Litigation

Obama Resubmits Embattled Nominees

By Peter Hardin

Try, try, try again.

The White House has nominated for the third time former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis L. Butler Jr.  for a federal district judgeship in Wisconsin, according to a Wisconsin State Journal article. The nomination had lapsed twice in the face of Republican opposition (see Gavel Grab).

Also resubmitted by the White House was the controversial nomination of Providence, R.I. lawyer John J. McConnell Jr. for a federal district judgeship, the Providence Journal reported. To learn more about McConnell’s nomination, see Gavel Grab.

Others renominated were Goodwin Liu, a law professor at Berkeley (for details, see Gavel Grab) and U.S. Magistrate Edward Chen of California (more at Gavel Grab), Fox News reported.

Regarding the Senate stalemate that has led to a backlog of judicial nominations, a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial, meanwhile, pointed a finger of blame at both sides:

An editorial in the Scranton Times-Tribune also urged swift action to end the backlog:

“Courts, and Americans seeking justice through them, have been held hostage long enough.”

To learn more about the backlog and to see editorials commenting on it, check out these recent Gavel Grab posts. To find out more about the influence of partisan politics on judicial nominations, see Justice at Stake’s issues page on the topic.

Full post as published by The Gavel on September 14, 2010 (boomark / email).