12 – Judicial Restraint Doesn’t Mean Halting Confirmations
Scott Crass: To argue that one batch of nominees can’t be confirmed because there hasn’t been another batch submitted? What kind of nonsense is that? read full story

06/22/12 – ABA Picks Sides on Judicial Nominations
Orin Kerr: Did the ABA ever urge the Senate to confirm nominees during the Bush Administration? Not as far as I can tell. I looked around for similar letters before the Obama Presidency, but I couldn’t find any. read full story

06/22/12 – Republican ABA President Calls On Mitch McConnell To End Appeals Court Nomination Blockade
Josh Israel: A week after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told his colleagues he intended to block every single appeals court nominee for the remainder of President Obama’s term, he is getting criticism from an unexpected source. read full story

06/22/12 – One Year and Counting in Blue Slip Hold-Up of Ariz. Nominee
Nicole Flatow: Saturday marks one year since Rosemary Marquez was nominated to fill a judicial emergency seat in the District of Arizona, a jurisdiction so overwhelmed with immigration and drug cases that the chief judge has said it might be difficult to find anyone willing to accept a nomination. read full story

06/22/12 – The Worst “Both Sides” Argument Ever
John Cole: Why would the ABA urge the Senate to confirm nominees during the Obama admin and not during the Bush years. Is there a possible answer other than that the ABA is a “liberal advocacy group?” Why yes, I think there is a reason why. read full story

06/21/12 – Support the nominee, partisanship at fault
Sen. Menendez: U.S. Magistrate Patty Shwartz should be a U.S. Court of Appeals judge. The Star-Ledger made that point. I agree. I reached that conclusion months ago, after meeting with her twice. read full story

06/21/12 – Commentary: Filling Eastern District of Pennsylvania judicial vacancies
Carl Tobias: This week, the federal courts pass important milestones when United States District Judge Berle Schiller of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania assumes senior status after twelve years of dedicated service. read full story

06/20/12 – Sen. Robert Menendez makes a costly mistake for N.J.
N.J. Star-Ledger: Sen. Robert Menendez had no legitimate grounds to block the nomination of a highly qualified woman for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals, as he has tacitly admitted himself. But his political games have proved costly. read full story

06/19/12 – GOP Tired of Obstructing Judges, Pledges to Stop Working on them Altogether
Marge Baker: Throughout the Obama administration, McConnell's strategy has been simply to stall and sabotage as many of the president's initiatives as possible, regardless of the consequences. Last week's judicial nominations decree signals his intention to continue that strategy to the bitter end. read full story

06/19/12 – Mitt Romney’s judicial nominations will go big in the Supreme Court
George Will: Although Hamilton called the judiciary the "least dangerous" branch because it has "neither force nor will, but merely judgment," it is dangerous to liberty when it is unreasonably restrained. One hopes Romney recognizes that judicial deference to elected representatives can be dereliction of judicial duty. read full story

06/17/12 – ACS Panel on Nominations, Recess Appointments and the Filibuster
Jonathan Adler: Another interesting aspect of the panel was that while there was significant criticism of the GOP’s obstruction and filibuster efforts against President Obama’s judicial nominees, few suggested that removing the filibuster option for judicial nominees would be a good solution. read full story

06/15/12 – Oklahoma’s U.S. senators should push for vote on judicial post
Dan Webber: U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, recently gave the label “stupid” to his own Republican Senate leadership's plan to delay pending judicial nominations in the hopes that the White House will change parties after the fall election. The senator is right. read full story

06/15/12 – Could Sri Srinivasan be the First Indian-American SCOTUS Justice?
Maryam K. Ansari: Srikanth “Sri” Srinivasan was nominated by President Barack Obama earlier this week. There have been many eyes on him over the years as he has been an star on the legal scene. If confirmed to the bench, he would be the first person of Indian descent to sit on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, reports India West. read full story

06/15/12 – ‘Tis the Season for the Thurmond Rule
Sarah Binder: Senators from both parties perpetuate the chamber’s byzantine practices by engaging in these quadrennial debates about whether the other party has invoked the rule too early. They should instead focus on calling out the egregious behavior of blanket filibusters of the opposition’s candidates for the bench. read full story

06/15/12 – The “Thurmond Rule” — Another Blot on the Senate
Bob Edgar, Common Cause: The only explanation senators offer for this nonsense is that this is the way they've always operated -- as if the tradition was a source of pride rather than an embarrassment. read full story

06/15/12 – The Thurmond Rule
Andrew Rosenthal: Mr. Cornyn said preemptively that Mr. Obama should not complain because if he is re-elected, or as Mr. Cornyn put it, “elected,” then the delay will only last a few months. Let’s check back next spring. read full story

06/14/12 – And the 2012 John Roberts/Elena Kagan Award for the D.C. Circuit Hopeful Nominated in the Last Few Months of A Presidential Term With No Chance of Confirmation This Late (But A Very Promising Future Next Time) Goes to …
Orin Kerr: Sri Srinivasan. read full story

06/14/12 – Mitch McConnell’s choice: Justice delayed, and delayed, and delayed
Jonathan Bernstein: Remember: this isn’t just about partisan advantage. This is also about whether the courts can function well enough to provide justice. At the very least, it’s worth remembering that Mitch McConnell doesn’t seem to care about that one. read full story

06/14/12 – Bar Associations Turn to Lobbying Firm for Help on Judicial Nominations
ABAJournal: Eng estimates that lobbying on behalf of nominees supplies about 5 percent of his firm’s revenue. But judicial nominations are “the funnest part of the job,” Eng tells the Post. read full story

06/13/12 – Kyl shows it by backing Democratic judge
The Arizona Republic: Kyl stood by an accomplished and highly qualified justice, regardless of their party differences. The courts and the Senate are better for it. read full story

06/13/12 – Sole Remaining Circuit Vacancy Open Eight Years
Pamela A. McLean: With the confirmation of Judge Andrew Hurwitz, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has 28 judges, just one robe shy of a full court. That is the seat of Judge Stephen Trott, of Idaho – or is it California? read full story

06/13/12 – Two Oklahoma judges caught in U.S. Senate gamesmanship
The Oklahoman Editorial: This is getting ridiculous. An Oklahoman who's been waiting to become a federal judge apparently will be made to wait some more, perhaps until after the presidential election in November, because of political gamesmanship by Republicans in the U.S. Senate. read full story

06/13/12 – Editorial: Senate finally votes on needed judges
Sacramento Bee: It took way too long, but the U.S. Senate on Tuesday finally emptied the backlog of California's judicial nominations. read full story

06/12/12 – Hurwitz Judicial Nomination Moves Forward
Jessica Pieklo: Hurwitz’s nomination advancing is good news, but it’s too early to say that it is a sign Republicans are moving away from their extreme positions of the past three years on all matters of the federal judiciary and abortion rights. read full story

06/12/12 – Re: Obama’s Keystone Kops Routine on D.C. Circuit Vacancies
Ed Whalen: I’ll note this curiosity: President Obama nominated Sri Srinivasan without first receiving the ABA judicial-evaluation committee’s rating of Srinivasan. read full story

06/11/12 – O’Connor and Her Clerk
Jeffrey Toobin: Justice O’Connor believes that Srinivasan deserves a smooth ride to confirmation. “He’s not anybody who’s been politically active, he’s been very serious in his work habits, and people have had an ample opportunity to see his work,” she told me, “I think he’s been steady and impressive.” read full story

06/11/12 – Obama’s Keystone Kops Routine on D.C. Circuit Vacancies
Ed Whalen: Don’t forget that during the entirety of his first two years in office Obama failed to make any nominations to the two vacancies that existed throughout that period. Instead, he attempted to use a D.C. Circuit seat “as a political booby prize” by offering it to then-White House counsel Greg Craig as a means of easing Craig out of his job. read full story

06/11/12 – Conservatives Rally to Block Horrible Judicial Nominee
Quin Hillyer: Conservatives today are rallying to try to block the nomination of Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Hurwitz to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. They have a good point. Hurwitz wrote a law review article celebrating, in effect, his own role in creating the monstrosity of legal unreasoning known as Roe v. Wade. read full story

06/10/12 – Q & A with David L. Brown: How an Iowan helps vet judges
Des Moines Register: What most Americans see of this process are the confirmation battles that often erupt in the Senate. Long before that debate occurs, however, judicial nominees get an extraordinary amount of scrutiny from the White House, the U.S. Justice Department, the FBI and the home state senators. read full story

06/08/12 – Key Vote Alert: “NO” on the Nomination of Andrew Hurwitz
Heritage Action for America: Mr. Hurwitz’s previous actions and writings raise serious questions as to whether he’d be able to follow the rule of law from the bench. In the past, Mr. Hurwitz has encouraged courts to legislate from the bench. read full story

06/08/12 – NRLC scorecard advisory in opposition to cloture on the nomination of Andrew Hurwitz to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Douglas Johnson: Well over four million second-trimester abortions have been performed since Roe was handed down. This carnage is in part the legacy of Jon O. Newman – but Judge Hurwitz clearly wants to claim a measure of the credit for himself, as well. read full story

06/08/12 – Stop Confirmation of Roe v. Wade Architect!
Eagle Forum: Americans are overwhelmingly seeing the truth about abortion, and are identifying themselves as “pro-life,” yet Barack Obama continues his effort to fill federal judicial benches with radical pro-abortion nominees. As early as this Monday, June 11, the Senate will vote on a cloture motion to move to final confirmation on Andrew David Hurwitz, the self-identified architect of Roe v. Wade. read full story

01/19/12 – Letter of Recommendation from Justice Hurwitz’s Former Law Clerks
A clerkship with Justice Hurwitz has been described by at least one senior attorney in the Phoenix area as "attending the Andy Hurwitz Finishing School." We have all been fortunate enough to have our legal careers molded in part at that "Finishing School," and for that, we are proud and grateful. read full story

06/08/12 – Filling the Ninth Circuit vacancies
Prof. Carl Tobias: President Obama and the Senate must rapidly fill the Ninth Circuit vacancies with superb judges, so the tribunal can deliver justice. read full story

06/05/12 – Obama’s Empty Federal Bench
Adam Serwer: There are more empty seats on the federal bench now than when President Barack Obama took office, skewing federal courts to the right and leaving some jurisdictions with overwhelming caseloads. read full story

06/05/12 – Report: More Judicial Vacancies Now Than At Beginning of Obama Presidency
David Dayen: You would think that, just as a legacy-building matter, the President and his staff would be more attentive to this. Because of the loosening of the obstructionism in recent months, you cannot credibly make the case that any nominees would just be filibustered anyway. read full story

