It's Tuesday, October 18, and Day 247 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell decided no nominee would get any Senate attention: No meetings, no hearings, no votes. It's also Day 216 since Merrick Garland was nominated by President Obama to fill that vacancy.
Senate Republicans are holding on by their fingernails to the hope that they'll keep the majority and have the chance to keep denying President Obama confirmation of his nominees until the bitter end. And there are an awful lot of nominees to deny.
Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama's nominees slowed to a halt this election year, a common political occurrence for the final months of divided government with a Democratic president and a Republican-controlled Senate. The vacancy on the Supreme Court attracted the most attention as Republicans refused to even hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, insisting that the choice to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February rests with the next president.
But more than 90 vacancies in the federal judiciary are taking a toll on judges, the courts and Americans seeking recourse. Obama has nominated replacements for more than half of those spots, including 44 nominees for the district court and seven for the appeals court. Yet the Senate has confirmed only nine district and appeals court judges this year — and only four since Scalia died.
The U.S. court system has declared 35 of the vacancies "judicial emergencies," a designation based on how many filings are in the district and how long the seat has been open.
There are 30 nominations already cleared through committee, just waiting for a floor vote. Some of these nominees have been waiting as long as 18 months. And it’s causing crises across the nation, justice delayed and denied. There's no indication that Mitch McConnell will all of a sudden be overcome with benevolence and grant these nominees—and President Obama—confirmations during the lame duck session.
But we can help fix that. With a Democratic majority in the Senate next year, and 17 days between when it convenes and the new president is inaugurated, there's time for President Obama to renominate them and the Senate to confirm. It just means a Democratic majority, and that's in reach.
Can you chip in $3 to each of these candidates to end Mitch McConnell's Senate leadership?
No matter where you live, sign up with MoveOn to call voters in swing states from the comfort of your home. Get out the vote and take nothing for granted!