Political Quotes

“just before we left for last week's State work period, the majority leader filed cloture on six nominees for Federal circuit courts. He did not take this action in a vacuum. Over the past year and a half, the majority leader and the Republicans in the Senate have joined with Donald Trump to try to pack our Federal courts with ideological judicial nominees who seek to change American law to match their partisan politics. To accomplish this goal, the majority leader and Senate Republicans have also been eliminating procedural checks designed to ensure a fair and qualified judiciary. One of those checks is the blue-slip requirement--a mechanism for Senators to indicate their approval of nominees from their States. In the past, when Senators objected to a judicial nomination in their home State, with almost no exceptions, the Judiciary Committee took no further action on that nominee. This was because the Constitution requires the President to get the advice and consent of the Senate when nominating judges. Traditionally, this has been done by consultation with the home State Senators, but the majority leader and his Republican colleagues have largely abandoned this constitutional safeguard. The Judiciary Committee has, though very rarely, scheduled hearings for nominees who lack one blue slip and whose home State Senators have returned negative blue slips.…”