06/05/12 – American Dysfunction Watch: State of the Judiciary
James Fallows: Refreshingly, this is not strictly a partisan issue! Senate showdowns over judicial nominees have ramped up under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. read full story

06/03/12 – A Mitt Romney Presidency Could Mean a Hostile Takeover Of The Federal Courts
Jessica Mason Pieklo, Hamline University: Romney may have started his political career in Massachusetts as an advocate of judicial reform, but he did not end it as one. And with the state of our federal judiciary already in crisis the last thing this country can afford is an administration that drives the law further right while dismantling the courts from within. read full story

06/01/12 – Taking exception: The most important issue this election? Supreme Court seats
Alan Miller: The fact of the matter is that the Supreme Court, in a series of 5-4 decisions, has been the most "activist" court since the Warren era, notwithstanding that Roberts, and his acolyte Samuel Alito, denied any such intent in their Senate confirmation hearings and spoke of their reverence for precedent and established decisions. read full story

05/31/12 – Judges Should Write Their Own Opinions
William Domnarski: We have become too comfortable with the troubling idea that judging does not require that judges do their own work. read full story

05/31/12 – Summary Judgments for May 31
Carlyn Kolker: If Mitt Romney is elected president of the U.S., you can bet that Summary Judgments will be following his judicial nominees in close detail. read full story

05/28/12 – In Appeal To Latinas, Obama Campaign Touts Anniversary Of Sotomayor Appointment
David Freedlander: In honor of the third anniversary of President Barack Obama naming Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the Obama campaign unveiled over the weekend a web video honoring the Bronx native, and by extension, honoring the president for appointing her. read full story

05/28/12 – Will a departing Lugar change his voting habits?
Jonathan Bernstein: Again, I don’t expect Lugar to suddenly vote like Sen. Chuck Schumer or Sen. Barbara Boxer. But I do think it’s worth watching how he and Snowe and the other retiring Republican senators act over the next few months. read full story

05/28/12 – Grassley as a watchdog and as a scold
Des Moines Register: It is fair and proper for Grassley to wage war on wasteful spending, but his opposition to judges who happen to be appointed by Democratic presidents will simply perpetuate the politicization of the federal courts. read full story

05/25/12 – Will the last African-American judge please turn out the lights?
Letter to the Editor: There is a startling transition occurring on the Fulton County Superior Court benches: African-American judges are becoming a dying breed. Could we soon see the last African-American judge ever to sit on the bench in Fulton County? read full story

05/24/12 – Is There A Judicial Vacancy Crisis?
Alison Y. Ashe-Card: Is there a judicial vacancy crisis in the federal courts? If so, what impact is it having on President’s Obama’s desire to diversify the federal judiciary? read full story

05/24/12 – Some Federal Judicial Congratulations — and a Bit of Trivia
David Lat, Above the Law: Congratulations to the newest member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Honorable Paul J. Watford. Now that the handsome Watford has joined his superhottie boss on the bench, we have a trivia question: Who is the circuit judge with the most former law clerks to join him on the Court of Appeals during his lifetime? read full story

05/24/12 – Is Justice Ginsburg Risking the Future of the Supreme Court?
Chris Geidner: As the presidential race heats up, and the Supreme Court justices settle into their chambers to write their last and most consequential rulings of the 2011-12 term, Kennedy’s question once again seems relevant, even revelatory: most court watchers agree it’s now too late to give President Obama a third nomination to the high court before the election. read full story

05/23/12 – Conservative Action Alerts joins Effort to Oppose Hurwitz to US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Letter to Senator Kyl: Hurwitz’s professional record is distinguished by his significant contribution to – and defense of – one of the most activist Supreme Court opinions in history. As such, any vote for Hurwitz would stand as a tacit – if not outright – endorsement of his radical views on abortion and the constitutional role of the judiciary. read full story

05/23/12 – Judicial nominees continue to languish in the Senate
William Galston, No Labels: Watford’s confirmation is unfortunately the exception that proves the rule. The 5th seat on that same court has been vacant for 2699 days, or since 2004. Obstructionist tactics increasingly prevent a vast number of critical judicial and other presidentially appointed positions from being confirmed—so much so that many potential nominees refuse even to subject themselves to the process. read full story

05/22/12 – If Judicial Confirmations Slow This Election Year, It’s the ‘Leahy Rule’
John Gramlich, CQ: Conservative legal groups are trying to rebrand the Senate’s decades-old “Thurmond rule” on judicial confirmations as the “Leahy rule,” accusing Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy of applying it selectively. read full story

05/21/12 – Commentary: Time to fill Ninth Circuit vacancies
Carl Tobias: President Obama and the Senate must promptly fill all the Ninth Circuit vacancies with excellent judges, so the court can deliver justice. read full story

05/21/12 – Nominations long overdue; fill benches
The Times-Tribune (PA): The notion that justice delayed is justice denied is traceable all the way back to the Magna Carta. Yet Pennsylvania's senators and the White House have taken their sweet time in nominating judges for an array of vacancies that have delayed and, therefore, denied justice in the federal courts read full story

05/21/12 – On Judicial Nominations, Media Should Focus On Vacancy Crisis, Not Thurmond “Rule”
David Lyle: Whatever the Thurmond "rule" might mean, in light of its murky nature it is difficult to see how it provides adequate grounds for the Senate to abandon its constitutionally-mandated duty to provide "advice and consent" on judicial nominees, especially during a judicial vacancy crisis. Only action, not more delay and obstruction, can address the crisis. read full story

05/21/12 – Fill those judicial vacancies!
Jonathan Bernstein: It’s good to see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid bring the Watford nomination to the floor. He should keep forcing votes on these nominations. The worst that happens is that it will be more clear than ever that some Republicans are filibustering every single nomination; in some cases they’ve been able to keep in line enough of their conference to prevent the Senate from moving ahead with confirmation. read full story

05/18/12 – Maine Voices: Senators need to grease, not spin, wheels of judicial nominations
George Royal: Mr. Kayatta, a consensus nominee with broad bipartisan support, has been subject to the kinds of unwarranted political attacks that have stalled countless judicial nominees and perpetuated a vacancy crisis on our federal courts. read full story

05/18/12 – The Hypocrisy of Common Cause
Jason Pye: Oh hypocrisy, thy name is Common Cause. Senate Republicans, led by then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), were wrong in 2005 to try to limit use of the filibuster just as current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Common Cause are now. read full story

05/18/12 – Be Very Afraid
Scott Lemieux: Romney will govern as a hardcore right-winger irrespective of what he "really" thinks.... And what's even worse is that this lesson applies beyond budget policy. To address one particularly important point, consider the Supreme Court. read full story

05/18/12 – Cloture Vote on the Nomination of Paul Watford to the Ninth Circuit
Eugene Volokh: I was happy to hear that the cloture vote on the nomination of Paul Watford to the Ninth Circuit will be held Monday, and I very much hope that Paul will be confirmed. read full story

05/17/12 – A Tale of Two Nominees
Judicial Action Group: Below is a Tale of Two Nominees recently nominated by President Obama to two vacant seats on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. read full story

05/16/12 – Rochester district court nominee deserves vote
Democrat & Chronicle (NY): First the good news: President Obama this week nominated Monroe County Court Judge Frank Geraci Jr. to fill a three-year-old vacancy on the Rochester-based court in the Western District of New York. Now the bad: For too many nominees, such an announcement marks the beginning of a prolonged waiting period and/or the end of the line. read full story

05/16/12 – White House Condemns Obstruction of Judicial Nominations
People for the American Way: When White House Press Secretary Jay Carney observed that the pace of confirmations has never been slower, a reporter from Fox News interrupted with the inaccurate statement that the pace is about the same as under the previous two presidents. read full story

05/15/12 – Obama’s Judicial Restraint
Jonathan H. Adler: Obstruction of nominees is now the norm — and this norm is unlikely to change unless there is a pre-election deal. Until such a deal can be made, judicial nominees will get slow-walked to the bench no matter which party is in charge. read full story

05/14/12 – Sen. Hutchison Struggles With Facts About Judicial Nominations
Mark Corcoran: Earlier this month U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison got into a back-and-forth debate with Glenn Sugameli (Staff Attorney, Defends of Wildlife) regarding the issue of judicial nominations. It appears from the back-and-forth that Sen. Hutchison either doesn't understand the issue of judicial nominations and vacancies or is purposefully ignoring the facts of the situation. read full story

05/11/12 – Reid: Supporters of Filibuster Reform Were ‘Right,’ ‘The Rest Of Us Were Wrong’
Every two years, when the Senate’s newly-elected members take office, the Constitution opens up a brief window when the Senate’s rules can be changed with just 51 votes — the rules typically require a two-thirds majority to make any changes. read full story

05/11/12 – Still debating Senate judicial nominations
Glenn Sugameli: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's May 5 letter compounds the errors I described from her April 26 floor speech, while falsely labeling as "erroneous" my "claim" that the Senate is delaying federal district court nominees. read full story

05/09/12 – Leading Democratic Primary Candidate for Senator from Maine Calls for Court-Packing
Eugene Volokh: I should note that I see nothing inherently wrong in the political branches pushing back against the Court, whether through ordinary nominations, through constitutional amendments, or possibly even through proposals to limit the Court’s jurisdiction. But Court-packing strikes me as a pretty poor idea. read full story

05/09/12 – On Richard Lugar’s Defeat and Supreme Court Confirmation Votes
Ed Whelan: One noteworthy aspect of Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock’s resounding defeat of longtime incumbent Richard Lugar in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat yesterday is the role that Lugar’s votes for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, played in his defeat. read full story

05/09/12 – Will Lugar’s loss lead to a crisis in the Senate?
Ezra Klein: We’re getting closer and closer to dramatic reforms in the Senate. The question, at this point, is less whether they’ll happen than when they’ll happen, and who will be in power when they do. read full story

05/09/12 – Lugar’s Demise and the Constitutional Crisis
Jonathan Chait: The defeat of Richard Lugar in the Indiana Republican Senate primary is the kind of event that would have been shocking just a half-dozen years ago, and has since grown routine. read full story

05/08/12 – Big Government Causes Hyper-Partisanship in the Judicial Appointment Process
Ilya Shapiro: In 1962, Byron White’s hearing lasted 15 minutes and consisted of three questions. Can you imagine that happening now? Most district court nominees would take that deal. read full story

05/08/12 – White House Judicial Vacancy Briefing
Reba Boyd Wooden: Americans must have equal access to a fair hearing in court, but an obstructionist minority in the Senate is preventing that from happening. This crisis was the subject of a briefing at the White House on Monday, May 7 which I was invited to attend. read full story

