Professor Debra Livingston Confirmed

Wednesday the Senate unanimously confirmed Debra Livingston to a lifetime appointment on the Second Circuit. Professor Livingston, who teaches at Columbia Law School, received strong bipartisan support. We can only hope that the president will continue to choose consensus nominees like Livingston. While the Senate should stand ready to confirm the president's nominees, they should not confirm them -- as some Republican senators have urged -- just to keep up a rapid pace of confirmations. Rather, the nominees must all be evaluated on their individual merits and confirmed only of they satisfy the Senate that they are qualified for a lifetime judicial appointment.