Private: Senate Republicans Embrace Court Vacancies, Hobbling Federal Bench

by Jeremy Leaming

The Republican effort to avoid filling judicial vacancies in the hopes of gaining more political power in November continues unabated, but not without justifiably sharp criticism.

Senate Republicans’ agenda of obstructing everything Obama may be simple and nakedly political, but obstruction of judicial nominations is also disastrous for the nation’s court system. The Senate left town with more than 75 vacancies on the federal bench, many of them deemed emergency vacancies by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts of the federal bench.   

Last week the Republicans blocked Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid’s effort to force votes on 17 district court nominations, and left town for a recess after confirming only two. The Senate confirmed Gonzalo Curiel for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and Robert Shelby to fill a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. Both nominees were recommended for confirmation by the Senate Judiciary Committee about five months ago.

In a press release, containing a list of pending nominations and a lengthy statement, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) blasted the Republicans’ intransigence. The obstruction of the judicial nominations is yet another example of “Senate Republicans putting partisanship ahead of the interests of the American people,” Leahy said. “I have served in the Senate for 37 years, and I have never seen so many judicial nominees, reported with bipartisan support, be denied a simple up-or-down voter for four months, five months, six months, even 11 months.”

The Senate Republicans, Leahy continued, have ratcheted up partisanship over judicial selections, blocking district court nominees. Leahy cited a Congressional Research Service report that “95 percent of President [George W.] Bush’s district court nominees were confirmed in his first term. Moreover, President Obama’s district court nominees have been consistently stalled, being forced to wait nearly three times longer for a Senate vote once reported by the Judiciary Committee.

Republicans have offered little excuse for their actions. They have repeated the tired claim that the president is not putting forth enough nominees. But this claim, heard over and over again during the president’s first two years in office has largely become moot, since the nomination rate has essentially equaled his predecessors’ at this time in their terms. It’s a lame refrain that even a gaggle of the president’s supporters aped early on. But it is beyond time to bury it. The nominees are there, they’re just being left to languish by Republicans itching to regain power.

And the obstruction, as Leahy has noted time and again undermines the judicial system and harms the millions of Americans who need to access it. Leahy cited a recent article by the Atlantic’s Andrew Cohen detailing the problems of the Middle District of Pennsylvania where there are not enough judges to hear and move along cases.

“This obstruction has real costs to the American people,” Leahy said.

It sure does, but at the end of the day Senate Republicans have only one thing in mind and it doesn’t center on shoring up the federal bench. The Republicans need a federal bench full of jurists who will help advance their agenda of catering to the nation’s powerful. So those vacancies do not bother Senate Republicans. If and when they return to power, filling those vacancies will be a priority.    

Importance of the Courts, Judicial Selection