A Turning Point at the White House

Community leaders met with key
White House staff, including
Attorney General Eric Holder

May 7 marked an important milestone in the fight to confirm President Obama’s nominees to the federal courts. Alliance for Justice and our national partners in the ongoing judicial nominations battle played a central role in organizing a White House briefing attended by 150 community and legal leaders from 27 states around the country. This remarkably diverse group of national, state, and local activists, all of whom have been engaged in the fight to nominate and confirm judges who share our values, went to the White House to share their experiences and concerns with administration officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder and the president’s judicial selection team.

The event energized the participants, and lent renewed vigor to an effort to end the destructive pattern of procedural delays that have left nearly one in ten federal judgeships without a judge.

The deep sense of urgency conveyed by the participants is motivated by the fact that the Senate has confirmed far fewer nominees at this point in President Obama’s first term than it had for his two predecessors, and that current vacancies on the federal bench have actually risen by 43% since he took office. Participants relayed the frustration growing in communities around the nation as understaffed courts face enormous backlogs and justice is frequently delayed for individuals and businesses whose lives and livelihoods often hang in the balance.

Among the topics discussed in frank exchanges with White House staff, were the need to continue to push for diverse nominees, including those significantly underrepresented such as Native Americans and people with disabilities, and to choose men and women who are young and have backgrounds beyond standard career paths like prosecutors and large-firm litigators. In the general discussion with White House officials, and later in extremely energetic breakout sessions, many participants expressed frustration with the relentless tactics of obstruction in the Senate, including the use of filibusters and the manipulation of the “blue-slip system” to allow nominees to be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Participants were eager for advice on how they can be more effective in pushing back against recalcitrant senators.

After the White House briefing, the group went to Capitol Hill for a total of 47 meetings with a bipartisan list of senators or their staffs, and reiterated their call for swift action on the president’s judicial nominees and for a yes-or-no vote before the election on all those submitted in 2012.

The message to the Senate was clear: our courts matter deeply to the future of our country, and efforts to willfully stymie the confirmation of new judges do an enormous disservice to our democratic institutions.

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Click here to watch AFJ President Nan Aron discuss the meeting and the state of judicial nominations with guest host Chris Hayes on the Rachel Maddow Show.

AFJ President Nan Aron on MSNBC

Last night, AFJ President Nan Aron appeared on the Rachel Maddow show to lay out the state of the judiciary for guest host Chris Hayes. Nan also reported on a meeting convened Monday at the White House with community leaders from all across the country.

Watch the video:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Three Judges Confirmed by the Senate

The Senate has confirmed three new judges to the federal bench: Jacqueline Nguyen to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Kristine Baker to the Eastern District of Arkansas, and John Lee to the Northern District of Illinois. Nguyen received an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 91-3. Baker and Lee were confirmed on voice votes. 

All three judges are filling seats that have been designated as emergency vacancies, meaning there are not enough judges in the courts to hear the cases coming before them in a timely manner. Republican intransigence at every step of the nominations process has caused these nominees to be held up in the Senate for far too long.

Nguyen was stalled in the Senate for 159 days awaiting her final vote; 225 days have passed since she was first nominated. Baker, nominated 188 days ago, has been waiting 82 days for her Senate vote. Lee has also been waiting 82 days for his confirmation vote; 180 days have passed since he was nominated.

With the confirmation of these three judges, 93 current and future federal judicial vacancies remain; a third of them (34) are judicial emergencies.

The votes on Nguyen, Baker, and Lee bring to a close the deal on confirmation votes struck between Senate leadership—a deal struck after Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was forced to file cloture on 17 judges in order to make action happen on confirmations. With the deal at an end, the focus on nominating and confirming people to the bench must increase even further. Republicans could start by allowing action today on the 19 nominees still awaiting their confirmation votes. With 1 in 10 seats on the federal bench vacant, the movement to keep filling judicial seats so that ordinary people can access justice in our courts cannot be allowed to slow or halt.

