Conservative groups like Heritage Action gave the Republican Senate their marching orders: no more Obama judges. And Senate Republicans are toeing the line. The blockade is now full on, from boycotting hearings to preventing action to even blocking their own home-state judges.
Hardly any GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee showed up to a hearing this month to vote out a batch of Obama’s court picks. There were so many missing members the committee didn’t have the 11 people it needed to reach a quorum, which meant no one could do anything. That left the eight Democrats and two Republicans who did show up just sitting there, looking at each other. […]
But that was just a blip in the judicial confirmation process. Far more significant is the fact that 14 Republican senators are quietly blocking their own nominees in the committee.
Take Cruz and Cornyn. They’ve got 12 judicial vacancies in Texas—that’s the most in the nation—and all have been designated judicial emergencies, meaning the courts’ workloads are unmanageable. Both senators publicly supported Obama’s nomination of five people to those courts in March. In fact, Cornyn talked big about his commitment to getting them confirmed, despite his party’s opposition to moving the president’s Supreme Court nominee.
These are nominees that the senators have identified as acceptable to them, and they've made lots of noises about how they'll work with the White House to make sure all the nominees are properly vetted and so on. But what they refuse to do is give Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley the "blue slips" for the nominees, the system of indicating a nomination is a go. And it's not just these two senators—far from it.
"Sen. Dan Coats (Ind.) hasn’t turned in his blue slip for his judicial nominee, Myra Selby. Sens. Richard Shelby (Ala.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.) haven’t turned in their blue slips for their nominee, Abdul Kallon. Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Dean Heller (Nev.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) haven’t turned in blue slips for their nominees, either. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hasn’t turned in his blue slip for his nominee, Lisabeth Hughes."
Why? They're holding out for the very slim possibility that Donald Trump wins the presidency and they can dump all these nominees they've approved for more conservative versions. Of course, the likelihood of Trump in the White House shrinks practically daily, but that's not a problem. The immediate issue is making sure that this president doesn't put his stamp on the federal judiciary. That they block this president.
Do they care if justice is being denied in their home states, that dockets keep piling up and trials aren't moving forward? That sitting judges are overworked and burning out? Not a bit. Because thwarting President Obama is job one. By the way, that won't change with President Clinton. That's why we need a Democratic Senate, one that will break Republican obstruction.
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