Sunday, March 01, 2015

114 Congress Judicial Confirmations


After all the uproar about judge confirmations in the 113th Senate, the new Senate seems to be working just fine--if more slowly--in this capacity. After every election, all the appointments from the executive branch that have not been approved before the election are dissolved. POOF. Gone. And they must be resubmitted.

In the past nearly all of them were. This time, many were not. For example, the guy nominated to a seat in the Federal District of Northern Georgia was dropped for good reason. The sub-committee process unearthed some racist statements he made a couple of decades ago and so bye-bye, dude. Game over. And the lady nominated to a seat in Eastern North Carolina was not resubmitted after waiting through two previous congresses and being told by the Republican Senator (Burr) from NC that it ain't gonna happen--no Obama judge in Eastern North Carolina, m'am. The defeat of Senator Kay Hagan was the end of that person's aspiration. Politics happen.

Now that the Republicans are in charge and pissed off by the rapid last minute barrage of Democratic confirmations, it would be natural to assume that Obama would no longer get any judges confirmed. However, this doesn't appear to be the case. And I give Senators Grassley of Iowa, and McConnell of Kentucky props for this.

In the face of such troubling possibilities, president Obama has only resubmitted 9 of the two dozen + nominees left hanging at the end of the last congress. To this he's also offered up 4 new nominees. Of the the 7, 4 have been reported out by the judiciary committee under Senator Grassley's authority and will be voted on in the next couple of a weeks or so. This is a good thing. While elections have consequences, they are not sporting rivalries where winner lord their victories over losers and trash the town like imbeciles celebrating.

The maps I'm including show the present parity of District Judges between those appointed by Republican Presidents verses Democratic Presidents as the district courts are presently divided, 
AND as it would change if all of the openings were filled with Obama nominations.

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