A ‘New Republican Obstructionism’ in the Senate

A “new form of obstructionism” by Republicans in the Senate is delaying confirmation of Obama’s nominees for federal judgeships, writes Doug Kendall, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, in Slate today.

With only three of 22 judicial nominees confirmed so far, it “seems clear that Senate Republicans are prepared to take the partisan war over the courts into uncharted territory—delaying up-or-down votes on the Senate floor for even the most qualified and uncontroversial of the president’s judicial nominees.”

The problem of judicial nominations parallels the obstruction of executive nominations, a problem I highlight in my piece today about the seven-month delay in confirming President Obama’s pick to head the Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen.

In Kendall’s view, the “unprecedented and dangerous” obstruction, if it continues, “will worsen an already serious problem of vacancies on the federal courts” as well as “discourage from ever entering the confirmation process precisely the type of nominees both parties should want.”