05/08/12 – What law do you want to teach?
Hazel Weiser: Felix Frankfurter could never be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice in today’s America. He was a prolific scholar, leaving a trail of law review articles and books that even his contemporaries at Harvard Law School branded as radical. He was a principled activist. read full story

05/08/12 – Senate Completes Judicial Confirmation Deal, Now What?
Ian Millhiser: 7.5 judges a month is almost exactly the rate of confirmations achieved under this deal. There is simply no reason why the Senate cannot repeat its recent performance and catch up to a normal rate of confirmations by the time either Obama or Mitt Romney takes the oath of office next January. read full story

05/07/12 – Judicial Obstruction By the Numbers
People for the American Way: This infographic shows how unprecedented obstruction of judicial nominees has created an unprecedented vacancy crisis in the federal courts, and slowed down President Obama’s effort to bring qualified, diverse judges to the federal bench. read full story

05/07/12 – Obama Has Only Himself to Blame on Judges
Republican Policy Committee: President Obama has been blaming Senate Republicans for vacancies in the federal judiciary. The facts do not support the President’s hype and blame. Most of the vacancies that exist in the federal judiciary are due to the Administration’s continued failure to nominate qualified individuals. read full story

05/06/12 – ‘You Should Know’: Latest Nullification News, of the Judiciary
James Fallows: George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were able, during their first three years in office, to place many more judges on the federal bench than left or retired. Thus, the vacancy rate went down. Obama has been able to place many fewer. Thus vacancies have gone up. read full story

05/06/12 – Progressives must take back courts
Andrew Blotky: Regardless of where you live, or what issues you care about, all Americans deserve a judiciary that works. read full story

05/04/12 – Behind the Scenes, Silent Obstruction of Judicial Nominees
Marge Baker, People for the American Way: Senate Republicans’ systematic obstruction of President Obama’s nominees to the federal courts is by now well known. What is less well known – and largely hidden in behind-the-scenes Senate procedure – is that this systematic obstruction often begins long before a nominee has been sent from the Judiciary Committee to the Senate floor. read full story

05/03/12 – Texans hurt by broken process
Express-News Editorial Board: Two long-standing federal judicial vacancies filled, four to go. Last week, the Senate finally confirmed two nominees to help work the docket of understaffed federal courts in Texas. In this tale of justice delayed, there's plenty of blame. Who is responsible for allowing such important judicial posts to remain unfilled for so long? Start with the Obama White House, which has moved unacceptably slowly in sending nominations to the Senate — in large part by trying to square a partisan circle on Capitol Hill. read full story

05/02/12 – Things That Really Matter
Charles M. Blow: Not all the blame rests there, though. We in the media share it. Sex scandals are always big news. Oral arguments rarely are. The prurient trumps the truly important. read full story

05/01/12 – Federal Courts Vacancy Total Dips Below 80, For Now
Constitutional Accountability Center: As a result of a deal forged in the Senate after Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened to invoke cloture on 17 pending nominees, the number of judicial vacancies recently dipped below 80 to 79 for the first time in over 1,000 days read full story

05/01/12 – Why Judicial Vacancies Matter, Part II
Kirk Jenkins: Congress has failed for a generation to keep up with the fast-growing dockets in the Federal courts. In the district courts, the number of cases per judgeship increased 30% between 1993 and 2010. read full story

04/30/12 – Tell Your Senators: More Needs to Be Done on Judges
Marcia Greenberger: It's been six weeks since Senate leadership reached a deal to move forward on judicial nominations, and the deal has almost played itself out. And where do we stand? Exactly where we were in March. read full story

04/27/12 – Galveston, West Texas finally get new federal judges. Finally!
Houston Chronicle: The Senate voted Thursday to approve two Texas judicial nominees to district courts in the Lone Star State, including one in Galveston. Gregg Jeffrey Costa will serve Texas’ Southern District in Galveston, and David Campos Guaderrama, will serve the West District of Texas. Both were nominated in September of last year and are supported by both of the state’s Republican senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison. read full story

04/26/12 – That’s all, folks!
Steve Sebelius: The nomination of District Court Judge Elissa Cadish appears to be dead. read full story

04/26/12 – Justice Holder?
Jennifer Rubin: Conservatives who don’t think they have much stake in the 2012 election should consider two words: Justice Holder. Yes, whoever gets elected could have the opportunity to appoint multiple justices to the Supreme Court. read full story

04/26/12 – Robert Bork, Romney Standard-Bearer
New York Times: After his defeat for being outside the mainstream, he resigned his federal judgeship and became a polemicist for ultraconservative ideas. Whether Mr. Romney picked Mr. Bork for his legal views, to arouse the right wing or both, the choice is disturbing. read full story

04/25/12 – Emergencies Among Pending Judicial Nominations Increase By a Third
People for the American Way: The number of judicial emergencies is skyrocketing. With 39 such emergencies, this is putting an unacceptable strain on an already stressed court system. read full story

04/24/12 – Why Judicial Vacancies Matter – Part I of a Series
Kirk Jenkins: Look around your firm or legal department. Imagine one out of every ten senior attorney positions was vacant. Think that might slow down the work? read full story

04/24/12 – Only two ways to end Nevada judicial standoff?
Steve Sebelius: OK, now what? U.S. Sen. Dean Heller met Friday with District Court Judge Elissa Cadish for half an hour. But at the end of the sit-down, Heller said he would still not give his permission for her nomination to go forward. read full story

04/23/12 – On judges, Lugar more liberal than nearly every other Republican
Matt K. Lewis: When it comes to approving President Obama’s nominations, who are his favorite Republicans? According to our findings, Sens. Susan Collins, Scott Brown, and Richard Lugar should be at the top of his list. read full story

04/23/12 – Judiciary up for grabs in presidential election
Clint Bolick, Hoover Institution: This year’s election is a two-fer: as goes the presidency, so goes the federal judiciary — including, most likely, control of the Supreme Court. read full story

04/22/12 – Supreme Court lawyers cautious when offering one specific piece of evidence
Robert Barnes: “Liberal justices are generally more likely than conservative justices to cite legislative history,” they found. “The decline in the overall use of legislative history since the mid-1980s reflects a rightward shift in the ideological composition of the court,” they said. read full story

04/21/12 – Heller statement no surprise; now what?
Steve Sebelius: The standoff can only be resolved if Heller relents, which he won’t, or if Reid withdraws the nomination, which he won’t. There is, however, a third course, and one that has rarely been taken. read full story

04/21/12 – Judicial follies – The Bork summer
Frank Zotter Jr: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney recently announced that he has selected former federal appeals court judge Robert Bork to be his advisor on federal judicial nominees should Romney become president. It was likely an attempt by Romney to shore up his own reputation with conservatives, many of whom distrust Romney -- and revere Judge Bork. read full story

04/20/12 – Mitt Romney has a Robert Bork problem
David A. Love: If you are judged by the company you keep, then Mitt Romney is an extremist for choosing Robert Bork as his top judicial adviser. read full story

04/20/12 – The Myth of the Thurmond Rule
Alliance for Justice: The Thurmond Rule is not a formal Senate procedure or a bipartisan agreement, nor has its meaning or parameters been clearly articulated. read full story

04/19/12 – Neither party is ready for filibuster reform
Jonathan Bernstein: There’s a good chance that the 2012 elections will bring unified government again, and with it new pressure for Senate reform. The bad news? Neither party is ready. read full story

04/18/12 – More than one opinion matters
Albert Marquis: We seem to have come to the point in this nation where we cannot even recognize the right of someone to disagree with us. With this attitude, many qualified individuals will be excluded from the judiciary and from political office. read full story

04/18/12 – End judge logjam
Toledo Blade: Senators have a duty to help maintain efficient operation of the federal court system. That is more important than partisanship. On this and other matters, it's time for Senate Republicans to do the job voters elected them to do, instead of playing politics. read full story

04/18/12 – Fill federal court seats
Daily Review (PA): U.S. Sens. Patrick Toomey and Bob Casey should move aggressively to resolve the vacancies by recommending strong candidates to the president for nomination, and by working in concert to quickly bring about confirmation votes. A certain amount of politics is inevitable in the nomination and confirmation process, but it should not be allowed to continue obstructing justice. read full story

04/18/12 – No delays: Fill judicial vacancies now
Tulsa World: No less a conservative voice than Oklahoma's own Coburn says enough is enough. His Senate colleagues should heed his words and confirm this backlog of nominees. read full story

04/17/12 – The Courts Really Matter—A Judicial Liberal’s Argument for Re-electing the President
DailyKos: Republican Presidents, from the very small sample size that we are working with—we have three Republicans to compare to two Democrats—have a tendency to nominate younger individuals to serve on District Courts. read full story

04/17/12 – Even More Senators Abandon Sen. Mike Lee’s Anti-Obama Tantrum
ThinkProgress: Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) compared Obama’s actions to Pearl Harbor and promised a scorched earth campaign of obstruction against every one of the president’s nominees. Fortunately, even most of Lee’s fellow Republican senators deemed Lee’s tantrum to be overblown. read full story

04/16/12 – A solution to the stalemate
Omaha World-Herald:  Sometimes congressional deadlock has no serious consequences. But sometimes it has big negative consequences. A major case in point: The ongoing failure of Congress to decide on the appointments of dozens of federal judges. read full story

04/16/12 – Fill federal court seats
Scranton Times-Tribune:  The case illustrates another problem. Because it is a criminal matter, it is under constitutional and statutory deadlines. All criminal cases receive priority to ensure that such deadlines are met. That means that important civil cases must wait for ever longer periods due to an insufficient number of judges. read full story

04/15/12 – There’s no need for a crisis, Senator
Brian Greenspun:  Sen. Heller is a prime example of a man taking advantage of a reasonable rule by acting in a most unreasonable way. read full story

04/13/12 – Let Senate vote on judicial nominee
Reno Gazette-Journal: If Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is truly opposed to the elevation of Clark County District Judge Elissa Cadish to the federal bench, that’s his privilege. He should, however, let the Senate Judiciary Committee hold a hearing and the full Senate vote on the nomination. read full story

04/13/12 – Fired up, for due process for judicial nominee
Steve Sebelius: If Heller isn't satisfied with Cadish's qualifications, he's free to so testify before the Judiciary Committee or on the Senate floor. read full story

04/13/12 – Heller should stop blocking judicial nominee
Mel Lipman: Nevada's appointed Senator, Dean Heller, displays his lack of knowledge about how our legal system works when he continues to block the nomination of the highly qualified Judge Elissa Cadish for the federal court. read full story

