Record Federal Judicial confirmations are on the way
Bottom Line: First it was the Judicial Filibuster that went by the wayside allowing for simple majorities in the US Senate to confirm federal judges. Now it’s the debate time filibuster tactic that’s gone as well.
Yesterday the Senate voted 51-48 to reduce tactics to delay debate on federal judicial nominees. Some, like me, would say it’s been a long time coming. Others, in this case Senate Democrats and Republican Senators Mike Lee and Susan Collins say nothing should have changed. Here’s the deal – I'll cut through the parliamentary BS version of an explanation. Under prior Senate rules it was virtually impossible (without 60 votes) to bring a Presidential nomination for a federal court to a vote with under 8 hours of debate on every nominee. Changing the rules that changed yesterday will cut that number to 2 hours. Why’s that a big deal?
There are currently 130 vacancies on federal courts and you can do some quick math and realize that if all the Senate did was consider these judicial candidates and nothing else it’d take them about a 130 days to fill them. The bottom line is with other Senate business there’s zero chance it’d happen during President Trump’s first term. Until now. Get ready for record setting federal confirmation with President Trump’s picks stacking courts across the country.