Obstructionism: 103 Federal Judicial Vacancies

The Republican Party's strategy of obstruction - to render the Obama Administration ineffective - is pervasive as this weekend's CPAC convention assaults on "progressivism" showed.  The "enemies list" strategy began with the Nixon Administration but it gained full force with the Reagan era conservative ideologists who first bonded in the Goldwaterite Young Americans for Freedom.  YAF'ers anathematized the liberal wing of the Republican Party.  The Rockefeller wing was ridiculed and denounced as soft on liberalism, the way soft on communism had once served as a political trump card.  This combined with the successful "southern strategy" which brought the segregationist base into the party of Lincoln to create the current hard-wired to the right political culture. 


There were survivors - like Thomas Kean and Christine Todd Whitman in New Jersey but neither is a player now.  Whitman made excellent judicial choices but got elected by surfing on an anti-tax wave.  Her 30% income tax cut began an era of not contributing to the  state's pension system, and left  New Jerseyans trapped with high property taxes and an extraordinarily inefficient home-rule system with over 400 municipalities and no strong cities.  


But that is minor carping about local problems compared to the current moment.  Here is a snapshot of the obstruction of President Obama's judicial nominees, prepared by the Alliance for Justice.

The Senate was in recess this week.

Next Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a nominations hearing, but the nominees who will be considered have not yet been announced.  Next Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an Executive Session, but no judicial nominees have yet to be posted on the committee schedule.

There are currently seven circuit court nominees awaiting a final confirmation vote:

• Jane Stranch and Thomas Vanaskie were nominated on August 6, 2009:  pending 197 days
• Barbara Keenan was nominated on September 14, 2009:  pending 158 days
• Denny Chin was nominated on October 6, 2009:  pending 136 days
• Albert Diaz and James Wynn were nominated on November 4, 2009:  pending 107 days

Judicial Selection Snapshot

Judicial Vacancy, Nomination, and Confirmation Statistics (2/19/10)
Vacancies:

124 Current and Future Vacancies

• 103 Total Federal Court Vacancies:
• 20 Court of Appeals ("CCA") Vacancies  
• 83 District Court ("DCT") Vacancies
• 0 Supreme Court ("SCT") Vacancies
• 21 Future Federal Court Vacancies (“future” vacancies are those for which a judge has notified the president that he/she will leave active service on a specified, upcoming date):
• 4 CCA Vacancies
• 17 DCT Vacancies

Nominations:

27 Nominees Pending (nominee last names in parentheses):

• Breakdown by Court:
• 7 CCA:  (Thompson, Chin, Vanaskie, Keenan, Diaz, Wynn, Stranch)
• 20 DCT:  (Jackson, Conley, Freudenthal, Marshall, Pearson, Gergel, Childs, Navarro, Black, Butler, Chen, Degiulio, Magnus-Stinson, Pratt, Fleissig, Koh, Foote, Goldsmith, Treadwell, Tucker)
• Breakdown by Status:
• 13 Nominees Pending in the Judiciary Committee: 
• 0 CCA:  
• 13 DCT:  (Jackson, Gergel, Childs, Navarro, Degiulio, Magnus-Stinson, Pratt, Fleissig, Koh, Tucker, Treadwell, Goldsmith, Foote)
• 14 Pending on the Senate Floor:
• 7 CCA:  (Keenan, Stranch, Vanaskie, Chin, Thompson, Wynn, Diaz)
• 7 DCT:  (Conley, Butler, Chen, Freudenthal, Marshall, Pearson, Black)

Confirmations:

16 Confirmations:

• Breakdown by Court:
• 1 SCT:  (Sotomayor)
• 5 CCA:  (Lynch, Davis, Hamilton, Martin, Greenaway)
• 10 DCT:  (Viken, Lange, Berger, Honeywell, Reiss, Kallon, Nguyen, Gee, Seeborg, Peterson)