Just a few weeks ago, panic spread through the progressive movement about Democrats in the U.S. Senate confirming as many judicial nominees as possible before Republicans take over the new Congress.
Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King noted that lawmakers' empty promises ultimately led to 10 judicial nominees that will go unfilled, thanks to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) letting the Senate break.
King described Schumer as trying to "explain away the problem."
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“I wish we could have gotten more appointments done, like local D.C. judges, but as we got closer to the end of the year Republican intransigence made everything harder," said Schumer. "The whole system of the Senate confirming D.C. superior court judges is ridiculous and should be fixed.”
Asking for unanimous consent to approve the judges is met with loud opposition from the GOP side of the aisle, specifically from Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall. However, it's unclear why Schumer didn't ask for majority consent.
King wrote that Democrats have known about this problem for a year, citing one of his columns from January about the judicial vacancies. Now, Democrats will hand the responsibility over to Donald Trump to fill the vacancies, and a Republican-controlled Senate will approve them.
"Will soon-to-be-inaugurated Donald Trump really renominate Biden’s 10 judicial choices for the D.C. courts?" King asked. "And are the Biden nominees even viable at this stage, or must the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission, which recommends candidates to the White House, restart the whole process?"
King questioned whether Trump would follow the Home Rule Act, which makes a president “nominate, from the list of persons recommended by the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission.” The other option is for Trump to ignore the rules and the local D.C. government and make his own appointments.
Over the summer, Trump promised a Florida rally, “We will take over the horribly run capital of our nation in Washington, D.C., and clean it up, renovate it and rebuild our capital city so there is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime."
King closed, "A plan to address the judicial vacancy crisis must get sorted out, hopefully before the new administration and congressional legislative session are in full swing next year."
