The Senate was not in session this week, but commentary on the judicial nominations crisis continued. Ashley L. Belleau, president of the Federal Bar Association, drew attention to financial incentives for resolving the judicial vacancy crisis, noting, “Making sure we have enough judges in our federal courts will save dollars, not waste them.”
Editorials in the San Antonio Express-News and the Amarillo Globe-News, as well as a blog post by Constitutional Accountability Center Vice President Judith Schaeffer, chastised Sen. John Cornyn for threatening to block federal district court nominee John McConnell after Cornyn previously called blocking judicial confirmations "unacceptable.”
Newspapers in Oregon, Arizona and Texas also published editorials drawing attention to the vacancies and urging action. Pennsylvania's two senators, one a Republican and the other a Democrat, announced an agreement for recommending judicial nominations to the president that they say will speed up the process of filling eight vacancies in federal courts in Pennsylvania, and may allow the two previously stalled pending nominees to move forward.
- “Senate to vote on judges’ nominations,” from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- “Minora, Nealon nominations on hold as new process unfolded,” from the Wayne Independent
- “‘Veterans court’ faces a backlog that continues to grow,” from The Washington Post
The Latest from “Recommended Readings”
- “Senator Cornyn and the filibuster of judicial nominees – a little historical revisionism thrown in with the hypocrisy,” from the Text & History Blog
- “Business, defendants harmed in cost-cutting at federal courts,” from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- “Nominations adrift in the U.S. Senate,” from The Oregonian
- “Judicial flip is unbecoming,” from the Amarillo Globe-News
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