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DOJ Official Slams Republicans for Judicial Confirmation Pace

By Andrew Ramonas

The Assistant Attorney General who heads the Justice Department office that helps the White House vet nominees for federal judgeships blamed Republicans for the low confirmation rate for the Barack Obama administration’s judicial picks, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Christopher Schroeder (DOJ)

Christopher Schroeder, who has led the Office of Legal Policy since April, said at the 9th Circuit Judicial Conference this month that almost half of the 876 seats on federal courts could be empty in the next ten years if the Senate does not pick up the pace of confirmations.

Obama has the lowest judicial confirmation rate of any president in the last three decades, according to the newspaper. The Obama administration has seen 47 percent of its nominees for federal judgeships secure confirmation. The last four presidents saw no less than 79 percent of their judicial picks nominated in the first 18 months of their presidencies win confirmation.

Schroeder, whose nomination was held up for months in the Senate, said a “determined minority” is keeping 39 judicial nominees at bay.

“Their objections often are unrelated to a specific nominee,” Schroeder said, according to the L.A. Times. “They’re systematic attempts to throw sand in the works.”

GOP leaders retaliating for Democratic efforts to hold up George W. Bush administration nominees are partly blame for the slow pace of judicial confirmations, Republicans told the newspaper. But they also said Obama has been slow to nominate federal judges.

“Republicans can’t block something that’s not there,” Don Stewart, an aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), told the L.A. Times.

Full post as published by Main Justice on August 31, 2010 (boomark / email).