Despite Senate Deal on Judges, Panel Finds Partisan Acrimony Worse Than Ever

The Senate confirmation process for federal judicial nominees has descended to a new level of contentiousness, Sen. Al Franken and a group of panelists said Tuesday at an event at the liberal Center for American Progress.

Franken told the crowd of about 50 that President Barack Obama's nominees being held up aren’t “radicals picked from the far left,” but are judges who even have the support of their home-state Republican senators. Instead, he said, they have been caught up in a stall tactic.

“Traditionally, filibusters have been considered appropriate only in extraordinary circumstances,” Franken said. “These days, it has become extraordinary when a nominee isn’t filibustered.”

To prove his point, Franken said these judges, once brought to the Senate floor, have been overwhelmingly confirmed by votes like 96-2.

On Capitol Hill this year, partisan bickering had bogged down judicial nominees for months. Some Republican senators were outspoken about voting against all judicial nominees, as a response to Obama's controversial recess appointments to consumer and labor agencies two months ago.

Senate Republicans last month threatened to filibuster otherwise non-controversial judges in response to Obama’s recess picks, but then agreed to move forward on 14 relatively non-controversial nominees before May 7.

Jeremy Paris, chief counsel for nominations and oversight for the Senate Judiciary Committee majority staff, said he thought it would take another negotiation between the parties for any more nominees to move forward after May 7.

“I think it will continue, unless we continue to press forward,” Paris said. “We’re still far behind.”

Paris said there were only 28 judicial vacancies at this point in President George W. Bush’s presidency, compared with 82 vacancies for Obama right now. That is about one in 10 judgeships that remain open, including four judicial emergencies in the overwhelmed Ninth Circuit, he said.

The comments were made during a panel discussion on the topic of how progressives should care more about judges and what they should be doing to make the courts more of a priority.

Robert Raben, the president and founder of the Raben group and chairman of the Fair Judiciary Committee, said he thinks the judicial nominee selection process is much easier for conservatives. Those nominees need the support of the U.S. Chamber, and not be in favor of abortion rights.

But on the left, Raben said there's a matrix of organizations that have concerns like reproductive rights and environmental rights and gay rights.  “And and and and and,” Raben said. “It feels when you operate on the left there are 100 peremptory challenges” to overcome.

Comments

[Rick]

Bush recess appointed Charles Pickering, However, he was never confirmed by the full senate and withdrew his nomination as the recess appt was about to end..

Another thing to consider is Senator Leahy won't have hearings for Obama nominees who aren't supported by their home state senators...This has ended several of Obama's Circuit and District Court nominations....Flashback to President Bush, who refused to withdraw Janice Brown's nomination, arguably his most controversial nominee, EVEN though both CA senators didn't support her...She ended up being confirmed anyway..The rules seem to be different for Democratic and Republican presidents.. http://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=20016ca6-023f-4fcc-a38d-ff4d26a2f069

[jqhiggins]

Comparisons between Geo. W. Bush judicial appointees and President Obama's judicial appointees would be more meaningful if someone provided details on how many controversial recess appointments President Bush made. Otherwise it's apples to oranges,not merely tit for tat. How's that for mixed metaphors. . . .

[Larry Harris]

In all the back and forth re: who shot John something is being lost: the damage to the judiciary and the burden on the individual judges. Sure the D's sometimes held up nominations. Does that mean the R's have to do the same on steroids, just to get even?

[Rick]

1. Caitlin Halligan's filibuster means President Obama will not have (barring a miracle) a DC Circuit court confirmation in his first term, first president in 50 yrs. to not have confirmation to that very high profile court...There are 3 openings on that circuit..

2. Also, Obama's District Court nominees are facing a tougher burden than has ever been seen...Several have recieved more than 35 NO votes, and for John J McConnell, Senator Reid had to file cloture to get him thru..President Bush had 261 District Court judges confirmed, only 4 had NO votes..And Bush had 10 judges confirmed on 9/26/08, which was in the heart of an election year...It will be very interesting to see how many (if any) Obama nominees get confirmed after July 1...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_George_W._Bush

[Ed Whelan]

Time for some perspective:

1. In 2003 alone, Senate Democrats defeated 19 cloture petitions on nine of Bush’s appellate nominees. In total, there were more than 800 Democratic votes against cloture. In 2011, Senate Republicans defeated two cloture petitions, one (with Democrat Ben Nelson joining them) on the nomination of Goodwin Liu, one on the nomination of Caitlin Halligan. The total number of Republican votes against cloture was 87.

2. Here is a list of Bush 43 district-court nominees who (with the exception of the one nominee noted below who received one negative vote) were confirmed unanimously or by voice vote after delays of 300 days or more:

Thomas Ludington 1,365 days
James C. Dever III 1,072 days
Peter Sheridan 946 days
Robert J. Conrad, Jr. 731 days
Sean F. Cox 636 days
Thomas D. Schroeder 441 days
Roslynn R. Mauskopf 428 days
Vanessa L. Bryant 427 days
Dora L. Irizarry 423 days
Sandra Feuerstein 419 days
Roger T. Benitez 413 days (98-1)
Richard Holwell 412 days
James R. Hall 388 days
Robert J. Jonker 376 days
Paul L. Maloney 376 days
Curtis V. Gomez 362 days
William L. Osteen, Jr. 346 days
Martin K. Reidinger 346 days
Liam O’Grady 341 days
Sandra Townes 307 days

Senate Democrats are reaping what they have sowed.

[Rick]

Its absolutely true as even 99-0 nominees wait 6 months+ to get a final vote...And there have been 2 filiubusters (Liu, Halligan) within 6 months of Obama's Circuit Court nominees..

Democrats blocked some of Bush's nomineees but they also allowed confirmations of very controversial nominees, and non-controversial ones cruised thru confirmations...

Obama's Circuit Court nominees have been filibustered, denied a SJC hearing, and those that do manage to clear the SJC wait forever for a final senate vote..