As the Senate prepares to leave town for the holidays, 21 judicial nominees are still waiting for confirmation votes from the full Senate. Nineteen of these
are consensus nominees who were approved by the Judiciary Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. Eleven have been pending for more than two
months. Nine have been nominated to fill seats designated as judicial emergencies. Fourteen are women or people of color.
Marge Baker of People For the American
Way
issued the following statement:
“The Senate has absolutely no excuse to leave town without confirming these 21 highly qualified nominees. Courts across the country are stretching
their resources to provide access to justice for all Americans – by confirming these nominees, the Senate would help ease that crisis. In fact, the
courts to which these men and women have been nominated serve over 160 million Americans.
“The only reason that the Senate would ignore its duty to confirm these judges is partisan politics. Nearly all of them passed through committee with
overwhelming bipartisan support. From President Reagan’s third year in office through the end of George W. Bush’s presidency, the Senate only once left
a pending consensus nominee on the calendar at the end of a year. The Senate should start its next session having confirmed all pending consensus
nominees, just as it did at this point in the administrations of Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush. Today’s Senate GOP is unprecedented in its
willingness to put partisan gridlock above the good of the country. This weekend, they should embrace the spirit of the season and give Americans the
gift of doing their job.”
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