AFJ Joins Community and National Leaders in Urging an End to Obstruction of Judicial Nominees

On a day marked by the formal end of the deal struck between Senate Democrats and Republicans to give final votes to 14 of President Obama’s judicial nominees who were denied a vote last year and a White House meeting of community and legal leaders from around the country, Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron issued the following statement:

Today marked an important milestone in the fight to confirm President Obama’s nominees to the federal courts. With the nation’s judicial system suffering from the cumulative effects of over three years of relentless Republican obstruction, community leaders and advocates from around the country met with White House officials to lend renewed vigor to an effort to end the destructive pattern of procedural delays that have left nearly one in ten federal judgeships without a judge.

The deep sense of urgency conveyed by the participants is motivated by the fact that the Senate has confirmed far fewer nominees at this point in President Obama’s first term than it had for his two predecessors, and that current vacancies on the federal bench have actually risen by 43% since he took office. Frustration is growing in communities around the nation as understaffed courts face enormous backlogs and justice is frequently delayed for individuals and businesses whose lives and livelihoods often hang in the balance.

It is startling to realize that we are five months into the year and the Senate has yet to confirm a single nominee submitted by the president in 2012. The unprecedented level of partisan misbehavior in the Senate must end and today’s meeting reflects the unequivocal commitment of concerned citizens, national groups, and administration officials to push hard to ensure that every judicial nominee the president puts forward in 2012 gets a yes-or-no vote before the Senate adjourns this year.

The unequivocal message from today’s White House event was clear: our courts matter deeply to the future of our country and efforts to willfully stymie the confirmation of new judges do an enormous disservice to our democratic institutions.

The Strategy Behind Judicial Obstruction

Three federal judges will receive confirmation votes today, marking the end of a March deal struck by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to hold confirmation votes on 14 judicial nominees. All 14 of the judges in the deal were named by President Obama in 2011; all 14 could have—and should have—been confirmed last year. If all three receive majority votes, they will bring the total number of the president’s confirmed circuit and district court judges to 143. This figure is considerably lower than those of his two predecessors on the same date in office, with 172 of President Bush’s and 181 of President Clinton’s nominees having been confirmed by May 7 of year four.

Looking more broadly at the total composition of the federal bench, today sees a federal judiciary with 430 judges appointed by Republican presidents and 367 judges appointed by Democratic presidents, or a 54%-46% Republican-appointed majority. 

What’s at stake for Senate Republicans in obstructing President Obama’s nominees becomes evident when considering the number of vacancies that will still be unfilled after today’s votes. If all three of today’s nominees are confirmed, there will still be 93 current and future federal judicial vacancies. If candidates to fill all 93 empty seats were to be nominated and confirmed this year, the balance among judges on the bench in December would be nearly equal, with 49% appointed by Republican presidents and 51% by Democratic presidents. 

By using any means available to delay, drag out, and obstruct every step in every stage of the nominations process, Senate Republicans are preventing the restoration of balance to the federal bench. Even worse, they are also laying the groundwork for what could be a drastic increase in the current imbalance. 

Each nominee prevented from moving through the process and receiving a vote in the Senate adds to the potential that a vacancy will carry over to next year. And if, for example, every one of those 93 remaining vacancies were to be filled with Republican appointees, the federal bench would be comprised of 523 Republican appointees and 367 Democratic appointees… a 58%-42% split. Some partisans in the Senate might see that possible outcome as a powerful incentive to continue their unprecedented and unrelenting obstructionist tactics.

While the partisan games continue in the Senate, 250 million Americans live in a community affected by a judicial vacancy.

For an in-depth look at the state of judicial nominations as of May 7, see Alliance for Justice’s newly released report The State of theJudiciary: Judicial Selection During the Remainder of President Obama’s FirstTerm. For the most comprehensive, up-to-date information on judicial nominations, visit the Judicial Selection Project website.

Update: All three of Monday's nominees were confirmed; one by an overwhelmingly bipartisan margin, and the other two on unopposed voice votes.