04/13/12 – Harry Reid’s judicial hypocrisy
Chuck Muth: Nine years ago Reid and the Democrats opened this judicial can of worms by blocking supremely qualified, highly respected nominees for purely political and philosophical reasons. Well, now the shoe's on the other foot and Reid is getting a taste of his own medicine. read full story

04/12/12 – Sen. Heller v. Heller: The Latest Unjustifiable Obstruction of a Nominee to Fill a Federal Judicial Emergency Vacancy
Glenn Sugameli: Nevada GOP Senator Dean Heller’s misunderstanding of the Supreme Court’s coincidentally-named D.C. v. Heller decision has led him to block a Judiciary Committee hearing on a pending nominee. read full story

04/12/12 – Judicial holdup
Las Vegas Review-Journal: Because just as dozens of Bush judicial nominees deserved to have their day in the Senate, so does Judge Cadish. read full story

04/11/12 – Why the Supreme Court Matters
Ari Berman: When President Gerald Ford nominated him in 1975, Justice John Paul Stevens occupied the ideological center of the Supreme Court. By the time he retired in 2010, he was the Court’s most liberal member. Over those thirty-five years, the Court changed far more than Stevens did. read full story

04/11/12 – Appointing Elissa Cadish
Steve Sebelius (audio): Elissa Cadish was recently nominated to fill a vacancy on the Federal Court. But the nomination stalled because Sen. Dean Heller would not sign off on the nomination. And tradition dictates that both Nevada senators agree. So why has Heller blocked Cadish's appointment. read full story

04/11/12 – Senators’ public spat can’t be won by Reid
John Ralston: But when it comes to political games — when he is not playing meddler-in-chief in races that are not his own — Reid almost always wins.But on the Elissa Cadish nomination to the federal bench, the Senate majority leader is going to lose, unless he is a magician of such Copperfieldian skills that he can commit an act of prestidigitation that would be miraculous even for him. read full story

04/10/12 – On the Cadish nomination, we should . . .
Sherman Frederick: My instincts tell me in this case Reid has identified a reasonably well-qualified Nevadan (and I certainly can't say that about all of Reid's nominees). Out of basic fairness, if she can come clean on the second amendment she ought to at least get a hearing. read full story

04/09/12 – Senator Heller, you blue-slipped up blocking judicial nominee
Jane Ann Morrison: Senator Dean Heller, you've blocked Clark County District Judge Elissa Cadish's nomination for a federal judgeship, and you didn't have the guts to explain why? read full story

04/09/12 – What the federal government can learn from Pennsylvania
Franklin L. Kury: The principal requirement for success in Washington today is the same as it was in Pennslyvania in 1973. Those involved must place the interest of a functioning government over partisan interests and be willing to talk about their views and compromise. read full story

04/09/12 – The good and the bad of Obama’s court picks
Jonathan Bernstein: Along with inattention to executive branch nominations, this lack of urgency in judicial nominations continues to be the biggest mistake Obama has made in his presidency, and it’s the first and easiest thing to improve should he be reelected. read full story

04/09/12 – Chart of the Day: Obama’s Epic Failure on Judicial Nominees
David Graham, The Atlantic: The White House releases an infographic on the Senate's confirmation mess. That's not a serious enough response by a mile. read full story

04/06/12 – Judge can explain her position on guns
Glenn Sugameli: John Stites' Tuesday letter, "Judge's Second Amendment stance a problem," erroneously claimed that Nevada District Judge Elissa Cadish's answer to a 2008 questionnaire failed "to grasp a fundamental understanding." read full story

04/05/12 – Preventing justice
Las Vegas Sun Editorial: Heller hasn’t publicly said why he doesn’t support Cadish, much less why he won’t agree to allow her a hearing. That’s wrong. He should explain his position. read full story

04/04/12 – Crisis in the courts
Alex Kreit & Howard Wayne: Obstruction in confirming judicial nominations means delay for those whose cases languish on crowded court dockets. And, as the adage tells us, justice delayed is justice denied. read full story

04/04/12 – Turning On A Dime, Conservative Media Recoil At Obama’s Remarks About “Unelected” Judges
Media Matters: Obama is right: for years conservatives have railed against "unelected" judges who overturn laws passed by the people's representatives. read full story

04/02/12 – Sen. Heller Appears To Block Judge Because She Is Insufficiently Activist On Guns
Ian Millhiser: When Nevada Judge Elissa Cadish was asked whether she believes the Second Amendment protects such an individual right to firearms before the Heller decision came down, she gave the correct answer under then-existing Supreme Court precedent. read full story

04/02/12 – ‘A Conservative Coup d’Etat’
James Fallows: Limiting terms on the federal bench to 15 years -- or 18, or 20, in line with what would have been foreseeable at the Constitution's drafting -- would avoid the lottery-and-longevity factor in today's jurisprudence. read full story

04/01/12 – District courts need long-term help with cases
Yuma Sun: Technically there is no longer an “emergency” in the U.S. District Court system in Arizona, but in reality there is. read full story

03/30/12 – Gun question trips up federal court nominee
Steve Sebelius: Sen. Dean Heller has been mum about his reasons for opposing District Judge Elissa Cadish for elevation to the federal bench. But from the start, the story in legal circles was that Heller's objections had to do with Cadish's stance on gun rights. read full story

03/29/12 – Letter: Senate delays Fowlkes nomination
George Barrett: Now it appears it probably will be as late as after May before the Senate will even give Fowlkes an up-or-down vote. This waste of precious time and resources erodes the integrity of our federal court system. The Senate needs to fulfill its duty to advise and comment, or not. read full story

04/01/12 – Left Behind: ABA Says Make Disabilities Part of Diversity Mix on Federal Bench
Mark Hansen, ABA: The absence of one group—people with disabilities—from the White House posting prompted a strong response from a coalition of 105 disability rights organizations, law firms and individuals representing the interests of those with disabilities. read full story

03/27/12 – 1000 Days
Doug Kendall/Ryan Woo: Today marks the 1000th consecutive day during which our judicial system has been operating with the burden of 80 or more vacancies on the federal bench. read full story

03/26/12 – Stop the filibuster glut
The Post and Courier: As used by both parties over the last decade, the filibuster threat has become an unprecedented obstruction to needed congressional action. read full story

03/27/12 – Nominees deserve votes by the Senate
William T. Robinson III: A year is a long time to wait to find out whether you have a job. Nominated for the South Carolina District Court on March 16, 2011, Mary Geiger Lewis — supported by Sen. Lindsey Graham — is still waiting. read full story

03/23/12 – Another fight over judges
The News Gazette: Turning the federal courts into another partisan battleground is a big mistake. read full story

03/22/12 – GOP’s Under-the-Radar Sabotage of America’s Courts
People for the American Way: While the American judicial system continues to suffer from the worst vacancy crisis in at least 35 years, Senate Republicans can pat themselves on the back for a job of obstruction well done. read full story

03/22/12 – Breaking the logjam: Senate’s “Dr. No” calls for an end to confirmation wars
When “Dr. No” says yes, it’s time to pay attention — and applaud. Dr. No, in this case, is Sen. Tom Coburn, an obstetrician. The Oklahoma Republican is legendary for slapping holds on nominations and bills he finds objectionable. read full story

03/21/12 – April 2012: Sizing Up Obama’s Record on Judicial Nominations
Bruce Moyer: Judicial vacancies remain a constant focus of the Federal Bar Association. Lapses in the filling of judgeships result in higher caseload demands on existing judges as well as delay in the hearing of cases, especially on the civil side. The administration of justice suffers when judgeships go unfilled, especially for extensive periods of time read full story

03/20/12 – Judicial Confirmations – an Explainer
Edward Garris: President Obama's nominations have been stymied at a rate and for a duration unprecedented in recent memory. The magnitude of the delay is staggering, with the consequences even more stunning. read full story

03/20/12 – Judicial Confirmations: What Thurmond Rule?
Russell Wheeler: Confirmations in the four most recent presidential election years, especially for district nominees, have been more robust than most formulations of the so-called "Thurmond rule" would have predicted. read full story

03/18/12 – Senate GOP impedes judicial confirmations
Reps. Charles Gonzalez, Emanuel Cleaver II, and Judy Chu: Why did it take this much work for just a fraction of the needed judges? Why are Senate Republicans dragging their feet and playing politics on noncontroversial nominations? read full story

03/18/12 – Federal Judges Are, in Fact, ‘Job Creators’
Andrew Cohen: Sen. McConnell is right to worry about jobs. But last week's fight over judicial nominees wasn't a fight over the 17 nominees themselves -- it was a fight for the rights and remedies of tens of millions of potential litigants residing in the judicial districts those nominees would serve. read full story

03/17/12 – The Thumb: Short Takes – Lee’s obstructionism
Salt Lake Tribune: For someone who claims to have great reverence for the Constitution, Sen. Mike Lee has no problem twisting the role of The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body into that of a petulant child. read full story

03/16/12 – Eastern Panhandle jurist approved for federal judgeship
Matthew Umstead: Growing up in Williamsport, Gina Marie Groh never in her “wildest dreams” thought she would one day become a federal judge. As it turns out, Groh, didn’t have to dream. read full story

03/16/12 – Obama’s record on appointing judges comes into focus
Emily Heil: The forecast for President Obama’s record on judicial nominees is starting to develop: It’s cloudy, with a chance of confirmations. read full story

03/15/12 – NRO’s Whelan Praises McConnell’s Obstructionism Of Uncontroversial Judicial Nominees
David Lyle: While Whelan calls this a victory for the GOP, the deal means judges should be confirmed at a significantly faster rate than Republicans have permitted in recent history. If the deal stands nominees could be confirmed at a faster rate than has been the norm in this Congress. read full story

03/15/12 – Resist Obama/Reid’s nomination power play
Rick Manning: The truth is that Reid is setting up a constitutional crisis over the Easter congressional district work period allowing President Obama to “recess”-appoint a bevy of judges and others without the advice and consent of the Senate. read full story

03/14/12 – Reid’s hardball pays off on judicial nominees
Steve Benen: Both sides had plausible claims to victory. The larger point, though, is that Reid was able to generate some progress by picking a fight. Had the Majority Leader not forced the issue on Monday, these 14 judges probably wouldn't be on track for confirmation anytime soon. read full story

03/14/12 – Reid Surrenders on Cloture Votes
Ed Whalen:  We can expect to see what would have been expected had the cloture petitions never been filed: Senate action on a couple of these nominees every week or so. read full story

