Senate

Leahy: Don’t stop Obama nomination votes

by Jordain Carney - 01/19/16 8:20 PM ET

A top Democrat is urging Senate Republicans to ignore outside pressure to halt votes on President Obama’s nominations.

“Any attempt to shut down the judicial confirmation process to satisfy moneyed Washington interest groups would be wrong,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday. “It would only work to harm our justice system and the American people we were elected to represent.”

{mosads}While senators voted 58-36 on Tuesday evening to confirm Wilhelmina Marie Wright to be a U.S. district judge for the District of Minnesota, Republicans are being urged to block any non-national security nominees.

“Senators should not grant unanimous consent to schedule any additional nomination votes,” Heritage Action, a conservative outside group, said Friday. “Nominees previously scheduled to receive a vote … should be rejected.”

The Senate is expected to take up John Vazquez’s nomination to be a U.S. district judge for the District of New Jersey, Rebecca Ebinger’s to be a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Iowa and Leonard Strand’s to be a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Iowa as part of a deal reached last year.

Democrats have repeatedly criticized Republicans for the pace of judicial nomination votes since Republicans took control of the Senate last year. Wright was the 13th judicial nomination the Senate has taken up since January 2015.

Leahy pushed senators who have judicial vacancies in their states to “urge leadership to consider these nominees without delay.”

While Heritage Action also urged senators to stop moving nominations out of Senate committees, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said last week that the Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, will continue considering nominations.

Tags Barack Obama judicial appointment controversies Patrick Leahy United States Senate