Sen. Coburn reads the election returns; predicts quick action on two stalled judicial nominations

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            In July,the United States Senate reached a new low when, for the first time, SenateRepublicans filibustered a nominee for a judgeship on a United States CircuitCourt of Appeals even after the nomination had been voted out of committee withbipartisan support.

Judge Bacharach

            The nomineeis U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Bacharach, whom President Obama wants toappoint to the 10^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
            As AFJ President Nan Aron said at thetime:
The Senate hasbecome a theater of the politically absurd, and is so poisoned withpartisanship that even the two senators from Judge Bacharach’s home state, whohad expressed unequivocal support for his nomination, willingly voted to ignoretheir obligations to the Constitution and their fellow Oklahomans.
            But now, at least one of thosesenators, Tom Coburn, is singing a different tune.  He told The Oklahoman that thenominations of Bacharach and John Dowdell, who was nominated for a U.S.District Court judgeship in Tulsa, should “fly through” the Senate, when itreconvenes for a lame-duck session next week.
            What’s changed? There’s lesspartisan advantage for Republicans in trying to keep good judges off thebench.  As The Oklahoman points out: “Had Republican Mitt Romney won, he wouldhave been able to make his own judicial nominations.”
            In addition to Bacharach andDowdell, 17 other judicial nominations have been stalled by Senate Republicansafter being voted out of committee.
            But as former U.S. Attorney DanWebber told The Oklahoman:
Most of thenominees, including Judge Bacharach and John Dowdell, face little or noopposition and could be confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote.  The Senate could confirm a dozen or morenominees, including the Oklahomans, in less than an hour.
            We hope other Senate Republicanswill read the election returns in the same way as Sen. Coburn.  There is no reason the Senate can’t giveswift approval to all 19 pending nominations during the lame-duck session, andbegin to ease the critical shortage of federal judges, a shortage that delays, and sometimes denies,justice across the country.
            AFJ will be keeping the pressure onto get the Senate to move.