Litigation

Senate Confirms Four Judicial Nominees

By Peter Hardin

Breaking a protracted deadlock, the Senate has confirmed four of President Obama’s nominees for federal district courts and could vote on more in the remaining hours of the lame-duck session.

Thirty-four more judicial nominations, eight of them for circuit courts of appeals, still were pending before the Senate after Thursday’s confirmation of these nominees:  John Gibney in  Virginia, James Bredar in Maryland,  Catherine Eagles in North Carolina and Kimberly Mueller in California.

?We?re pleased that these four nominees have been confirmed, but urge the Senate to take action on the 34 nominees who remain on the calendar ? particularly the 19 who would fill judicial emergencies,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest, according to a Politico article.

The four confirmed nominees were those district court candidates who had waited the longest for a floor vote since the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve their appointments.

A deal between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, on noncontroversial nominees could result in further confirmation votes.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had criticized Republicans for unwillingness to move on a backlog of judicial nominees. On Thursday, Leahy said, “These confirmations will help fill a few of the judicial vacancies around the country, which have reached historically high levels.? He was quoted by the Main Justice blog.

To learn more about Obama’s record on judicial nominations, and partisan politics in the Senate over confirming them, check out Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on December 17, 2010 (boomark / email).