Here Come The Judges

A few months ago, faced with Republican intransigence on confirming judges, Democrats altered the rules in the Senate preventing filibusters of judicial nominees.  Jonathan Bernstein points out that the payoff is coming now:

This was a huge week for judicial nominations in the Senate. Nine judges were confirmed, including one at the appeals level. .  .

The backlog of judicial nominations isn’t cleared. But there are fewer than 80 vacancies, and the number is dropping. Appellate vacancies are being filled, too. Cloture already has been voted on one, meaning there only will be 13 after the vote scheduled for Monday.

The decrease isn’t dramatic, yet. But majority-imposed reform has mattered anyway. Most obviously, Republicans no longer can block a handful of nominees they oppose most strongly.

In fact as Bernstein goes on to explain, before Republicans forced Senator Reid’s hand, Democrats would confirm the least controversial judges first.  Now, Democrats can confirm their highest priorities first.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.