Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spoke out
on the slow pace of judges this morning in the Senate. Excerpt:
It’s been 108 days since this Senate
confirmed a federal judge of any kind. It last did so the week before
Christmas, on December 18, 2007.
Since then, the Senate has made precious
little progress on judicial nominations.
It has not confirmed any federal judicial
nominees this year, and the Judiciary Committee has held only one hearing on
one circuit court nominee since last September.
Today we will finally be able to confirm
some judicial nominees. That is obviously good news. But after we confirm the
judicial nominees on the calendar that may be it for a while, due to the
glacial pace at which the Judiciary Committee is proceeding.
We
have been informed that the Senate will today consider the following judicial
nominees.
Brian
Miller (Arkansas)
James
Randal Hall (GA)
John
Mendez (CA)
Stanley
Anderson (TN)
Catharina
Haynes (Fifth Circuit)
We
are glad to see Catharina Haynes on this list and look forward to adding
another number to our circuit
court chart comparison, bringing the number of Bush appellate court nominees
confirmed in his last two years to a whopping 7 (compared to 15 in Clinton’s
last two years).
Former Judiciary Chairman Sen. Orin Hatch
(R-UT) also
spoke out on judges. Here is an
excerpt from his speech:
…one of my colleagues was recently quoted
as saying that facts are stubborn things.
The facts are that the majority has
virtually shut down the judicial confirmation process.