Senate Committee Approves Three Circuit Nominees

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved three circuit court nominees Thursday, sending them to wait for a confirmation vote on the Senate floor.

The committee voted by unanimous voice vote on Richard Taranto for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as Robert Bacharach from Oklahoma for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

William Kayatta Jr. from Maine was also approved by a voice vote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, although Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) was recorded as voting against him.

The three nominees were first selected more than a year ago and received what were essentially unanimous votes from the committee last year. All three nominations languished in the full Senate. To continue to be considered, the White House had to renominate them this session.

In other action, the judiciary committee held over a slate of two more circuit and 13 district nominees that were on the agenda this week, setting up votes for next week. That includes Caitlin Halligan for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Patty Shwartz for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

There were no comments about the vote other than committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who said he hoped the committee could make "real progress" moving judicial nominees to the Senate floor.

Comments

[Rick]

"who said he hoped the committee could make "real progress" moving judicial nominees to the Senate floor".

Look, there is no doubt GOP obstruction of judicial nominees is at a level never seen before...However, Democrats need to FIGHT for these nominees, like the Republicsns did in 2005 when they DEMANDED on the senate floor that all their nominees be given an up/down vote...Democrats continue to want to play nice, they're more worried about being the republicans buddy than they are getting these nominees thru...They had a golden opportunity to make REAL filibuster reform, but they chose not to..