Senators Grassley and McConnell Make Misleading Statements about Judicial Confirmations

Prior to the Senate's long-overdue confirmation of Third Circuit nominee Patty Shwartz (who waited 550 days for a vote), Senator Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, made misleading statements about confirmations of judicial nominees.

Senator Grassley

Specifically, he cherry-picked the time period for confirmations in an attempt to evade the fact that President Obama has had far fewer judges confirmed than President George W. Bush at a comparable point in his presidency. He said:

"Today the Senate will consider the 10th judicial nomination this year. . . . At this point in 2005, and that was the beginning of President Bush’s second term, comparable for what we’re talking about for President Obama, the Senate had confirmed zero judicial nominees. Let me repeat, at this point in 2005, the Senate had confirmed not 10 , not 4, not even 1 judicial nominee, so that comes out to be zero."

Minority Leader McConnell

Following the vote, Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) repeated the statement almost verbatim:

"We just today confirmed the 10th judicial nomination of President Obama's second term. Today. The 10th judicial nomination of President Obama's second term. At this point in President Bush's second term, he got zero judges. None."

Ten confirmations compared with zero confirmations sounds bad. But 202 confirmations compared with 181 confirmations sounds even worse—and that's the actual number of Bush and Obama confirmations at a comparable point in their presidencies. That comes out to 21 fewer confirmations for Obama.

Grassley and McConnell’s larger point about fairness would be even stronger if the Senate had confirmed 96% of President Obama’s district court nominees—the percentage of President Bush’s district court nominees who had been confirmed at a comparable point. Instead, the Senate’s confirmed only 85% of President Obama’s nominees. Had Grassley, McConnell, and their colleagues allowed Obama to match Bush’s record on this front, the Senate would have confirmed another 19 judges, making the two presidents’ overall confirmation numbers almost exactly even.

As it happens, there are exactly 19 district court nominees pending in the Senate right now. Unfortunately, Republicans have delayed the 13 nominees on the Senate floor, who have been waiting for over a month, and 6 nominees who are pending in committee. Given the Senators’ evident concern with fairness, you would think that they would at least allow immediate votes for the 13 nominees pending on the floor, all but one of whom were reported out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously. You would think.

Thank you, Mr. President: AFJ Praises Obama judicial nominees

Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron issued the following statement today in response to President Obama’s announcement of  seven nominees for federal district courts and a nominee for the United States Court of International Trade:

We are pleased that, so soon after re-election, President Obama appears to be making it a top priority to fill longstanding vacancies on the federal courts. 

President Obama says that these nominees "have demonstrated the talent, expertise, and fair-mindedness Americans expect and deserve from their judicial system.  They also represent my continued commitment to ensure that the judiciary resembles the nation it serves."

We agree.  These nominations continue the president’s exemplary record when it comes to diversity in gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation  – the best record of any president (for details, see AFJ’s Judicial Selection Snapshot).   In addition, we are pleased that two of the nominees come from professional backgrounds that include service to everyday Americans and reflect the full diversity of the legal profession.   Raymond Moore, nominated for the District of Colorado, is the chief public defender for federal cases in Colorado and Wyoming, and Judge Will Thomas, nominated for the Southern District of Florida is a former public defender.

Meanwhile, 19 other nominees, already put forward by the president and approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, await action by the full Senate during the current lame-duck session.   This at a time when there are scores of vacancies on the federal bench.  There is much truth to the cliché that justice delayed is justice denied.  These nominations bring thousands of Americans a step closer to justice.

The Senate should vote, now, to confirm those nominees.  Please click here to tell your Senator to do just that.

Sen. Coburn reads the election returns; predicts quick action on two stalled judicial nominations

            In July, the United States Senate reached a new low when, for the first time, Senate Republicans filibustered a nominee for a judgeship on a United States Circuit Court of Appeals even after the nomination had been voted out of committee with bipartisan support.

Judge Bacharach

            The nominee is U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Bacharach, whom President Obama wants to appoint to the 10^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

            As AFJ President Nan Aron said at the time:

The Senate has become a theater of the politically absurd, and is so poisoned with partisanship that even the two senators from Judge Bacharach’s home state, who had expressed unequivocal support for his nomination, willingly voted to ignore their obligations to the Constitution and their fellow Oklahomans.

            But now, at least one of those senators, Tom Coburn, is singing a different tune.  He told The Oklahoman that the nominations of Bacharach and John Dowdell, who was nominated for a U.S. District Court judgeship in Tulsa, should “fly through” the Senate, when it reconvenes for a lame-duck session next week.

            What’s changed? There’s less partisan advantage for Republicans in trying to keep good judges off the bench.  As The Oklahoman points out: “Had Republican Mitt Romney won, he would have been able to make his own judicial nominations.”

            In addition to Bacharach and Dowdell, 17 other judicial nominations have been stalled by Senate Republicans after being voted out of committee.

            But as former U.S. Attorney Dan Webber told The Oklahoman:

Most of the nominees, including Judge Bacharach and John Dowdell, face little or no opposition and could be confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.  The Senate could confirm a dozen or more nominees, including the Oklahomans, in less than an hour.

            We hope other Senate Republicans will read the election returns in the same way as Sen. Coburn.  There is no reason the Senate can’t give swift approval to all 19 pending nominations during the lame-duck session, and begin to ease the critical shortage of federal judges, a shortage that delays, and sometimes denies, justice across the country.

            AFJ will be keeping the pressure on to get the Senate to move.