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Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats will “fill up the DC circuit one way or another,” even it means changing the rules in the Senate to get nominees confirmed. At a Mar. 10 dinner event, the New York senator criticized the GOP for rejecting President Barack Obama’s nomination for judge in the 10th circuit, which currently has four vacancies. “They just rejected on specious grounds a fine New Yorker named Caitlin Halligan for the second time," said Schumer. "Our strategy will be to nominate four more people for each of those vacancies [on the 10th Circuit Court]. And if they...

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans have blocked the confirmation of federal appeals court nominee Caitlin Halligan for the second time, denying President Barack Obama a key judicial appointment.

Mention the name Charles Pickering to anyone but the most committed news junkie, and you’re apt to get a blank look or, at best, one of dim recognition. In the era of the 24-hour news cycle aimed at the ever-shortening attention span, the bitter Senate battles over the federal judiciary in which Pickering played so dramatic a part a few years back can seem like ancient history. But with the publication of A Price Too High, Pickering’s insider account of the nearly four years he spent in limbo as a nominee to the federal bench, as Democrats and their press...

Showdown Nears Over Bush Judicial Nominees By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Republicans on Thursday moved closer to a showdown with Democrats over filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees, sending two judges under dispute to the full Senate. The GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee on identical 10-8 partisan votes gave its approval to Texas judge Priscilla Owen and California judge Janice Rogers Brown, who were nominated by Bush for lifetime judgeships on the regional U.S. appeals courts, the nation's second-highest courts.

The Cost of Obstruction By Kay R. Daly April 15, 2004 What is the real cost of Senate Democrat obstruction of President Bush's personnel appointments? One of the first duties of a newly-elected President of the United States is to appoint a team of cabinet secretaries and a host of decision-makers throughout government agencies. In fact, the process of transition between presidential administrations begins long before a President takes the oath of office to fill the more than 800 key political positions available. From the moment that President Bush was elected, liberals set a course to obstruct as many presidential...

Although much attention has been paid to the filibuster of appeals-court nominee Miguel Estrada — just Wednesday , Republicans made yet another unsuccessful attempt to break the Democratic blockade on his nomination — there is in fact a far larger story taking shape, one that has gone mostly unreported in the press. Using a variety of complicated parliamentary techniques that attract little public notice, Democrats are now blocking nearly every Bush nominee to the federal circuit courts of appeals. Their actions suggest that party strategists have abandoned an earlier plan to stop a few, carefully selected Bush nominees. Now, they...

- Judges, Democrats, Republicans2002-04-06By Thomas L. Jipping Letters to the editor printed in The Oklahoman on March 23 regarding judicial confirmations prove that propaganda, repeated often enough, becomes someone's truth. One letter claimed that Senate Democrats' treatment of President Bush's judicial nominees "is no different than what the Republican Senate majority did to President Clinton's nominations during his eight years in office." The writer's sole example was Sen. Jesse Helms, R- N.C., blocking Clinton nominees to North Carolina's seats on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But the "facts" cited in the letter were wrong. It was not...