Freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has learned quickly how to maximize obstruction, from his
ridiculous and lamentable "open letter to Iran" to his latest achievement,
blocking five federal judges to the Court of Federal Claims. Perhaps not at all coincidentally, that court looms large for Cotton's old law firm—which includes some of his big financial contributors—because of the kinds of cases it hears, "disputes about government contracts and tax refund suits."
Conservative law firm Cooper & Kirk, where Cotton worked in 2004, sells itself as the “go-to firm” to sue the government in the biggest of cases and is currently representing several clients in cases before the court. The firm's employees were contributors to Cotton in 2012 and in 2014, making about one third of their total campaign contributions in 2014 to Cotton.
Interests align in other ways for the conservative Cotton, Senate Republicans as a whole, and the boutique law firm. The court now is lopsided with Republican appointees: eight Republicans to three Democrats. That includes a former Cooper & Kirk attorney, Victor Wolski, whose time at the firm coincided with Cotton's.
Republican judges are considered to be generally more pro-business and more pro-free market property rights, and therefore more likely to rule against government and award large damages. Adding the five appointees would even the balance on the court to 8-8, giving Obama's judicial picks more sway.
In blocking the five new appointments, who have now been waiting 15 months for a vote, Cotton said that the court's workload just didn't justify having all sixteen seats filled. The chief judge of the court, Patricia E. Campbell-Smith, disagrees. He wrote to the Senate pleading for these appointments because "current judges face unrelenting deadlines for cases unique to that court—some of which involve national defense and national security—and the cases are complex and time-consuming." So no surprise that Cotton is full of it.
No surprise, either, that he learned so quickly how to maximize obstruction and do it on behalf of benefactors. The GOP must be holding special training sessions on that for incoming senators.