WASHINGTON, D.C., January 24, 2013 — Alliance for
Justice President Nan Aron issued the following statement on today’s agreement
concerning reforming the rules of the United States Senate:
Today’s agreement to enact incremental reforms to Senate
rules, while containing some provisions that may prove to be of significant
value in mitigating the calamitous mistreatment of judicial nominations, does
not go as far as we would like in the direction of meaningful change on the
broader issues confronting our country.
While we are particularly happy to see long-overdue changes
to the rules governing filibusters of district court nominees, we remain
disappointed that circuit court nominations remain subject to the kind of
destructive obstruction that has characterized President Obama’s first term.
Limiting post-cloture debate to two hours serves as an implicit acknowledgement
of the unprecedented degree to which Republicans have inappropriately used
procedural weapons to delay and derail these important nominations. This
agreement holds out hope that some degree of comity may now return to the
Senate for district court nominees, but at the same time we urge Senate leaders
to use every tool at their disposal to prevent the widespread obstruction of
circuit court nominees that has characterized the past four years.
Although we had hoped for a more robust package, we are
encouraged by the spirit of reform and activism led by Sens. Jeff Merkley, Tom
Udall, and Tom Harkin, carried forward by dozens of organizations, and given
voice by hundreds of thousands of Americans, hungry for progress, who contacted
their senators to demand change. The American people deserve a Senate that is
willing and able to tackle the great issues that confront the nation, and we
will watch diligently in the days ahead to see whether today’s agreement is
sufficient to ensure that is the case.
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