03/14/12 – The Senate’s ‘Dr. No’ delivers a surprise ‘yes’
Carl Tobias:  Following Coburn's lead, senators may want to reinstate this tradition and exercise more deference to home-state colleagues and the president, who has rigorously consulted lawmakers and even nominated numerous candidates whom Republicans suggested. read full story

03/13/12 – Senate should act on Rose judgeship
Des Moines Register:  The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today is scheduled to take up the nomination of Stephanie Rose to serve as a federal judge in Iowa. Unless something emerges that raises doubts about Rose’s fitness to serve on the federal bench, the committee should send the Rose nomination to the full Senate with its support. read full story

03/13/12 – A Showdown on Judicial Nominations
Jonathan Bernstein:  Republicans are protesting that they are not stalling these nominees. Don’t be fooled. As Harry Reid said today, the Senate could easily “approve these judges in five minutes” if no one objected. And no one does object to these particular individuals. What we’re getting is stalling for the sake of stalling read full story

03/13/12 – WHITE HOUSE INFOGRAPHIC: President Obama’s Judicial Nominees
White House:  Historic delays have consequences for America.  Americans deserve fair and timely judicial proceedings but the rising number of judicial vacancies hurts families and businesses by delaying proceedings, increasing costs, and adding uncertainty. read full story

03/13/12 – Reid Dares GOP: Block Judicial Nominees, And You Will Also Stall The JOBS Act
TalkingPointsMemo: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a message for the Republicans: Filibuster over a dozen judicial nominees, as you’ve threatened to, and the country can watch for weeks as you hold up the bipartisan JOBS Act. I dare you. read full story

03/13/12 – Poll: Americans Blame Senate GOP For Judicial Vacancy Crisis
ThinkProgress: According to a recent National Journal poll, a solid plurality of the country blames Senate Republicans for their obstruction of President Obama’s judicial nominees. read full story

03/13/12 – On Judicial Nominees, a Moment of Truth for the Senate
Andrew Cohen:  You can spin a law. You can spin a policy. What cannot be spun, however, what is so simple and basic a matter of governance that it beggars spin, is the choice United States Senators must make when they are voting on judicial nominees who already have been broadly endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. read full story

03/13/12 – Senate Democrats Wrong on Judges
Republican Policy Committee:  Despite Democrats’ complaints about Republican treatment of President Obama’s judicial nominees, any way you look at it, President Obama’s nominees are being treated just as well as President Bush’s. read full story

03/13/12 – Reid’s clever move on judicial nominees
Steve Benen, Maddow Blog:   There's simply no reason for the Senate minority to block their confirmation votes. And that leaves Republicans with a choice that should be easy: allow up-or-down votes on non-controversial judges, or wait several weeks before passing the JOBS Act they want. This whole process could be wrapped up this week, or it could bring the chamber to a halt for several weeks.  For his part, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seems to prefer the latter. read full story

03/13/12 – Senate Majority Leader Reid Playing Politics With Nominations
Brian Darling, RedState:  Republicans are not obstructing Obama judges nor are they even filibustering any of these 17 judges today.  Reid is trying to trick the American people into thinking that Republicans are a bunch of obstructionists who are on the Senate floor filibustering judges and legislation. read full story

03/13/12 – Whatever It Is, They’re Against It: Health Care, the Courts and the Anti-Obama Agenda
Marge Baker: The agenda of opposition has caused the Republican Party to go off the deep end. When a party's only principle is to be opposed to the other party's agenda, it's the American people who end up paying the price. read full story

03/13/12 – Exponential Escalation of Judicial Obstruction
People for the American Way: Until the election of President Obama and the GOP's decision to become the "Party of No," district court nominations were generally low-profile nonpartisan affairs. read full story

03/13/12 – A harsh judgment on obstructionism in the Senate
Michael McGough: It's a classic inside-the-Beltway issue that brings yawns from even some political junkies. I'm talking about the delay in Senate confirmation of President Obama's judicial nominees. It doesn't have the drama or political salience of, say, a deadlock over the debt ceiling, but the obstruction of judges is symbolic of the partisan gridlock that drove Sen. Olympia Snowe back to Maine. read full story

03/13/12 – A TNR Symposium on Obama’s Second Term: Pack the (Lower) Courts
Prof. David Fontana: A few influential judges can define a president, and in a second term, Obama should look beyond the Supreme Court and focus on nominating such judges to lower courts—and getting them confirmed. read full story

3/12/12 – Time to support the president on judicial nominations
Richard W. Painter & Michael J. Gerhardt: The moment for bipartisan support on what should be a bipartisan issue is fleeting, and Americans can’t afford to wait any longer for justice in our courts. read full story

3/9/12 – DeMint Joins The Mike Lee Club, Will Oppose All Judicial Nominees
ThinkProgress: Regrettably, Lee’s fellow Tea Partier Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has now decided to follow Lee’s lead: read full story

3/9/12 – Obama’s judicial nominees face possible challenge from GOP Senators
Brian Washington: The judiciary is playing an increasingly important role in the lives of hardworking Americans. That’s because legislation linked to the issues that matter to the middle class—like public education, health care, and the ability to have a voice in the workplace—are often debated in some of our nation’s highest courts. read full story

3/9/12 – Remove Politics from Judicial Confirmation
James M. Brennan: Congress should put the integrity and independence of the federal judiciary before partisan politics and work cooperatively and cordially to fill all federal judicial vacancies. read full story

3/8/12 – Our View: Senate must stop blocking judges
Merced Sun-Star: But for those of us in the real world -- particularly those seeking justice in the federal courts -- it would be far, far better if these qualified jurists could get to work. read full story

3/7/12 – Another Empty Courtroom
People for the American Way: If Michael Fitzgerald and all of the other judicial nominees were not being obstructed, our nation would not have so many courtrooms sitting empty while justice passes millions of Americans by. read full story

3/7/12 – Good news on the quest to end judicial emergencies
Matt Glazer: Good news on the quest to end judicial emergencies and other judicial vacancies in Texas and across the nation. According to Think Progress, the U.S. Senate is about to focus in on filling these essential positions. read full story

3/7/12 – The War on Women in the Courts
Marge Baker: Senate Democrats have signaled that they will try to push through the 18 judicial nominees currently waiting for votes, including seven women and eight people of color. But they can only do it if Americans–and especially women–speak out about the importance of filling our courts. read full story

3/7/12 – Senate holds up judges
The Modesto Bee: The Republicans deserve to be called out on this obstructionism — and on their hypocrisy, since they often complain long and loud about how slow the federal courts are. read full story

3/6/12 – Don’t rubber-stamp nominee for judgeship
Erik Camayd-Freixas: “Just following orders,” said Peter von Hagenbach, beheaded in 1474. The Hagenbach defense was again invoked in 2009 by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Ia.) on behalf of Stephanie Rose, a chief prosecutor in the controversial Postville raid case, when he recommended her for U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. read full story

3/6/12 – Our Look At William J. Kayatta, A Judicial Nominee For The First Circuit Court Of Appeals
Nathan Mehrens: He is an elitist New England power attorney who is a nominee for a powerful court. His stances seem very convenient. read full story

3/6/12 – Editorial: Justice delayed as judge nominees wait
Sacramento Bee: There's talk of putting off votes as long as possible, in hopes that Obama loses in November and the seats can be filled by a Republican president. That's absurd. read full story

3/6/12 – Boozman Needs to Step Forward
Doug Kendall: The federal judicial vacancy crisis in America has reached Arkansas, and Sen. John Boozman can do something about it. read full story

3/6/12 – Time for Boozman to speed up judicial nominee
Max Brantley: What about the chances that the unprecedented Republican slowdown of federal judicial confirmations might imperil the committee-approved Senate confirmation of Kris Baker to a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of Arkansas. read full story

3/5/12 – Conservative Christian Leaders Call Judicial Filibusters A Threat To ‘The Future Of Democracy And Ordered Liberty’
Josh Israel: Senate Republicans who persist in obstructing these nominees would do well to listen to the advice they received from Christian conservative leaders, who slammed judicial filibusters as a direct attack on “the future of democracy and ordered liberty.” read full story

3/5/12 – ACS Issue Brief Authors Call for Judicial Nominations Reform in NY Times
Nicole Flatow: A bipartisan duo of law professors emphasized the urgent need for judicial nominations reform in The New York Times this week. read full story

3/4/12 – Sunday Dialogue: Getting Judges Confirmed
New York Times: Readers react to a “delay but don’t filibuster” proposal by Richard Painter and Michael Gerhardt. read full story

3/4/12 – Editorial: Restoring statesmanship
Deseret News Editorial: The once rarely invoked filibuster has become the rule rather than the exception. Open debate and amendment have been replaced with up-or-down votes. And with a huge backlog of judicial and administrative vacancies, senators can't even seem to agree on what rules govern the appointments process. read full story

3/4/12 – Vacant federal bench here should be filled
Williamsport Sun-Gazette: For several years, Senior Judges James F. McClure Jr. and Malcolm Muir filled much of the void. With the passing of both of them, there is no judge here. That needs to change. read full story

3/3/12 – Senate should confirm Dowdell
Tulsa World Editorial: Obama's choice is excellent. Dowdell is an experienced litigator with outstanding credentials. He is almost universally admired for his sharp legal skills, work ethic and good temperament. read full story

3/2/12 – Obama defeat would be disastrous for Court, country
Stephen Goldstein: True or not, the rumor that Ruth Bader Ginsburg will resign in 2015 is monumental — potentially catastrophic. It should strike fear in the hearts and minds of every Democrat, left-leaning Independent, and rational Republican. Maybe now, voters will realize how important reelecting President Obama really is. read full story

3/1/12 – Why aren’t conservatives in Congress doing more to stop Obama’s unconstitutional, non-recess appointments?
Hans A. von Spakovsky: What exactly are conservative members of Congress doing to combat President Obama’s unconstitutional “non-recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? Not much. read full story

3/1/12 – The filibuster under President Romney
Jonathan Bernstein: It’s unlikely that Republicans would go for a full repeal of the filibuster anytime soon. Remember, there’s a numbers game here, too. read full story

3/1/12 – U.S. Senate Confirmation: Fill Crucial Seats
The Ledger (Lakeland, FL): Federal agencies, federal courts, U.S. embassies need to function, and the Senate's responsibilities include ensuring that the government can fulfill its responsibilities. The delays, which in some cases have lasted more than a year, are inexcusable. read full story

2/29/12 – Twelve Judges Who Received Unanimous Judiciary Committee Support Still Haven’t Received A Senate Vote
Twelve of these judges cleared the committee without a single objection, and five more were voted out of the committee with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) as the only objector. read full story

