After Months of Delay, Senate Confirms Tenth Circuit Nominee Unanimously

Updated 11:20 a.m.

The Senate voted unanimously to confirm Robert Bacharach to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Monday, ending a confirmation saga that had become a prime example of how Senate partisan politics has slowed down the process of filling the nation's federal courts.

With the 93-0 vote, Bacharach became the second circuit court judge confirmed this month. He is part a slate of judicial nominees left over from last Congress, which Democrats in the Senate Judiciary Committee have been quickly pushing through to the full Senate.

Bacharach, currently a magistrate judge in the Western District of Oklahoma, waited more than a year after his nomination for the vote. He was first eligible for a full confirmation vote in May, more than 290 days ago. Republicans filibustered his nomination in July, however, even though Bacharach had wide support.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said "the federal courts are diminished" every time the Senate delays confirmations only to have such lopsided votes to confirm the judges, because then "they appear to be mixed up in politics."

Because of the filibuster, "the people of Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming have been needlessly denied his services as a Tenth Circuit judge for seven months," Leahy said.

In July, it was a vote on Bacharach's nomination that led one Democratic senator to accuse Republicans of a "political game," while a Republican senator compared the Senate to a kindergarten playground.

Back then, despite strong support by both Republican senators from his home state of Oklahoma, Republicans successfully turned away Bacharach's confirmation, which needed 60 votes to overcome the GOP filibuster. He got 56.

Republicans were holding firm on a loosely defined Senate tradition of backing off from filling circuit court seats in the waning months of a president's term, dubbed "The Thurmond Rule." Republicans repeatedly referred to it as the "Leahy/Thurmond Rule" to connect it with Leahy, the senator who has most frequently asserted the existence of the rule and who announced in 2006 that the Senate would be instituting the rule, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Among those who did not vote to break the Republican filibuster: Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who had introduced Bacharach to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Inhofe was one of the three senators who voted "present" during that July vote. He spoke on the Senate floor after Monday's vote and called Bacharach his "best friend."

At the time of the filibuster, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) compared the Senate to a kindergarten playground, saying that all this did was delay Bacharach's eventual confirmation. Either Obama would be elected and Bacharach would be confirmed, or Coburn would fight for Bacharach to be on the court under a Republican administration, Coburn said at the time. "He's exactly what we want on this court," he said.

This article has been updated to correct the Congressional Research Service's description of Leahy's connection to the Thurmond Rule.

Comments

[Rick]

Quick correction..Carter nominated Stephen Breyer to a Circuit Court position...Clinton of course nominated him to the SCOTUS..
But Breyer was confirmed to his Circuit Court seat during a lame duck

[Rick]

Well Russ, Republicans started the whole judicial mess back in 1968 when they filibustered Abe Fortas...

Then, things calmed down...The best example of this was in 1980 after Carter lost, during the lame duck, Stephen Breyer was nominated AND confirmed...That would NEVER happen now...

And then in 1991 Democrats allowed an up/down vote on Clarence Thomas, despite he was replacing the very liberal Thurgood Marshall...Can you imagine the current GOP allowing an up/down vote on Goodwin Liu if he were nominated to replace Antonin Scalia?...

Then all the goodwill was thrown out the window during the Clinton years, when the GOP blocked, denied a hearing, etc. of over 40 of President Clinton's judicial nominees...So then the Democrats paid W back, but only partially, still allowing many of his controversial Circuit Court nominees to be confirmed....

BUT NOW, the GOP is doing payback X 500, where even non-controversial District Court nominees wait a year to be confirmed...Senator Reid has had to file cloture on over 20 District Court nominees, that's never been done before...And President Obama's Circuit court nominees are treated so badly it borders crimnal...

So, i think we can say, "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the GOP are the ones who have turned the judicial nominations process into a circus side show....

[Russ Davis]

Rick, you're the perfect example of the kindergarten mindset mentioned. Democrats started filibustering the judiciary so these vile, lawless, fascist hypocritical, deranged, lunatic, despicable demagogues (tell us how you really feel Russ!) have no room to complain for their own payback; it's sad we're no longer capable of self-government or both parties would pay for such antics at the ballot box but since we're not, we're swiftly coming to the end of civilization as it was once known as we swiftly slide back into the degenerate swamp of pre-Chrisitan barbarism of savage animals like lawless, lunatic demagogues Leahy & 0bama. God save us.

[Rick]

Big. Deal. Bacharach should have been confirmed in April 2012...What a joke, a nominee has to wait a year to be confirmed 93-0..

I want DC Circuit nominees confirmed...President Obama already has completed one term without a confirmation to this court...

Some day, when there is a Republican president, i hope the GOP remembers the adage "payback is a $%$%(