In today's Washington Post regarding Pres Obama's judicial appointments there is a HUGE GAFFE in it

[Tx4obama]

Last edited Mon Mar 4, 2013, 07:45 PM - Edit history (1)

The Washington Post article says:

"The president has named three dozen judicial candidates since January and is expected to nominate scores more over the next few months, aides said. The push marks a significant departure from the sluggish pace of appointments throughout much of his first term, when both Republicans and some Democrats complained that Obama had not tried hard enough to fill vacancies on federal courts."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-pushing-to-diversify-federal-judiciary-amid-gop-delays/2013/03/03/16f7d206-7aab-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html?hpid=z1

That is WRONG.

Obama has made only FOUR 'new' judicial appointments in 2013 - NOT three dozen).

The four new judicial nominations are listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_Barack_Obama

Pres Obama had to 'RENOMINATE' all of his prior appointments from last year.
at beginning of the new congressional session this year because the nominations expired at the end of last year's congressional session - so those can not be counted as new appointments since they had to be 'renominated' due to procedural rules.

So, the pace of appointments is still the same and the amount of Republican obstruction is still the same.

Other than the 'error' in the article the rest of the article is a good read

Obama pushing to diversify federal judiciary amid GOP delays
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-pushing-to-diversify-federal-judiciary-amid-gop-delays/2013/03/03/16f7d206-7aab-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html





Edited to fix the Wiki link, removed the period from the end of the link

[GeorgeGist]

1. Petty.

[Tx4obama]

3. I do not think it is petty.

The reason Obama had to 'renominate' three dozen nominees at the beginning of the year is because the Senate Republicans blocked/filibustered the majority of them last year.

The article should have pointed THAT out instead of saying that Obama appointed three dozen in the year 2013, making it sound like they were new ones.

[Lasher]

2. Good research.

[onenote]

4. yes and no

Yes, the repubs have been holding up Obama's judicial appointments.
Yes, the President had previously appointed most of the three dozen nominees resubmitted in January.

But there are currently 89 vacancies and only 34 pending nominations. At the end of the year, there were 76 vacancies. Of the 13 vacanices occuring in the first two months of the year, only three replacements have been nominated. Of the 37 vacancies occuring in 2012, only 11 replacements have been nominated.

I'd rather that the president be more aggressive in naming replacements even if the repubs block them.

[Tx4obama]

5. But, the 33 nominees Obama renominated on January 3, 2013 are all from before 2013.

I've fixed the Wiki link up in the OP that has the Charts - it had a stray period in it

Full list here of Court of Appeals and District Courts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_Barack_Obama

[onenote]

7. I wasn't disagreeing with you about the fact the 33 renominated 1/3/13

were previously nominated and had to be renominated because the repubs slow rolled a lot of them (although I'm not sure whether the Senate Judiciary committee, which passes on judicial nominees before they can be confirmed by the full senate had scheduled committee action on all of them).

My point was that while the Post was wrong to suggest that the three dozen nominees was a big bump up in action by the president, its frustrating to me that the president has only put forward nominees for less than half of the vacancies on the courts.

[Tx4obama]

6. On a side note - today in The Senate...

Two district judges confirmed...

ROLL CALL VOTE
1) Confirmation of Executive Calendar #16, the nomination of Katherine Polk Failla, of NY, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York; Confirmed: 91-0

EXECUTIVE ITEMS

Confirmed Executive Calendar #15, the nomination of Pamela Ki Mai Chen, of NY, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York by voice vote.

http://democrats.senate.gov/2013/03/04/senate-floor-wrap-up-for-monday-march-4-2013/

---------


And...

Cloture filed on Halligan nomination (DC Circuit)
Mar 4, ’13 6:31 PM
Categories Floor Updates

Senator Reid filed cloture on Executive Calendar #13, the nomination of Caitlin Joan Halligan, of New York, to be United States circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit. Under the rule, the cloture vote would occur one hour after the Senate convenes on Wednesday, March, 6.

http://democrats.senate.gov/2013/03/04/cloture-filed-on-halligan-nomination-dc-circuit/

---------

And....

Senator Reid's Floor Remarks On Republican Obstruction Of Qualified Nominees

http://democrats.senate.gov/2013/03/04/reid-floor-remarks-on-republican-obstruction-of-qualified-nominees/

[msongs]

8. the senate votes to confirm, and repubs control the senate from their minority position nt

[Left Coast2020]

9. Thats big enough to drive a mac truck through it.

Wow. What happened to the quality control check?