My first diary ever, and sorry if this is old news, but it's a subject that didn't seem to get very
detailed coverage throughout the Nuclear Option debates. So just a reminder of the fascinating details of how the Senate Republicans changed Judiciary Committee rules since 1996 to destroy the Democrats' ability to block judicial confirmations in any way
other than through use of the filibuster. More below.
Herman Schwartz wrote last March about these committee rules changes in the
American Prospect.
Traditionally, the filibuster has not been the only weapon in an opposition party's arsenal. There are other, less visible ways whereby the Senate's rules and traditions empower individual senators to block judicial and other nominations. Between 1996 and 2000, Republicans in control of the Senate developed these techniques to a high art.
They really don't like us to remember this!
Prior to 1996, when the Senate majority and the president were from opposing parties, senators usually deferred to the president with respect to lower-court judicial nominations...
But what did the Republicans do?
All this changed in 1996. Rather than openly challenge President Clinton's nominees on the floor, Republicans decided to deny them Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Between 1996 and 2000, 20 of Bill Clinton's appeals-court nominees were denied hearings, including Elena Kagan, now dean of the Harvard Law School, and many other women and minorities. In 1999, Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch refused to hold hearings for almost six months on any of 16 circuit-court and 31 district-court nominations Clinton had sent up. Three appeals-court nominees who did manage to obtain a hearing in Clinton's second term were denied a committee vote... Some 45 district-court nominees were also denied hearings, and two more were afforded hearings but not a committee vote.
Even votes that did occur were often delayed for months and even years.
OK, so we know they blocked tons of Clinton's nominees. But, what else did they do?
But when the Republicans took over the White House in 2001 and the Senate in 2003, things sped up. In 2003, Hatch announced that he would abandon the "blue-slip system" he had insisted on since 1995, whereby a senator could block action on a nominee from his or her home state... Anonymous floor holds were abolished, as was the rule requiring that at least one minority-party senator on the Judiciary Committee must agree to a vote on a nominee if any committee member objects. These rules changes left the Democrats with only the filibuster.
Hence the particularly nuclear impact of doing away with the filibuster. They could run any nominated judge right through to confirmation with absolutely no opposition, knowing full well the kind of obstructionism they employed, in committee, on Clinton's nominees. The hypocrisy is truly mind-boggling.