ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

The New York Times reports that William Myers will be filibustered only under "extraordinary" circumstances:

Republicans are pressing for a vote on William G. Myers III, who was not guaranteed a vote under the agreement. Dr. Frist said he would bring the Myers nomination to the floor at the "appropriate time," a move that could provide a more strenuous test of the agreement, which bars use of filibusters against judicial nominees except in "extraordinary" cases.

Democratic leaders have indicated that they intend to maintain the filibuster against Mr. Myers. They say they also have commitments from most Democratic signatories to the judicial agreement to block Brett M. Kavanaugh and William J. Haynes, whose nominations, unlike that of Mr. Myers, have not cleared the Judiciary Committee.

Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican leader of the compromise initiative, would not address on Wednesday whether filibusters against these two nominees would be viewed as a breach of the agreement.

"I'm not going to speculate," Mr. DeWine said.

Hmm, I wonder what "extraordinary circumstances" surround the Kavanaugh nomination. He does have extraordinarily good qualifications to be a judge.

UPDATE: The idea that majority-supported judicial nominations can be filibustered to death under "extraordinary circumstances" is very strange. Between 1789 and 2003, such circumstances never existed once.