Over 50 Judges Nominated By Trump, Sen. Graham Vows To 'Confirm As Many As Possible'
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pledged to “confirm as many as possible, as soon as possible” of President Donald Trump’s 51 judicial picks, who he renominated last week.
Their nominations lapsed after senators failed to confirm them during the last Congress, which ended earlier this month.
The Washington Examiner reported Trump’s list includes nine nominees to circuit courts, 37 for district courts, and two each to International Trade and Federal Claims courts, and one to the Military Commission Review.
Graham said in a statement on Wednesday, “I truly appreciate the prompt attention President Trump and his White House team have shown to judicial nominations. I also appreciate the list of 51 impressive judicial nominations to fulfill the Senate’s constitutional role in advice and consent.”
“The committee will immediately begin working on these important nominations and trying to confirm as many as possible, as soon as possible,” he added.
The Examiner noted that Trump has filled vacancies at a rapid pace during his time in office, having successfully appointed two U.S Supreme Court justices, 30 judges to the circuit court and 53 to the district courts to date.
“Should the Senate move quickly to approve his picks, as it has done so far, the 51 picks would fill one-third of the 146 vacancies,” according to the news outlet.
Politico reported earlier this month the 51, whose nominations lapsed, had already gone through confirmation hearings at the Judiciary Committee.
Thirty of them were awaiting a Senate floor vote, while an additional 21 first needed to be voted out of committee.
In late November, the committee canceled votes on those 21 after now retired Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona vowed to oppose them.
“I have informed the majority leader I will not vote to advance any of the 21 judicial nominees pending in the Judiciary Committee or vote to confirm the 32 judges awaiting confirmation on the Senate floor until … S.2644 (the ‘Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act’) is brought to the full Senate for a vote,” Flake said on the Senate floor in November.
George Hartmann, a spokesman for the Judiciary Committee under its previous chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said earlier this month, the committee is likely to hold a marathon session in the near future to vote on the nominees awaiting floor and committee decisions.
Hartman stated it is rare for nominees who have already had hearings to go through a second one, though Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee are seeking that for some whose hearings were held during the October recess.
National Review reports Senate Democrats have successfully employed tactics to slow down floor confirmation votes on many of Trump’s judicial picks.
One tactic is to not cooperate in allowing debate to end for a nominee, causing Senate Rule 22 to kick in, which provides a time-consuming roll-call vote for cloture, followed by as much as 30 hours of debate.
According to National Review, in the past several decades post-cloture vote debate ended within a few hours approximately 50 percent of the time, but under Trump that number dropped to 27 percent.
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