There is a Judicial crisis in America and Mitch McConnell doesn’t care. Senators are not doing their jobs or fulfilling their Constitutional responsibilities and Senate leaders cite statistics that totally ignore the severity of the crisis.
I know Republicans are hesitant, if not vehemently opposed to so much as scheduling a confirmation hearing on Merrick Garland before Election Day. At this point, that might be understandable though not necessarily Constitutionally sound. While being short one justice is far from healthy for the Republic, the fact is that, after June 30, the court does not convene again until the first Monday in October and few rulings of monumental importance are issued until much later in the term. So if the only havoc the Republicans were wreaking on judicial instability was this one vacancy, I would argue that it might not be the worst thing in the world and despite “do your job” calls, I am sure the Democrats would be taking a similar tack in an election year. Lower court vacancies are another story.
There are 87 Judicial vacancies among the 870 member Circuit and District bench. That is more than one-tenth of the bench. Of those, 30 have been classified as Judicial emergencies which means that the current caseload I so overwhelming that the courts lack a sufficient number of judges to hear cases. This causes a backlog of Justice for which ordinary citizens – not the politicians, needlessly suffer. All it takes is a vote on the Senate floor for confirmation and that can be done at the purview of the Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. Yet Mitch McConnell doesn’t care.
Let’s look at what has transpired in the nearly 21 months since Republicans have taken control of the Senate. They have confirmed 22 nominees, essentially one for each month. Conversely, 68 of President George W. Bush’s nominees were confirmed during the same period and that was when the opposite party controlled the Senate. Worse, Republicans have sought to obfuscate that with disingenuous talking points and technicalities that take aim at American gullibility or the correct knowledge that they are too busy to get the facts. The party boasts that more of Obama’s nominees (327) have been confirmed than Bush’s (325). But that is illustrative of what folks find so revolting in Washington. The mumbo-jumbo talking-points that have proven that facts are stubborn things. Numbers aside, the vacancies are more than 20% more than when Bush left office.
The slow-walking has one purpose: to slow it down but what they are really doing is slowing down justice for the American people. After all, two Judges in Tennessee, despite having the support of both Republican home-state Senators took a year simply to get votes despite pleas from judicial officials and at least one of the Volunteer States GOP Senators – Bob Corker, acknowledged. They were finally confirmed unanimously. Another judge from Tennessee has been on the docket for nearly a year. That’s just it. Many of the nominees have received sign-offs from Republican Senators including Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. That’s pretty remarkable. But what’s more remarkable is that Texas, more than almost any other state, has a huge vacancy. But Mitch McConnell doesn’t care.
Before Senators went on a seven week summer recess (unprecedented in itself), Elizabeth Warren sought to have some confirmed those waiting the longest via unanimous consent, which meant it would have taken the chamber mere seconds to push through. McConnell kept objecting. Warren eventually winnowed her request down to one – a New Jersey Judge who has been waiting a year. The words the joking of filibusters knows best – “objection,” was quickly raised. When Senators returned, North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp did the same and she too was rebuffed. Ditto with New Jersey’s Cory Booker.
Part of McConnell’s rationale was that only he, as Majority leader has the prerogative to schedule votes. So schedule them. McConnell wields a lot of power. Almost everybody – not just Democrats but most Republicans as well, are at least publicly urging him to use it.
McConnell is a lawyer himself. He has to know that the years-long shortage impacts ordinary citizens without access to money and power who don’t deserve it. You’d think that would move him. One would think he’d pretend to care. But he just doesn’t. And why? So an abundance of Judges will be confirmed later, by near unanimous margins? That’s just it. Judges are being slow walked for no apparent reason. McConnell undoubtedly knows that legal scholars and non-partisan judges are on his tail but that perpetually dour face is still unmoved.
I once had one former Republican Senator once tell me that Mitch McConnell is “the only Senator who always thinks of the politics” behind everything. On this issue, the proof is in the pudding.
Leader McConnell, you pledged to run the Senate differently when Republicans took control. Be a man of your word. Stop stepping on people when there is nothing to gain. If you insist on playing pointless and unprecedented games with the nations courts that affect ordinary citizens more than any other, leave the American people out it.