Senate Nears Adjournment Without Voting on Critical Judicial Nominations
The Senate headed toward adjournment on Wednesday having voted to confirm only 19 of the 38 judicial nominations pending on the Senate floor. The other 19 nominations fell victim to a two-year campaign of obstruction by Republican senators that prevented even the most noncontroversial nominees from getting an up-or-down confirmation vote on the Senate floor.
As
a result, only 60 of President Obama’s nominees to the lower federal courts
were confirmed during his first two years in office. That’s substantially lower
than the 100 confirmations for President George W. Bush and 126 for President
Clinton during their first two years in office.
The
failure of the Senate to overcome the obstructionist tactics of the minority
party greatly increased the number of judicial vacancies on the federal courts.
At one point this fall, there were more than 100 vacant judgeships, and about
half of those were declared “judicial emergencies” by the Administrative Office
of the U.S. Courts. The vacancies and the increased workload for sitting
federal judges meant long delays for people seeking to enforce their rights or
settle their legal disputes in court.
“The
disrespect shown to our federal courts has been beyond disturbing,” said Wade
Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human
Rights. Courtrooms without judges are simply incapable of dispensing justice.”
Henderson
said the civil and human rights coalition was “especially troubled by the
number of highly qualified women and minority nominees who have been denied
confirmation votes during the 110th Congress.”
Goodwin
Liu, nominated to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and two district
court nominees, Edward Chen of California and Louis Butler of Wisconsin, were
among the nominees approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee but denied
confirmation votes on the Senate floor. Henderson urged the White House to
renominate them and other unsuccessful nominees in the 111th
Congress.