Where are the judges?

[usregimechange]

With the exception of his two Supreme Court nominees, President Obama hasn't made a priority of fully staffing the federal judiciary. Meanwhile, Republicans have stalled the appointments Obama has made in an adolescent grudge match with Democrats — which each party blames the other for beginning.

The result, according to an article this week by Times staff writer Carol J. Williams, is that about one in eight federal judgeships is vacant. Overall, Obama has fared worse than other recent presidents in having judicial nominees confirmed by the Senate. According to the White House, at this point in his presidency Obama has had 48% of his nominees confirmed, compared with 60% for George W. Bush and 68% for Bill Clinton. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts says there are 20 vacancies for U.S. courts of appeal and 84 for federal district courts. Nearly 13% of judgeships in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes California, are vacant.

Republicans point the finger at the Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). But Reid's reluctance to bring some nominations to a vote is a response to Republican threats of a filibuster. As for the Judiciary Committee, Democrats insist that it has moved expeditiously to send nominations to the floor. They note that 19 of the 23 nominations pending before the panel were announced only in the last few months, after the selection of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in May.

The real problem, Democrats say, is that Republicans have refused to allow timely confirmation votes on the Senate floor — even for district judges, the foot soldiers of the federal judiciary who traditionally haven't been a source of controversy. Russell Wheeler, an expert on judicial selection at the Brookings Institution, told The Times that the practice of holding up nominations, long common for appeals court vacancies, has "spread like a virus to the district courts."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-judges-20100904,0,4149519.story

[Nictuku]

1. To burn floor time or not to burn floor time

I read an article which explained that the process for nomination/confirmations of judges to move forward allows for the Senate Republicans the ability to burn up hundreds of hours of floor debate time (and of course they would employ these tactics) as they stall and stall.

There are many nominations in the wings already, but Harry Reid is resistant to bring them to the floor due to these stall tactics.

So the choice seems to be burn floor debate time on these nominations, or use the floor time to push through other legislation, (which is also being stalled and blocked by Senate Republicans). No good choice during an economic crisis.

I think that the Senate rules need to be revisited and revised so they can't be abused like this.

[Tx4obama]

2. While we wait....

Sammy Davis Jr on Laugh-in - Here comes the Judge!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hIcKkKID8k

Here Come The Judge by the Magistrates 1968
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXR7iMbkLCM

Shorty Long - Here comes the judge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImWUBYcQl4A