Judicial confirmations are perhaps the ultimate in three way checking and balancing. 2302s should note that these battles have become increasingly drawn out over recent years and seem to have kicked up several notches since Obama became president. The battle over the composition of the courts is in many ways a battle over who gets to determine what the Constitution means.
But the Senate leadership may have figured a way to vote up or down on a handful of nominees:
Senate leaders reached a deal Wednesday on judicial nominations, averting what could have been a weeks-long fight over the fate of 17 picks to serve on the federal bench.
After sparring on the issue for the last three days, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) signaled at midday that they had reached a deal. Democratic aides said senators would vote to confirm 12 federal district court nominees and two circuit court picks by May and move next to a vote on a bipartisan jobs bill that passed overwhelmingly last week by the House with White House support.
The agreement, announced after the Senate approved a transportation funding bill by wide margins, appears to be a victory for Republicans, who had pushed Reid to hold a vote on the jobs measure. Democrats, having successfully drawn Republicans in recent weeks into a fight over reproductive rights and religious freedom, instead appeared eager to revive a years-long argument over federal court nominations.
Reid moved Monday to hold an up-or-down vote on 17 nominees to U.S. district courts, noting that 14 of the nominees earned unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee and that all of them deserved swift confirmation.
