GOP Begins Blockade of Judicial Nominees

Source: Roll Call

With less than four and a half months until Election Day, Senate Republicans are shutting off the bipartisan spigot when it comes to confirming President Barack Obama’s nominees to the nation’s top courts and will present a unified front against his circuit court picks through November.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) made the decision to blockade nominations official Wednesday when he informed his colleagues that he would invoke the “Thurmond Rule” from now until after the elections.

Named after the late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) — and alternately called the “Leahy Rule” by some Republicans after Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) — the doctrine holds that within six months of a presidential election, the opposition party can, and typically does, refuse to allow votes on circuit court judges.

Republican sources said the GOP will impose its blockade on circuit court judges now but that district court nominees will likely continue to be confirmed until at least early September, when cooperation on lower court picks has traditionally ended.

Read more: http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_151/GOP-Begins-Judge-Blockade-215369-1.html?pos=hftxt

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Remember when the GOP used to profess a dogmatic belief in the concept of an Up-or-down-vote^TM?
Funny how that changes when they lose a presidential election...
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"Like the three presidents before him, President Bush will spend his last two years in office with the opposition party in control of the Senate. Like them, he has a right to expect that his nominees will receive an up or down vote."
-- Prepared Remarks of U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell." 4 January 2007.

"One way or another, the filibuster of judicial nominees must end … formula for tyranny by the minority."
--- Senate GOP leader Bill Frist, 2004

"All judges deserve an up-or-down vote."
--RNC chair Ken Mehlman, 2005