U.S.-judge picks hit new snag

WASHINGTON - Twenty-nine judicial nominees, including two from Arkansas, saw any movement toward confirmation delayed Thursday after U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley prevented the Senate Judiciary Committee from considering their nominations.

The Iowa Republican took advantage of a courtesy given to Judiciary Committee members to “hold over” a nominee the first time he appears on the agenda. Republican members of the committee have used that courtesy routinely over the past few years.

Grassley did not say in the meeting why he held the nominees. His staff would say only that the action was “standard procedure.”

President Barack Obama nominated Pulaski County Circuit Judge Jay Moody to be U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas and Timothy Brooks of Fayetteville as U.S. district judge for the Western District of Arkansas. They are backed by both Arkansans in the U.S. Senate but have seen their nominations stall for months amid partisan political wrangling.

Moody and Brooks were not asked to be present Thursday, the committee staff said. Judicial nominees are instructed not to speak to the media during the confirmation process.

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat, said Brooks and Moody aren’t controversial choices and he hopes the delays will end.

“We have eight District Court judges, and we have two vacancies, so that’s 25 percent. I worked hard to try to get those filled at the very end of last year, but because of the circumstances here in the Senate, I was not able to,” Pryor said.

Besides spots for the eight full-time U.S. district judges, Arkansas has five judges who are on “senior status” and are not required to take full caseloads.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman, a Republican, said Brooks and Moody are still the right choices for the federal bench in Arkansas.

“Both of these individuals will make excellent federal judges,” Boozman said. “I don’t think they’ll run into any problems in the confirmation process; it’s just a matter now of working through the system.”

This is each candidate’s second time through the system.

Over the summer and fall Brooks and Moody were vetted by the White House, recommended to the Senate and went before the Judiciary Committee to testify. The American Bar Association rated each man as “highly qualified” for the post, Arkansas’ senators spoke in their favor, and the Judiciary Committee unanimously backed the Arkansas nominees.

But a rule change in the Senate in November that made it more difficult to filibuster angered Republicans and brought many judicial nominations to a halt. Brooks, Moody and seven others waiting for a final Senate vote instead saw their appointments sent back to the White House because they failed to gain approval by the end of 2013 and Republicans would not hold them into the new year.

Democrats argued the filibuster change was necessary because Republicans were creating a crisis by blocking judicial nominations. Republicans said the rule change was made improperly and would strip the minority party of the chance to weigh in on decisions.

Boozman said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made clear to Democrats that the nomination process would be slowed if they changed the rules. Boozman blamed Democratic leaders for going forward anyway.

“That really has made it a lot more difficult,” Boozman said. “That’s kind of a sad, unintentional consequence.”

Boozman said the rule change was not about most judicial nominees but aboutfilling the District Court in Washington, D.C., which is the court of jurisdiction for many cases filed against the executive branch.

“It’s about stacking the D.C. court so that they can get favorable rulings when things like Obamacare come up before that particular court,” Boozman said.

Boozman said how long Arkansas’ nominees have to wait depends on how quickly Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid takes their names to the Senate floor.

“If it’s a priority for him, then it shouldn’t have a great deal of effect,” he said.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a December statement that Republicans “needlessly” blocked the confirmations. He said it is the first time senators have sent nominations back to the president rather than hold pending nominations to be considered when Congress resumed.

“The result is that we will spend a significant portion of the next year on the Senate floor doing work that should have been completed this year,” Leahy said in December. “Each of these nominations represents a significant amount of work by the nominees themselves, the White House, the Department of Justice and Senate staff on both sides of the aisle.”

Leahy rejected Republicans’ explanation that the delay was the result of the rule change.

“History shows that this is simply not true. The truth is, from the first day President Obama took office, Senate Republicans pursued a path of delay and obstruction on judicial nominees that departed dramatically from Senate tradition,” Leahy said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/10/2014

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