5 People Who Could Be Confirmed To The Supreme Court Once The Filibuster Is Nuked

[Bill USA]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/01/2873221/5-people-confirmed-supreme-court-gop-forces-reid-nuke-filibuster/

Last July, the fight over whether the party that controls neither the White House nor the Senate may nonetheless veto nominees to top government jobs reached a momentary ceasefire. On Thursday, Senate Republicans blew up that ceasefire by filibustering two of President Obama’s nominees, including his nomination of Patricia Millett to the second most powerful court in the country.

These Republicans may ultimately come to regret their decision to reignite the filibuster wars. To date, President Obama has been far more timid than his predecessor when it comes to judicial nominations. Indeed, Millett is a perfect demonstration of this timidity. Millett is one of the best lawyers in the country, but she is also a pro-business lawyer in a large corporate law firm with nothing in her record to suggest that she will be a liberal lion if confirmed.

Similarly, Senate Democrats have historically been reluctant to change the filibuster, though they’ve grown more and more willing to do so as the minority’s tactics escalated. Now, however, with the Senate Minority Whip openly admitting that he’s blocking the D.C. Circuit nominees in order to prevent more Democrats from joining the court, the Senate GOP’s latest tactic could very well prove a bridge too far for the Democratic majority.

If Democrats finally remove the filibuster, everything changes in the judicial nominations space. Here are five potential nominees to the Supreme Court that would enrage Republicans, and that would be virtually unconfirmable in a 60 vote Senate. But that could easily be confirmed to the nation’s highest Court if Senate Republicans push their Democratic colleagues to invoke the nuclear option:

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