2/28/12 – Why is the GOP Filibustering Hispanic Judicial Nominees?
People for the American Way: It’s not just immigration policy and the Aponte nomination. Republicans in the Senate have also been filibustering Hispanic judicial nominees at an alarming rate. read full story

2/28/12 – Obama’s Nominations Launch Utah Freshman Senator Lee on a One-Man Crusade
Laura Litvin: Never in his brief U.S. Senate career has Mike Lee, a Tea-Party backed freshman from Utah, attracted such attention. He is the only senator fighting confirmation of all of President Barack Obama’s executive and judicial nominees, after the president angered party members by appointing officials while Congress was on a holiday break. read full story

2/28/12 – Maine’s Olympia Snowe decries partisanship — when it suits her
There was no more partisan split in the Senate than over the confirmation of UC Berkeley professor Goodwin Liu for a seat on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Although the parties had agreed not to filibuster judicial nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances," Republicans blocked Liu -- and Snowe joined in. read full story

2/28/12 – Senate Votes Thursday on Obama Pro-Abortion Judicial Pick
A U.S. Senate committee will vote on Thursday on the latest pro-abortion nominee President Barack Obama has appointed to the nation’s highest courts. read full story

2/27/12 – If you care about justice, demand more female judges
Sally Kenney: Why shouldn’t half of all judges be women? The simple principle of nondiscrimination and the tenets of citizenship require their participation. read full story

2/27/12 – Obama Has Yet to Appoint a Single Judge to D.C. Circuit Court
Jonathan H. Adler: One sure way to get a judicial nominee confirmed to the D.C. Circuit would have been for President Obama to follow President Bush’s lead and renominate one of his predecessor’s stalled nominees. read full story

2/27/12 – New York Times Flip Flops on Nominee Filibuster
Elizabeth Garvey: We won’t be surprised when the Times’ latest reluctant revelation that the filibuster “threaten[s] to paralyze government” us reversed yet again during the next Republican administration. read full story

2/27/12 – Senate Set to Turn Attention to Judicial Nominations Backlog
People for the American Way: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that one of the key focuses of the Senate’s next five weeks of work will be “clearing the backlog of judicial nominees that threatens the effectiveness of our justice system.” read full story

2/27/12 – Playing Politics with the Courts: Senate Republicans are blocking votes on judicial nominees, including uncontroversial ones
Marge Baker: Senate Republicans have decided to use judicial nominees as pawns in their political games, delaying votes on even uncontroversial nominees for months on end. Their unprecedented obstructionism hasn't just hurt the image of Congress, it's damaged the American justice system. read full story

2/27/12 – Judicial Nominees Deserve Votes
Bill Robinson, ABA: Washington’s partisan gridlock has stymied not just the policy process, but also the responsibility of the Senate to give advice and consent in the nomination process. Our federal court system—indispensable to the nation’s economy and the justice and freedoms we cherish—is being quietly undermined by needless deadlock. read full story

2/24/12 – Will Obama Get Any D.C. Circuit Nominees Through?
Republican presidents nominated eight of the active justices on the Court to Democrats' three, leaving the GOP a large crop of potential Supreme Court nominees but also leverage in fighting against Democratic efforts to expand the scope and rigor of the regulatory state. In that respect, Obama's failure could prove enduring. read full story

2/24/12 – Progress Texas says Texas will have most federal judicial vacancies of all the states this year
PolitiFact: Progress Texas said Texas would be No. 1 in federal judicial vacancies this year. That’s not correct. Texas is now tied for third and could rank third by the end of the year, behind New York and California. read full story

2/24/12 – Re: Roe’s Lone Remaining Defender Nominated to Ninth Circuit?
Ed Whelan: A follow-up to my post from a month ago on Ninth Circuit nominee Andrew D. Hurwitz’s celebration of the “crucial influence” that Judge Jon O. Newman, aided by his then-clerk Hurwitz, had on “the outcome and the reasoning” in Roe v. Wade. read full story

– Another Obama Radical Lefty Confirmed to Federal Bench
Tim Macy: If Obama wins a second term, his agenda will become only more brazen. That’s why a top goal of GOA in 2012 is to help elect as many truly pro-gun friends as we can to the U.S. Senate. read full story

2/24/12 – A Disaster Waiting to Happen
Jamelle Bouie: Obama's failure to balance the federal judiciary could set liberal priorities back a generation. read full story

2/22/12 – A clear case for confirmation
The Gazette (Eastern IA) Editorial Board:  Excessive political fighting too often clouds judicial nominations. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to Rose. Fairness dictates she be confirmed. read full story

2/21/12 – Senate politics leaves vacancies on the bench
Carl Tobias: Now that the 112th Senate’s second session is taking its first recess, this is an ideal moment to analyze lower federal court judicial selection. Bench vacancies erode swift, economical and fair case disposition. read full story

2/19/12 – Nan Aron: Mind your own business, Senator Lee
Nan Aron: I'm willing to bet that people in West Virginia, like most Americans, have never heard of Mike Lee. Yet, he has decided all by himself that West Virginia can't have new federal judges. read full story

2/16/12 – As Momentum Builds to Confirm Judges, NRO’s McCarthy Wants More Obstruction
David Lyle: Andrew McCarthy is worried about President Obama's judicial nominees. His concern is twofold:  too many of them are being confirmed, and if confirmed, one or more of them might rule what he views as the "wrong" way in the current, right-wing media promoted dispute over contraceptive coverage. read full story

2/16/12 – A Worthy Judicial Nominee
John Podhoretz: I would genuinely hope and expect that serious members of the United States Senate would not withhold their support from about as good a nominee as a Republican could hope for from Barack Obama based on an immature intellectual pecadillo. read full story

2/15/12 – Senator Kyl’s Bizarre Support for Obama Nominee Andrew Hurwitz
Why would Senator Kyl be supporting a judicial nominee who stands behind Roe and takes partial credit for engineering its contours? Just as important, why would he be pressuring other members of the Senate to vote for such a nominee? It is bizarre, to say the least. read full story

2/15/12 – Congress Has No Date for the Prom
Gail Collins, NYT:  The nomination was approved, 94 to 5, only 125 days after it was unanimously O.K.’d by the Judiciary Committee.  No matter. Good work, Senate! Only 17 more long-pending judicial nominations to go! read full story

2/15/12 – Who Will Be Obama’s Next Supreme Court Pick? Blog Points to California AG Kamala Harris
SCOTUSblog says California Attorney General Kamala Harris could be the next nominee tapped for the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There's one big problem, though: Harris may not want the job. read full story

2/14/12 – The Court in a second Obama term
The odds are good that Justice Ginsburg will retire in the third year of a second Obama term. read full story

2/14/12 – Held Hostage: Judicial Nominee Adalberto Jose Jordan
The story of Rand Paul and Adalberto Jordan -- the foot-stomping by an elected official, the incoherent rationale, the constitutional paralysis -- helps illustrate how and why Congress does so little of the work the American people expect it to do. read full story

2/14/12 – Does the GOP care about Latino voters?
When it comes to Latino voters, Republicans must have un impulso suicida. What else but a death wish could explain the party’s treatment of the fastest-growing voting bloc in the nation? read full story

2/14/12 – Rand Paul Throws Judicial Filibuster Tantrum Over Foreign Policy Disagreement
If Paul can force 30 hours of delay every time the Senate tries to confirm a single nominee, he can prevent Congress from completing any other business for years. read full story

2/14/12 – Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney on Adalberto Jordan
Jordan is a current, well-respected District Court judge, supported by Senators Nelson and Rubio, and he was reported unanimously out by the Judiciary Committee months ago. And he will now be the first Cuban American on the 11th Circuit. read full story

2/13/12 – 90-day up-or-down vote on presidential nominations
From former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va): Our country faces a crisis of confirmation.

 200 unconfirmed presidential nominees. 

Over 900 straight days with more than 80 vacancies on the federal bench.

 Over a dozen unfilled ambassador posts.

 More than 30 “judicial emergencies” declared by the federal judiciary due to an enormous backlog of cases. read full story

2/10/12 – Senator Mike Lee Is Feeling the Heat — But He Shouldn’t Be the Only One in the Frying Pan
Senator Lee may be voting “no” now on uncontroversial nominees, but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his Senate allies have been doing their best to ensure that nominees don’t even get that yes or no vote, using such tactics as refusing to give unanimous consent to holding a vote and forcing cloture on uncontroversial nominees. read full story

2/9/12 – Judge Gets Through Republican Red Rover
After President Barack Obama made his not-technically-recess recess appointments, indignant Senate Republicans said no Obama nominee, for any position, would have their support for the rest of the year. The idea appears to have lost its shine pretty quickly. read full story

2/9/12 – Commentary: Obama, Congress must fill lower federal court openings
The bench experiences 87 vacancies in the 858 appellate and district court judgeships, three of which are in Georgia. These openings, which constitute ten percent of the positions, erode swift, economical and fair case disposition. Thus, President Barack Obama must expeditiously nominate, and the Senate should promptly confirm, lower court nominees, so that the courts can deliver justice. read full story

2/9/12 – We’re number one, again! Texas now has more judicial emergencies than any other state
Today the U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo for United States District Judge for the Southern District of California. This confirmation now puts Texas back in 1st place with more judicial emergencies than any other state (5) and more vacancies than any other state (5). read full story

2/8/11 – Austin-Hillery: Congress Should Make Efforts Toward Cooperation
Compromise lubricates the gears of American government, but a willingness to compromise is sorely lacking in Washington today. No matter what the president proposes, the response of some in Congress is the same — intransigent resistance. read full story

2/7/12 – The Moment of Truth Is Near
As a federal judge Stephanie Rose will be entrusted to decide each case fairly, impartially and diligently. That is why before the Senate passes on her confirmation it should insist that she tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about her role in the Postville prosecutions. read full story

2/7/12 – PD Editorial: Confirmation stalemates need to end
Federal agencies, federal courts, U.S. embassies need to function, and the Senate’s responsibilities include ensuring that the government can fulfill its responsibilities. It should begin by scheduling confirmation votes within 90 days of a presidential nomination. read full story

2/6/12 – Our Views: Nominees need vote
In an election year — right in the Capitol — President Barack Obama took dead aim at one of America’s institutions that is in far worse shape in the polls than he is: Congress itself. read full story

2/4/12 – Crying wolf: Lee’s bent view of the Constitution
Mike Lee is crying wolf. The junior senator from the state of Utah has gone all ballistic over the fact that President Obama has a marginally different interpretation of the Constitution than he does. read full story

