Civil and Human Rights Coalition Condemns Senate Delay in Confirming Judicial Nominees
WASHINGTON – Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president and director of policy at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after the Senate’s confirmation of Dale Drozd as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of California. Drozd is only the seventh judge to be confirmed by the Senate this year:
“Seven judges confirmed in 10 months is nothing short of pathetic.
Since Senate Republicans took the majority in January, they have delayed and obstructed well-qualified judicial nominees at every step of the confirmation process, shirking their constitutional duty, hindering our country’s justice system, and delaying justice for thousands of Americans. Drozd is only the seventh judge to be confirmed in the 114th Congress; at this rate, the Senate will confirm the fewest number of judges this year in more than half a century. By comparison, at the same point in the Bush administration, the Democratic-controlled Senate had already confirmed 33 judges.
This slow-walking and obstruction has become the new normal for Senate Republican Leadership, who have demonstrated a complete inability to govern and fulfill its basic but crucial duty of keeping our courts staffed. Nine months of Senate Republicans affirmatively obstructing non-controversial, highly qualified nominees has led to a more than 50 percent increase in judicial vacancies, and a 158 percent increase in judicial emergencies. These numbers have tangible, devastating effects for thousands of Americans who are waiting for justice to be served in court.
As one federal judge told the Wall Street Journal, ‘Over the years I’ve received several letters from people indicating, ‘Even if I win this case now, my business has failed because of the delay. How is this justice?’ And the simple answer, which I cannot give them, is this: It is not justice. We know it.’
There is no excuse for not moving judges while our courts suffer from so many vacancies and judicial emergencies. Republican leadership must return to regular order and resume regular floor votes on judicial nominees. As the thousands of Americans who continue to wait for their day in court know, justice delayed is justice denied.”
Nancy Zirkin is executive vice president and director of policy at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.