Mitch McConnell, the guy who was going to make the Senate work again and prove that Republicans can govern. When it comes to filling judicial vacancies,
he's choosing not to.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he doesn't expect to confirm any of Obama's circuit court nominees for the remainder of his time in office, a blow to White House efforts to fill empty federal court seats despite working with a Republican-controlled Senate.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, McConnell was asked about judicial confirmations.
"So far, the only judges we've confirmed have been federal district judges that have been signed off on by Republican senators," McConnell said. Asked if he expects that to be the case through 2016, McConnell said, "I think that's highly likely, yeah."
There will be a Judiciary Committee hearing next week for Luis Felipe Restrepo, a nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit since Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) finally
stopped blocking the confirmation process for him. In April, the committee approved Kara Stoll, a nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, but she's not been allowed a confirmation vote in the full Senate yet. There are an additional seven vacant circuit court seats that don't yet have nominees. With this statement from McConnell, it's likely that the two nominations—along with the seven vacancies, will languish for the remainder of President Obama's term.