2/6/12 – Act with dispatch to ease federal courts’ vacancy burden
Recent attacks on judges and the courts by various candidates for office have at least raised the visibility of the role of the judiciary in American society. Unfortunately, the picture is not a promising one. read full story

2/5/12 – Senate GOP: Activist Federal Judges Wanted
The gang that decries "judicial activism" at every opportunity now wants the federal courts to activate on their behalf to broker a political dispute between the executive and legislative branches. read full story

2/5/12 – Fix confirmation process: Merkley’s proposal would expedite nominations
Both parties — and the nation — would benefit from a curtailment of the filibuster abuses that have made a mockery of the concept of majority rule and the Senate’s constitutional obligation to provide advice and consent on presidential nominations. read full story

2/4/12 – Scaling back the Senate confirmation wars
One thing Congress could do to unclog the federal government is so obvious and requires lawmakers to give up so little, even the most ardent partisan should be able to support it. Last June, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill reducing the number of executive branch positions subject to Senate confirmation. read full story

2/3/12 – Judicial Nominees: Beware the Thurmond Rule
A new tradition is developing in the dysfunctional Washington family: the election-year presidential attack on the Senate for blocking judicial nominees. read full story

2/2/02 – Following in Goodwin Liu’s shoes?
When Paul Watford was nominated to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by President Obama in October, conventional wisdom had it his nomination process would be smoother than Goodwin Liu, who had been nominated for the same spot, but blocked by Senate Republicans on the Senate floor. read full story

2/1/12 – Senator Mike Lee: Constitutional Charlatan
Senator Lee is demonstrating contempt for the document he purports to revere by reacting to this sorry state of affairs by (1) ignoring his complicity in the problem, (2) lecturing the President and (3) taking out his anger by compounding the Senate's partisan dysfunction and punishing the third branch of government. With friends like Senator Mike Lee, the Constitution needs no enemies. read full story

1/31/12 – Rule bending is strangling governance
A pair of traditional rules, the filibuster and hold processes, have moved beyond their original intent of preventing the abuse of power by the majority to now threatening an abuse of power by the minority. read full story

1/30/12 – McEntee: Note to Mike Lee — the U.S. Constitution is vital, but so are constituents
The 2016 elections will come fast. Lee would do well to drop the bombast and get serious about governance that would actually matter to every Utahn — you know, the people he represents. read full story

1/30/12 – Obama’s proposal for Senate votes on judicial nominees deserves bipartisan approval
Year after year, whoever is president spars with opposition-party senators over confirmation of judges. In their skirmishing, they send completely uncontroversial nominees reeling, as they languish for months, not knowing when or even whether they'll be transitioning to new employment. read full story

1/30/12 – President Obama Calls Out Mike Lee’s Scorched Earth Obstructionism
Lee is, in many ways, the perfect foil to the president. While Obama wants nothing more than for the Senate to consider his nominees in a timely manner and give them an up or down vote, Lee’s short political career is marred by escalating displays of extremism and embarrassing overreach. read full story

1/30/12 – NY Times partisan hackery department: filibuster division
There is a principled argument to be made against the judicial filibuster of nominations. After eight years of supporting such filibusters, the Times doesn't have the moral authority to make it until it admits its earlier mistake or until after eight years of Democratic administrations, whichever comes first. read full story

1/28/12 – Filibustering Nominees Must End
The system for reviewing presidential appointments is broken. The Senate has a constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on the naming of judges and high-ranking executive branch officials. But the process has been hijacked by cynical partisanship and cheap tricks. read full story

1/27/12 – Roe’s Lone Remaining Defender Nominated to Ninth Circuit?
In the decades since Roe, a cottage industry of legal academics has been busy trying to explain how its result could be justified by other reasoning. So it’s a very unpleasant surprise to discover that perhaps the lone remaining defender of Roe has been nominated by President Obama to a Ninth Circuit seat. read full story

1/27/12 – There Is a Judicial Confirmation Crisis, and the GOP Is Causing It
President Obama was right to call out the problem of nominee obstruction, but he was wrong that it's a bipartisan issue. And that party is not the president's. read full story

1/27/12 – Judicial Nominations in 2011: A Review
Last year ended with 100 current and future vacancies on our judiciary, an alarmingly high rate that has persisted for more than two years now. read full story

1/25/12 – Obama deserves props for taking on GOP obstructionism
Kudos to Barack Obama for raising the critical issue of nomination reform last night. Now the test will be whether he presses it over the course of the year. read full story

1/25/12 – World-Herald editorial: Vote of confidence in a capable judge
It is no surprise that Judge John Gerrard received a strong endorsement from both of Nebraska's U.S. senators and has won confirmation to the federal bench by a vote of 74 to 16. read full story

1/23/12 – Administration nominees awaiting next move by GOP
Senate Republicans are returning to Washington in an angry mood over President Barack Obama's appointments to two key agencies during a year-end break. read full story

1/23/12 – Senate May Do Even Less This Year After Recess Appointments
The U.S. Senate returns to work today smarting from record-low approval ratings for Congress and facing the prospect of a second year of little achievement before voters decide in November which party will control the chamber. read full story

1/20/12 – For Obama, blocks at every Senate turn
If it takes an absurd man to reveal the absurdity of the political process, then United States Democratic senator Robert Menendez is to be congratulated for his near three-month, single-handed blocking of one of President Barack Obama's most uncontroversial judicial appointments. read full story

1/20/12 – Recess Move Changes Stakes for Nominations
The White House has sent 181 nominations to the Senate that have yet to be confirmed. In many cases, senators blocked the nominations as a tactic to gain political leverage, often on unrelated issues. read full story

1/20/12 – Santorum: As President, Romney Wouldn’t Appoint Conservative Judges
Rick Santorum is worried that, if elected president, Mitt Romney won’t appoint judicial conservatives to the Supreme Court. read full story

1/19/12 – Senate Must Act Now and Throughout 2012 to Reduce Pressure on Federal Courts
As we enter an election year likely to be rife with partisan gridlock in Congress, few are expecting a banner year in terms of judicial confirmations. But history shows that confirmations often occur throughout election years and, with 85 vacancies at the beginning of the year and more certain to occur throughout the year, the federal judiciary desperately needs the confirmation process to speed up, not slow down further in 2012. read full story

1/19/12 – SANTORUM: Romney’s record of judicial capitulation
What sort of justice to the Supreme Court will Mitt Romney nominate - a Souter or a Thomas? A Miers or an Alito? A Kennedy or a Scalia? His record as governor of Massachusetts gives no cause for optimism. read full story

1/18/12 – Study Confirms Jump in Federal Court Vacancies; Diversity of Nominees a Bright Spot
Hardly shocking is the report from the Brookings Institution’s Russell Wheeler that shows vacancies on the federal bench have jumped during President Obama’s tenure. As Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy has noted time and again, obstruction in the Senate of judicial selections has intensified. read full story

1/17/12 – EDITORIAL: Revive Easton’s federal judgeship, courthouse
A group of Lehigh Valley-based attorneys are leading a campaign to have someone from the Easton area appointed as a U.S. district judge. If that happens, the courtroom would serve as the newly appointed judge’s home base. read full story

1/17/12 – The wonderful world of judicial confirmations
Whatever the reason, Menendez did an about-face. On Friday, he said he was dropping his objections after an “in-depth discussion” with Shwartz. For those looking for another explanation, the most likely one is a little presidential pressure and a lot of bad publicity. read full story

1/17/12 – Obama and the Courts, by the Numbers
President Barack Obama's picks for the federal judiciary have run up against the kind of GOP obstruction in the Senate that sent a few packing. Even a senator from the president's own party tried to hold up a nomination to a federal appeals court. read full story

1/16/12 – Time for a Beer Summit Between Coburn And Mikkanen
Maybe Coburn just doesn't like the way Mikkanen knots his ties. We just don't know. But it's just not good enough, at a time when Oklahoma is short-handed on its federal bench, to allow Coburn to say, ominously, "I know plenty," without ever letting the rest of us in on the secret. read full story

1/14/12 – Fill Vacancies
U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani's ascension to the Middle District of Pennsylvania bench this week was living proof that the Senate can get past partisan gamesmanship to confirm well-qualified nominees. But Judge Mariani fills just one of the three seats that had been open on the Middle District bench. read full story

1/13/12 – “Why won’t progressives fight for federal judges?”
Progressives are getting the country we're getting because of our choices — not as individuals, for the most part, but certainly as a group, a "coalition." When the Right builds a media outlet to get its message out (Fox News, say), it allows that outlet to operate at a loss for as long as it takes. Why? Because the Right is on a mission. When the Left builds a media outlet (Air America, say), it forces that outlet to turn a profit or go under. Why? Because the Left is out to lunch. And that's especially true when the subject is the courts. read full story

1/11/12 – Rick Santorum on Appointing Constitutionalist Judges
Rick Santorum is no stranger to the issue of judges. As a U.S. Senator, he stood against activist judicial nominees time and again. As a Republican leader in the Senate, he was pivotal in the fight to confirm U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. Rick Santorum knows what it is like to take on the left and to win on judges. read full story

1/10/12 – President Obama’s Judicial Nominees: A Question of Qualifications
With lifetime appointments at stake, and the potential to shape the federal bench for decades to come, the stakes are too high to get it wrong. We the people deserve better than to be on the receiving end of President Obama’s personal affirmative action plan for the judiciary. Qualifications aren’t optional. read full story

1/10/12 – Here’s More Evidence That Politics Is for the Vindictive: Senator Robert Menendez does New Jersey proud.
Only 10 days into the new year, and already we have a political sin worthy of the 2012 championship. New Jersey U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has exposed himself as a breathtakingly vindictive pol who has no qualms about messing around with the country’s judicial system in what looks to a lot of people like an attempt to settle a personal feud. read full story

1/9/12 – Mr. Menendez’s Missing ‘Blue Slip’
His action sends a chilling message to prosecutors pursuing possible corruption by powerful politicians: Beware of future payback against friends or relatives. Mr. Menendez owes Judge Shwartz’s nomination a serious second look. read full story

1/9/12 – Senator should drop block of judicial nominee
If Judge Shwartz is as unqualified as Mr. Menendez makes her out to be, there would be no better place to reveal her shortcomings than during a confirmation hearing. Mr. Menendez should remove his block to allow his colleagues and the public to make up their own minds. read full story

1/7/12 – Appointments Challenge Senate Role, Experts Say
To many Republicans and some constitutional scholars, President Obama’s decision last week to ignore a sitting Senate and sidestep the confirmation process for several appointees risked nothing short of an end to the Senate’s role of providing advice and consent on presidential appointments. read full story

