Litigation

Is Action Ahead on Judicial Nominations?

By Peter Hardin

Will the Senate take up a backlog of judicial nominations when it returns for a lame-duck session next week?

In a Huffington Post commentary, Judith E. Schaeffer, vice president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, argues that it should do so. And there is solid precedent, she says:

“During the Senate’s ‘lame duck’ session in 2002, the Senate voted on and confirmed 20 of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees, including two highly controversial nominees to the Court of Appeals (Dennis Shedd and Michael McConnell). President Obama’s nominees deserve no less consideration now.”

There are more than 100 federal judgeships that are vacant, Schaeffer writes, with significant impact on the delivery of justice. “For hardworking Americans who believe they have been victimized by corporate or other wrongdoing, the increasing inability to have their cases heard timely in our courts is tarnishing what should be a shining star of American government — our federal judicial system.”

To learn more about political wrangling over President Obama’s judgeships, see earlier Gavel Grab posts.

Full post as published by The Gavel on November 12, 2010 (boomark / email).