ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Posted in Circuit Courts — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

On May 23, a group of Senators signed “The Deal‿ regarding judicial nominations. But now the Democrats are trying to use technicalities to minimize their commitments.

The Dems are now saying that they will filibuster various appellate court nominations, regardless of whether they think “extraordinary circumstances‿ exist, and regardless of statements like this one by Senator Landrieu on May 23:

The senators made a good-faith pledge that the filibuster should only be employed under extraordinary circumstances, and that each senator would use his or her discretion and judgment to determine whether such circumstances exist.

Now the Democrats are apparently insisting that The Deal allows them to filibuster the following nine nominees regardless of whether they think “extraordinary circumstances‿ exist:

Saad, Henry --- Sixth Circuit
Myers, William --- Ninth Circuit
Kavanaugh, Brett --- District of Columbia Circuit
Haynes, William --- Fourth Circuit
Boyle, Terrence --- Fourth Circuit
Griffin, Richard --- Sixth Circuit
McKeague, David --- Sixth Circuit
Neilson, Susan --- Sixth Circuit
Griffith, Thomas --- District of Columbia Circuit

The Democrats say that they will filibuster the first four on this list. The Washington Post reported today that “Democrats said they believe they have a united caucus -- excepting Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) -- to block‿ the first four on the list.

The GOP should not hesitate to be just as hyper-technical as the Democrats. If any of the nine nominees listed above is filibustered, then that nominee can be withdrawn and nominated for a different judgeship, thereby falling within the “extraordinary circumstances‿ language that the Democrats now seek to avoid. For example, if Myers is filibustered, then he could simply be withdrawn and nominated for the DC Circuit instead, and he could then only be filibustered under “extraordinary circumstances" (provided that his nomination is considered by the Senate "individually" rather than as part of a group of nominees).

It's worth mentioning that Senator Nelson --- just like Senator Landrieu --- has said that these listed nominees would only be filibustered in "extraordinary circumstances." For example, Nelson said this:

If he [Judge Saad] were to come out [of committee] then he would, in my opinion, get an up-or-down vote, or some of my colleagues may decide that that’s exceptional circumstances, so that’s sort of where we are. I voted against cloture on Judge Saad, which is the only time I voted against cloture for the filibuster, but the reason I did it was I couldn’t go to an up-or-down vote because I couldn’t get the file; it was a file that had some information that I wanted to get.

Senator DeWine also said on May 23 that all nine of these listed nominees could only be filibustered in extraordinary circumstances:

Senators have agreed that they will not filibuster except in extraordinary circumstances.

Nonetheless, the Dems seem determined to filibuster various judicial nominations even when they don't believe extraordinary circumstances exist.