Orrin Hatch: “there is no excuse for the delays in the confirmation process except sheer partisanship. It amounts to an ongoing…”

“there is no excuse for the delays in the confirmation process except sheer partisanship. It amounts to an ongoing partial government shutdown, and it definitely hurts the American people. Such obstruction is not worthy of the Senate, and the resulting judicial vacancies do great harm to the judicial system. These are not my words but the words of the Senator from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, when he chaired the Judiciary Committee in 2014. Judicial vacancies today are 60 percent higher than when he expressed those concerns back then. Vacancies are 52 percent higher than what he said was a ``disaster for our Nation's overburdened courts.'' The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts labels some judicial vacancies as judicial emergencies because of their duration and impact on caseloads. On March 12, 2012, the Senator from Illinois, Mr. Durbin, said that 35 judicial emergency vacancies would cause the administration of justice to suffer at every level. Today, there are 72 judicial emergency vacancies, more than twice as many as Senator Durbin warned about. To be fair, I have to say that the leftwing groups that are such faithful allies of Senate Democrats are no better.…”