A Closer Look at Confirmed Federal Judges,
Fair Courts E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Andrew Cohen
Source: Atlantic
Date: August 12 2011
The Atlantic recently critiqued the Senate’s inability to confirm a large number of judicial nominations before the summer recess. In a follow-up piece, the Atlantic’s Andrew Cohen suggested that the polarization of Congress is largely to blame. While a large share of the judicial nominees who have seen the longest delays in the confirmation process have been women or minority nominees, the article notes that those who have attracted the most opposition are nominees with ties to “liberal” organizations such as the ACLU. Cohen notes that 77 out of the 89 individuals nominated by President Obama were ultimately are confirmed with little or no opposition during the floor vote, which Cohen suggests means that most nominees whose hearings were delayed have been “held back for no good reason at all.” Cohen concludes that “[t]here should be a special place reserved in political hell for any senator, of any party, who votes for a judicial nominee after voting procedurally against that candidate’s ability to get a vote on the merits of her nomination. Such antics are a waste of time, a waste of money, and a waste of the use of precious human resources (the nominees themselves).”
See also: John Schwartz, For Obama, a Record on Diversity but Delays on Judicial Confirmations, New York Times, August 6, 2011.