Petition: What Democrats must do now to fill judicial vacancies before Republicans take over
the Senate.
Tell Senate Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy and President Barack Obama:
"When it comes to progressive priorities like women’s rights, voting rights, the environment, and corporate accountability, the Senate can make the greatest impact in the lame duck session by filling all current vacancies on the federal bench with lifetime appointments for judges nominated by President Obama. Do whatever it takes to fill all judicial vacancies before the end of the lame duck session, even if it means passing no other legislation than the federal budget."
Republican control of the Senate is going to have terrible consequences for the country. Fortunately, Senate Democrats, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy and President Obama, can act now to do some long-term damage control.
There are currently 64 vacancies in the federal courts. Federal judges have lifetime appointments. That gives them decades to rule on progressive priorities like the environment, civil rights, voting rights, women’s rights, corporate accountability, and gun control.
Aside from ensuring the government doesn’t shut down, there’s no Senate business more important between now and January than leaving a long-term legacy of highly-qualified judges on the federal bench. The Senate should fill all judicial vacancies even if it means there will be no time to move on any other bills.
Come January, Mitch McConnell will do whatever he can to block President Obama’s nominees. But while Democrats still have the majority in the Senate, Majority Leader Reid, Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy, and Senate Democrats can make sure all of President Obama’s nominees get confirmed.
Tell them to act before it’s too late. Click here to sign the petition.
Filling the current judicial vacancies won’t be an easy task, but it’s the most important thing the Senate can do between now and the end of the lame duck session. Here are four things that Democrats will have to do:
Majority Leader Reid must place all other Senate business on hold while he sends nominee after nominee up for a vote. Republicans will do everything they can to slow down the process and try to run out the clock. With the exception of a bill to keep the government funded, this may mean he can’t pass any other legislation until every single nominee is confirmed.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy must remove all procedural blocks to advancing the President’s nominees through the Judiciary Committee and make the time for his committee to consider and vote on all nominees so they can be advanced to the floor for a full vote. This means he should stop honoring the “blue slip” tradition in the Senate that allows Republicans to blackball the president’s nominees, and push any nominations forward, without making any arbitrary deadline after which he will not move nominations to the floor.1
President Obama hasn’t yet provided progressive nominees for all vacancies. He must demand that any Senate Democrat who has a home-state vacancy give him a nominee immediately, and demand that his nominations move forward immediately regardless of whether the nominee’s home state senator has pre-approved the appointment.
Senate Democrats will have to stay in Washington through the end of December, or until every nominee is confirmed.
Senate Majority Leader Reid has already laid the groundwork for this approach, by eliminating the Senate rule that allowed Republicans to filibuster almost every one of Obama’s nominees.
Twenty-seven judges have been confirmed since Senator Reid made the rule change a year ago. But we still have 64 confirmations to go and less than two months to make it happen. Ensuring the Senate confirms all the president’s nominees will impact the federal courts for decades, and would be a lasting legacy of Reid’s Democratic Senate and of Obama’s presidency.
Tell Democratic leaders: Confirm progressive judges while there’s still time. Click here to sign the petition.
Every Democratic Senator has a role to play. Four vacancies that have no nominee are in states with two Democratic senators (California, New York and Maryland) who have unacceptably failed to provide names to the White House. There’s literally no reason to let those vacancies continue into the new Congress. Nominees should be sent to the president immediately. And all Democratic Senators need to support Majority Leader Reid’s efforts to keep the Senate in session as long as it takes to confirm nominees, even if the session goes well into December.
Tell Senate Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Committee Chair Leahy, Senate Democrats and President Obama: Do whatever it takes to confirm judges while there’s still time. Click the link below to sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/sign/confirm_judges?t=6&akid=12176.7439329.rFzmV7
George W. Bush knew how important it was to fill every single vacancy. President Obama has to show the same urgency and tenacity to get his nominees through the Senate. And it’s up to us to help make that happen.
Thank you for joining CREDO in making this the Senate's number one priority.
Heidi Hess, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
= new reply since forum marked as read
This will not happen.
