Blog of Legal Times: Will Judicial Nominees Need New Hearings?

[usregimechange]

Leaders on the Senate Judiciary Committee are in discussions about whether to hold second confirmation hearings for some of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees, aides say.

The question of whether some nominees will be required to repeat parts of the confirmation process has been hanging since Jan. 5. That’s when Obama renominated all but one of the unconfirmed choices he sent to the Senate during the past two years.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has scheduled Jan. 27 committee votes for nine nominees, bypassing possible second hearings for them. The nine include James Boasberg, now a D.C. Superior Court judge, and Amy Jackson, a Trout Cacheris partner, for U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Leahy spokeswoman Erica Chabot writes in an e-mail that senators have not determined the fate of other nominees. “e are discussing how to proceed on other nominations,” she writes.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2011/01/will-goodwin-liu-and-other-judicial-nominees-need-new-hearings.html

[Tx4obama]

1. Off topic - two new articles regarding Senate Rules Reform

One Senate Rule That Has to Pass by Senator Claire McCaskell
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claire-mccaskill/one-senate-rule-that-has_b_811996.html

and

Top Senators Seek Deal On Rules For Nominations
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/23/chuck-schumer-lamar-alexander_n_812754.html

[Tx4obama]

2. And here's another article

Senate nears compromise on reforms
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47999.html