alabama

Eight months ago, President Obama nominated Indiana judge David Hamilton for a seat on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. As Jeffrey Toobin reported, it was an uncontroversial, Republican-backed choice intended to “begin a profound and rapid change in the confirmation process and in the federal judiciary itself.”
Eight months later, Republicans are still filibustering Hamilton, [...]

Not according to J. Gerald Hebert, a former Justice Department lawyer who worked with Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and testified at his 1986 confirmation hearing.
Back in 1986, Sessions was a U.S. Attorney who’d been nominated to be a federal judge by President Ronald Reagan. He was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee — the second [...]