Senate Democrats plan to test the informal arrangement to filibuster less and speed up the confirmation process with "noncontroversial" judicial nominations:
The Senate Judiciary Committee is poised to send at least eleven nominations to the floor, likely this Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), meanwhile, has expressed his desire to hold a vote on one or a few of those nominees before the caucus leaves for its upcoming retreat.
"We should expect to see anywhere from one to a handful of votes on judicial nominees end of the week or early next week," a Senate Democratic leadership aide said.
The idea, explained the aide, is to test whether an informal agreement between Republicans and Democrats to either filibuster less or expedite the confirmation process has had any tangible impact. The nominees being re-considered by the Judiciary Committee were categorized as non-controversial holdovers from the last Senate session. Democratic lawmakers want to clear those confirmations through unanimous consent in the Senate before turning their sights to judicial nominees that were passed through committee last session by party-line vote.
With 101 judicial vacancies and 49 judicial emergencies on the District and Circuit courts, a working agreement to confirm noncontroversial nominees is a good first step toward repairing the federal courts. That said, it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to restoring balance on the federal courts. An agreement to confirm noncontroversial nominees is also an agreement to reject controversial -- or more liberal -- candidates for the federal bench.
As such, Democrats are left unable to correct for decades of Republican influence, and progressives are left disadvantaged as conservatives take their battles to the courts. Put another way, the recent court fights over health-care reform would look a lot different if liberals had their slate of reliably ideological judges. Unfortunately, there are no short-term prospects for a judicial confirmation regime that would put a Goodwin Liu or Edward Chen on the bench.
-- Jamelle Bouie
