Astoundingly, the Republicans have made it a point of pride that they are suppressing job growth in one important sector -- that of federal judges. Through procedural roadblocking, the Senate Republicans have prevented the vast majority of federal judicial vacancies from being filled. This Republican unemployment-boosting effort has far-reaching consequences, suppressing economic growth at a time when they should be trying to do exactly the opposite.
Now, let's get one thing straight right up front -- it's not like the Repubs really have any ideological objection to the nominees put forth by President Obama.
Wikipedia's article, listing federal judges appointed by Barack Obama includes the number of vacancies, nominees awaiting a vote, and the vote tallies for successful nominees, all easily backed up by federal government sources. A quick glance over the numbers relayed on that website confirms that when the long-delayed nominations finally do come up for a vote, they typically pass overwhelmingly, with virtually no Republican opposition. But close to 40 judicial nominees are still waiting for a vote, months after their initial nomination (one thing the Wikipedia piece does not relay is that many of these nominations were submitted earlier, and had to be resubmitted because the Senate was unable to act on them) and over forty more vacancies are waiting to be filled if the process ever shows signs of moving in the Senate.
So the big question is, how badly is this Republican intransigence over much-needed federal judges hurting our economy?
From judges to janitors
Well it sure seems amazing in this economy that anyone would want to prevent an available job vacancy from being filled, but that is just what the Repubs are doing. But, it is not just the judges. There is a broader community of people being denied employment by these delaying tactics. First, every one of those judges gets a staff. Some of their staffers are lawyers, but there are also secretaries, bailiffs, security guards, and even janitors and woodworkers and repairmen and IT people needed to keep the courthouses and judicial offices up and running.
And, lets face it, most of the nominees themselves already have jobs -- some are state court judges or magistrates, some are teaching or in a law firm, or are state prosecutors. But the people who will be hired to fill those various new staff positions are likely to be among the ranks of the unemployed. The elevation of the nominees to judgeships will create vacancies in their old jobs, vacancies which will be filled much faster than the federal judicial slots are getting filled. As long as those nominations are held in limbo, not only is the hunt for their replacement on hold, but they themselves will be on hold for hiring any support staff, here or there -- because, why hire additional staff at your current job if you may be taking a new one soon. But once that Senate vote is allowed to be taken, the people who take those newly-available teaching and prosecuting and litigating jobs will also create vacancies to pull more people up the chain after them, and will also bring about more employment of staff personnel, secretaries and janitors and technicians.
Justice delayed drags us all down
But by far the biggest impact is the effect of delays in the justice process. Judicially understaffed courts with overloaded dockets are pushing cases farther down the road, and that has big economic consequences. Contract disputes, labor disputes, patent disputes, all of these can leave investors sitting on the sidelines literally for years -- waiting for an outcome before they will move forward with backing a product, building a factory that will employ hundreds, launching a marketing campaign that will employ hundreds more.
And, although captains of industry and corporate giants occupy an inordinate amount of our courtroom time, the doors of justice are help open t all. Ordinary people who have been wronged in some way or another and are counting on a court to set right that wrong through financial compensation are treading water on mortgages, credit card debt, and so forth will get the justice they need to get their lives back on track, pay their bills, and maybe even start or restart businesses of their own.
There is a clear connection between Republican judge-blocking and the degree of our continued economic woes. So it turns out that justice delayed is not only justice denied, it is jobs denied!