Three years into President Obama’s term, vacancies on the federal district courts have increased “starkly,” in contrast to the usual trend of presidents reducing the number of vacancies they’ve 
inherited, a new report by The Brookings Institution confirms. “The report shows that Obama has been slower to nominate trial judges, the Senate slower to confirm them, and at the same time a larger number of judges are retiring,” NPR reports.
Eighteen months after her nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, University of Wisconsin law professor Victoria Nourse has asked that her name be withdrawn from consideration, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. In a letter to the president, she lamented the obstruction tactics that held up her nomination for more than a year, saying, “To quote Chief Justice Roberts, ‘the system is broken.’”
The Latest from “In the News”
- "Obama's Judicial Nomination Scorecard: Three Years In," from The Wall Street Journal
- "At Three-Year Mark, Obama Lags Behind Bush in Judicial Nominations, Study Finds," from The Blog of Legal Times
- “Time for up-or-down votes in Senate on appointees,” from The Hill
The Latest from “Recommended Readings”
- “Senate Must Act Now and Throughout 2012 to Reduce Pressure on Federal Courts,” from The Constitutional Accountability Center blog
- “Study Confirms Jump in Federal Court Vacancies; Diversity of Nominees a Bright Spot,” from ACSblog
- “Time for a Beer Summit Between Coburn And Mikkanen,” from The Atlantic
- Sen. Menendez on Supporting Patty Schwartz for Third Circuit
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