Private: Senate Confirms Four to Federal Bench

Elena Kagan was not the only judicial nominee the Senate confirmed yesterday. In one of its last acts before recessing for a month, the Senate also confirmed four nominees to federal judgeships, The Blog of the Legal Times reports.

The confirmation of James Wynn Jr. to the Fourth Circuit, along with three others to district courts, comes a day after President Barack Obama met one-on-one with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to discuss judicial confirmations.

In a statement before the meeting, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president is "rightly frustrated" at a pace of confirmations that is "unrivaled and unmatched in its slowness," USA Today reports.

There are now 100 vacancies out of 867 seats on the federal bench. "Those vacancies are causing the federal courts to be overburdened, delaying justice," ACS Executive Director Caroline Fredrickson wrote in a column for The Huffington Post earlier this month. If the Senate continues to move at this "glacial pace," a system that is "already overburdened" will come to a "grinding halt," Fredrickson wrote.

Thursday's confirmations were part of a deal between Democratic and Republican leaders to move some of the noncontroversial nominees, The Blog of Legal Times reports.

Still, a large number of well-qualified nominees continue to wait, such as U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Chen in California, who has now been waiting a full year for Senate confirmation to become a district court judge, the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board writes.

"Too many talented would-be judges are being forced to put their lives on hold while they wait for senators to act," the Chronicle's editorial board writes.

Wynn, a North Carolina state judge, was first nominated to the Fourth Circuit by President Bill Clinton in 1999, but his nomination was blocked. Wynn was nominated again in November by Obama, together with Charlotte Judge Albert Diaz, and both were confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in January. Diaz and Wynn "have been waiting since then for a full Senate vote, caught up in the partisan dispute over Obama nominees," McClatchy Newspapers reports. Diaz is still awaiting confirmation.

A nominee for the Sixth Circuit, Nashville, Tenn. lawyer Jane Stranch, is scheduled for a vote on the Senate's first day back in session Sept. 13, according to The Blog of The Legal Times.

The district judges confirmed were Michelle Childs and Richard Gergel for the District of South Carolina and Leonard Stark for the District of Delaware, The Blog of the Legal Times reports.

For more information, and to track the progress of judicial nominations, visit JudicialNominations.org.

Access to Justice, Importance of the Courts