Attorney General Eric Holder warned last week that the federal court system will be “stressed to the breaking point” if the Senate does not soon pick up the pace of confirming judges.
Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Holder was the latest legal leader to decry the judicial vacancy crisis and call on the Senate to speed the pace of judicial confirmation votes. He said:
America is facing a crisis in its courts…. If we remain on the confirmation pace set during President Obama’s first two years – which appears to be the slowest in history – the result will be a federal judicial system stressed to the breaking point, with litigants waiting longer and longer for their day in court.
In September 2010, Holder wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post slamming the ongoing Senate obstruction of judicial nominees. Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Barack Obama, 20 district court judges and a group of former federal court judges have also joined in urging the Senate to stop holding up judicial nominations.
Holder also noted that President Obama “continues to do his part” by submitting federal judicial nominations, praising the nominees as “talented, diverse, and highly qualified.” “They should be confirmed at once,” he urged, continuing, “I hope that the Senate will increase the pace of judicial confirmations and begin to address our growing vacancy crisis in a sustained and serious way.”
There are currently 92 vacancies on the federal bench, 38 percent of which are considered judicial emergencies. Follow the latest updates at JudicialNominations.org.
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