1/6/12 – Senate Fail
Robert Menendez can't get to his opponent so he goes after his opponent's girlfriend. read full story

1/6/12 – Calling out one of our own: Sen Menendez holds up a judge
Good job Senator!  Your petulant tantrum, Republicanesque in form and function, is awesome and helpful, because the Federal judiciary is just overflowing with judges.  Nope, nary a backlog in sight (what? 85 openings in 858 judicial seats seems high to you?). read full story

1/6/12 – Recess Appointments and President Obama’s Surprising Restraint
For all the brouhaha surrounding President Obama's recess appointments this week of three new members for the National Labor Relations Board and of Richard Cordray to serve as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, what is most surprising - and most welcome from a constitutional perspective - is the President's restraint in his use of the recess appointment power. What's scary is the precedent it may set for other Administrations' less judicious use of that power. read full story

1/4/12 – Santorum and Romney Would Appoint Conservative Judges
We congratulate Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney for their shared victory in Iowa last night and offer some brief thoughts on the sort of judicial nominations we can we expect from these men if one of them becomes president. read full story

1/4/12 – Rick Santorum Picked The Ethical Trainwreck Who Thinks Child Labor Laws Are Unconstitutional As His Favorite Justice
At a recent GOP debate, Santorum was the only candidate who identified a single justice as his favorite current member of the Supreme Court — Justice Clarence Thomas. read full story

1/4/12 – Partisan politics getting in way of filling judicial positions
More than a quarter of current judicial vacancies could be filled with nominees who already have been cleared by the Judiciary Committee -- most with little or no opposition -- but have yet to receive a confirmation vote by the full Senate.  You can blame calculated, partisan politics. read full story

1/4/12 – Rick Santorum and Judicial Appointments
One very important factor is which candidate is most likely to nominate excellent Supreme Court justices and lower-court judges and to work tenaciously to get them confirmed. On this score, the candidate in whom I have by far the greatest confidence is Rick Santorum. read full story

1/3/12 – A Federal Judge Responds Defiantly to Chief Justice Roberts
Amid the clamor over judicial independence, and with scores of judicial nominations left pending to the detriment of litigants everywhere, John Roberts decided that now was the time to devote virtually his entire annual message to an explanation of why the Supreme Court is different from the rest of the federal judiciary when it comes to recusal matters. read full story

– Romney Supreme Court Appointees Might Live More Than A Hundred Years Suggests Longevity Studies
As if we already didn't have plenty of reasons to vote for Obama over Romney, consider the implications of increasing lifespans on the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States over the next half century, or more. read full story

1/2/12 – Obama and the definition of ‘recess’
President Barack Obama’s ability to jam through appointments during the congressional break depends on one big factor: What the definition of “recess” is. read full story

1/2/12 – Harry Reid Beat Back Majority of Filibusters in 2011
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid managed to win more than half of the filibuster-breaking votes on the Senate floor in 2011, besting his success rate from the previous year. read full story

1/2/12 – Washington gridlock ends outstanding career
Almost three years ago, applicants were sought for a federal court vacancy in Rochester. The story of that vacancy demonstrates how broken Washington is, and how partisanship in the Senate has stifled democracy and ruined careers. read full story

1/2/12 – NC judicial emergency enters 7th year
North Carolina has the second-longest federal judicial emergency in the nation. The vacancy on the Eastern NC federal district court is now entering its SEVENTH year. read full story

1/1/12 – The Supreme Court Chief Justice Cops Out
John Roberts is defending the Supreme Court's indefensible refusal to follow ethics rules. read full story

12/31/11 – Opinion: The Grinch who stole the federal courts’ Christmas
McConnell refused to grant unanimous consent, so that the Senate might consider 21 judicial nominees. His inaction is only the latest skirmish in the confirmation wars that jeopardize the federal courts and must cease for the good of the nation. read full story

12/31/11 – More federal courts needed along border
Drug smuggling and illegal immigration cases are overwhelming the dockets, and they will continue to do so as the crackdown on these types of cases increases. read full story

12/30/11 – Confirm U.S. judge
The Senate has delayed the confirmation of 20 federal judges, including a highly qualified nominee for the federal bench in Utah, because of partisan wrangling over another issue. read full story

12/30/11 – Work the Senate left undone . . .
George Pyle collects a series of links discussing how congressional dysfunction is hobbling the judicial confirmation process. read full story

12/29/11 – Bench vacancies
When Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. was elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, no one envisioned that, six years later, his seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., Circuit would still be vacant. read full story

12/29/11 – Judicial openings erode U.S. justice system
The openings in 85 judgeships erode speedy, economical and fair case disposition. Thus, President Obama must promptly nominate, and senators must quickly confirm, numerous talented judges read full story

12/28/11 – A favor for Chuck?
A lack of evidence to the contrary suggests that one Kevin McNulty is qualified for a seat at the federal bench — to which he’s just been named on the recommendation of New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg. There’s only one problem — how he came by that nomination in the first place. read full story

12/28/11 – With nominees lined up for confirmation, the Senate shirks its duty: editorial
When the Senate left Washington last weekend, it also left a stack of pending judicial nominations so large it amounts to dereliction of duty. read full story

12/22/11 – Unconstitutional acts: Senate Republicans use filibuster to avoid voting on judicial nominees
The U.S. Constitution requires that federal judicial nominees be confirmed by the Senate. But lately Senate Republicans have been using the filibuster to prevent them from even coming to a vote. read full story

12/27/11 – Giving Senator Charles Schumer heat for this? (I don’t get it…)
NY Senator Charles Schumer’s brother in law has been nominated by President Obama to be a Federal Judge in New Jersey.  For some reason, this has really annoyed some and gotten headlines. read full story

12/26/11 – Judicial delays are unacceptable
The president has been sluggish in making nominations, especially in Texas. But even when the White House has forwarded nominations, Senate Republicans have unacceptably slowed down the confirmation process. read full story

12/22/11 – Peltier and Mikkanen: It Does Not Feel Like Christmas
Sending the nomination back to the President without the courtesy of a formal hearing was a slap in the face of American Indians everywhere. read full story

12/22/11 – Nomination, appointment gridlock for judgeships continues
The nomination of Oklahoma City-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Arvo Mikkanen has been stalled from the get-go with neither Sen. Tom Coburn nor Sen. Jim Inhofe supporting the nomination for the U.S. District Court opening here. read full story

12/20/11 – More heated partisanship puts community at risk
District Attorney Mike Green, a Democrat, blames local partisan sniping for the undoing of his nomination to a federal judgeship. If he's right, and it's likely that he is, then this community is at risk. read full story

12/19/11 – McConnell Takes Every Single Judicial Nominee Hostage To Sabotage Consumer Protection Agency
The Senate closed out the year without confirming any of the 21 judicial nominees currently awaiting a vote on the Senate floor. read full story

12/19/11 – As Senate Leaves Town, McConnell Blocks Votes on More than 50 Nominees
The Senate concluded its last official day of business for the year on Saturday, without taking action on more than 50 judicial and executive branch nominations ready for an immediate Senate confirmation vote. read full story

12/19/11 – Confirmations lag as Senate breaks
For judicial confirmations, 2011 went out not with a bang but a whimper. read full story

12/16/11 – Recess Appointments and the Judiciary
In the wake of the unjustifiable Senate filibuster of the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week, we are now quickly approaching the end of 2011 with no end to the judicial vacancy crisis in sight. read full story

12/16/11 – Senate filibuster is not the problem
The Democratic majority must not match the hypocrisy of the Republicans with their own hypocrisy by adopting the "nuclear option." read full story

12/15/11 – On Judges, Murkowski Stands Alone Within Her Party
Since President Obama took office, Senate Republicans have used every weapon in their arsenal to slow down or prevent altogether confirmation of his judicial nominees. With partisan obstruction as their lodestar, they have abandoned the principles they professed to have when they were pushing for rapid confirmation of President Bush’s nominees. read full story

12/15/11 – Clearing the Benches
Neither party has much incentive to crusade energetically against this attack on the judicial branch. The opposition party never wants to fill the judgeships, at least not until its president gets to do the nominating. The majority is wary of accusations that it is “politicizing” the courts by packing them with partisan appointees.

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12/14/11 – Bipartisan Calls Build for Nomination Process Reform
Adding to a growing bipartisan chorus to break the obstructionist impasse over judicial nominations in Congress, two more former government officials from the two sides of the political aisle are urging reform. read full story

12/14/11 – Senate filibuster’s sad, maddening history
In the latest successful Republican filibuster threat, Maine’s two senators joined in blocking the confirmation of a new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — not because they opposed the nominee, but because they wanted changes in the bureau’s structure. read full story

12/14/11 – Specter Salutes Justice Dept, Slams Republicans
Specter, turning to his former colleagues in the Senate, said the Republican filibuster of Caitlin Halligan, a nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was the hallmark of a GOP that longer tolerated moderates. “This was a clear cut case for no filibuster,” Specter said. read full story

12/14/11 – Rock Bottom
Now that another highly qualified judicial nominee has been left as road kill, the question is how much lower can the confirmation process sink. read full story

12/13/11 – Who Will Replace First Circuit Judge Kermit Lipez?
With the recent Senate Republican filibuster of judicial nominee Caitlin Halligan to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, it wouldn’t be a surprise if President Barack Obama has become a bit gun-shy about making new judicial appointments. read full story

12/13/11 – Broken Senate, Broken Courts
Washington is mired in partisan gridlock, with the White House and Congress divided even on issues with broad public support. But hyper-partisan politics does more than just stop the legislative and executive branches from getting anything done. It also cripples the federal judiciary, one of the bedrocks of our democracy. read full story

12/12/11 – Break the Senate’s nomination logjam
There is a simple way to break up this unnecessary, and potentially costly, confirmation logjam: Give the Senate 90 days to vote on a nominee — to confirm or reject the president’s choice. If there is no vote by then, the nomination would be considered confirmed. read full story

12/12/11 – Minority judges things differently
In 2005 Georgia’s senators, Republicans Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, wrote a joint op-ed in this newspaper declaring “every judge nominated by this president or any president deserves an up-or-down vote.” But on Tuesday, both of them voted to uphold a filibuster against Caitlin Halligan, a former New York state solicitor general whom President Barack Obama nominated to fill a slot on the D.C. Court of Appeals. read full story

12/9/11 – With Nominations, the Senate GOP Legislates by Gridlock
The Senate GOP under President Obama has mastered the art of proactive apathy. read full story<