Filibuster Wars To Flare Up As Reid Moves On Top Judges
SAHIL KAPUR – OCTOBER 28, 2013, 12:50 PM EDT
The Senate is likely to start voting this week on President Barack Obama's nominees to serve on the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, potentially sparking another war over rules and reform via the nuclear option unless Republicans back off their threat of a mass filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) intends to file cloture this week on the nomination of Patricia Millett to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to a Democratic leadership aide. Senate Republicans have threatened to block Millett and any other nominee to fill the three vacant seats on the second most powerful federal court.
Democrats will fight for Millett, a second senior aide said, previewing their strategy to TPM.
They intend to highlight her dynamic personal story -- as a military spouse, a lawyer who worked for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and an accomplished Supreme Court litigator. They intend to attack Republicans for refusing to put qualified women on the bench, in part by citing the filibuster of Caitlin Halligan, Obama's earlier nominee to the same court. And they intend to bash Republicans as hypocrites for arguing now that the 9th, 10th and 11th seats on the D.C. Circuit court need not be filled after voting to fill them under Bush.
full article
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/dc-circuit-patricia-millett-filibuster-reform
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