Reply #6: It's somewhat complicated, but there are two distinct issues here. [View All]

[BzaDem]

One issue is appointments, and the second issue is confirmation.

You are talking about confirmation. Normally, in the Senate, judges are either confirmed by unanimous consent or votes are scheduled for them by unanimous consent. The reason for this is that without unanimous consent, it takes 2 calendar days plus 30 hours of debate (in addition to 60 votes) to confirm each and every judge (and executive appointee). Given that there are hundreds of judges/executive appointees pending before the Senate at any given moment, this is obviously impractical. So the majority leader and minority leader come together and negotiate unanimous consent agreements to confirm many appointees at once, in block, in about 5 seconds. Or, they negotiate unanimous consent agreements that schedule a vote on judge 1 at 2pm, a vote on judge 2 at 3pm, etc (as opposed to the full 2 days plus 30 hours on each judge that would be required without unanimous consent).

This Congress, Republicans are simply refusing to give unanimous consent agreements at a remotely reasonable pace. Far fewer of Obama's judge appointees have been confirmed so far (~40%) than previous presidents at this point in their terms (usually 80%+). This is the Republicans' fault, and the rules of the Senate need to be changed to deal with this if Republicans continue.

HOWEVER, separate from the confirmation of appointees is actually appointing people in the first place. In addition to having a much lower percentage of his appointees confirmed, Obama has also appointed fewer judges than previous presidents at this point in their term. That is solely Obama's fault. He has the power alone to appoint (not confirm, but simply appoint) judges, and the failure of his administration to do this at a faster pace is Obama's fault. He might not be able to get more judges confirmed (due to Republican refusal to cooperate), but at least he could appoint them and not let Republicans have an excuse blame Obama for the judicial vacancy crisis.

(I don't think Obama should recess appoint judges, since those terms expire after a year.)