Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s latest maneuver to push federal judges onto the bench more rapidly has his critics in the chamber concerned for the institution and the courts.
The latest in McConnell’s scheme to pack the courts come hell or high water would limit debate on district court appointees from 30 hours to two.
NUCLEAR OPTION TRIGGERED: Senate votes 51-48 to change the rules and cut debate time for certain nominations from 30 hours to 2 hours.
The move was led by Mitch McConnell; all Republicans except Susan Collins and Mike Lee voted to nuke the rules. Kamala Harris was absent.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 3, 2019
Most commentary on the rule change focused on the way McConnell and the GOP will use it to force President Trump’s extreme right-wing nominees through the Senate and fill the courts with regressive extremists for a generation.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, put the move in perspective.
“In President Trump’s first two years circuit court nominees have been confirmed nearly TWICE as fast as they were in President Obama’s first two years,” Feinstein said on Twitter. “In fact, President Trump and Leader McConnell have repeatedly bragged about their record-setting pace of confirmations.”
“This is not a Washington fight over quaint, genteel Senate courtesies,” Kristine Lucius, executive vice president for policy and government affairs at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, wrote in an opinion piece for USA Today. “This is about how far McConnell will go to cram biased nominees through the Senate.”
“McConnell has consistently broken the Senate to pack the courts,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
McConnell has consistently broken the Senate to pack the courts. In 2013 he put up a blockade, refusing to confirm any judge the President nominated to the DC Circuit. Then of course, the stolen SCOTUS seat. Then nuclear option for Gorsuch confirmation. Now nuclear option again.
— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) April 3, 2019
“Mitch McConnell just made it easier for Congress to rubber stamp Trump’s extremist and unqualified nominees,” said the Senate’s other Oregon Democrat, Ron Wyden.
Mitch McConnell just made it easier for Congress to rubber stamp Trump’s extremist and unqualified nominees. https://t.co/jDGHmCeNZ6
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) April 3, 2019
