McConnell vows to slow judicial nominees

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is stepping up his parliamentary warfare with Minority Leader Harry Reid, vowing to slow confirmation of new judges to a trickle during the last months of President Barack Obama’s time in office.

After Democrats changed the Senate rules in late 2013 and subsequently pushed through 96 nominations in just over a year, McConnell has essentially put an end to new judicial confirmations on the Senate floor. Republicans confirmed just four new federal judges in five months controlling the Senate and McConnell said on Thursday evening that he’s unlikely to speed things up.


“So far, the only judges we’ve confirmed have been federal district judges that have been signed off on by Republican senators,” McConnell told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, adding that it was “highly likely” it would remain that way for the rest of the 114th Congress.

That means at this rate the Senate could see as few as 20 total judicial confirmations by the end of 2016, or about 15 percent of the 132 confirmed in the last two years of the Democratic majority, which Reid made a focus of his final months as majority leader.

McConnell’s aggressive stance comes as Reid is set to lead Democrats into hardline stances on several major bills: Democrats are weighing block the National Defense Authorization Act, rejecting spending bills that they believe shortchange the federal government and block the GOP’s attempts to do short-term highway bills.

The threatened Democratic blockade has raised the specter of a government shutdown or construction workers leaving highway sites in the middle of the summer, setting the stage for a new round of brinkmanship that may also keep key judicial slots from being filled.

On the most immediate matter at hand, the defense bill, McConnell made clear that he doubts that Democrats will go through with filibustering a critical national security bill.

“We’ll see whether they really want to do this. Sometimes, they talk bigger in the locker room than they do out on the court,” McConnell said of Reid’s threat.

But Reid’s office said by leaning in so hard on filling gaps in the nation’s courts, including 26 judicial emergencies that date back as many as 3,400 days, it is McConnell who is obstructing the Senate’s business, even in the majority.

“Senator McConnell cannot quit his old, obstructionist ways. Days after letting critical national security tools expire on his watch, he is issuing a blanket blockade against all judges regardless of their merits,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid.