The World’s Worst Deliberative Body
By Hopefully this kind of thing will start to erode Leahy’s sentimental attachment to the blue slip, just as it eroded his attachment to the filibuster:
In 2009, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) wrote a letter to President Obama recommending that he nominate Jennifer May-Parker, a federal prosecutor from his state, to a judicial vacancy on a federal trial court. You can read his letter to President Obama here. Last June, the president agreed with Burr’s recommendation, and nominated Ms. May-Parker to be a federal district judge.
And now Burr is blocking May-Parker’s nomination, invoking an arcane Senate tradition that allows senators to unilaterally veto judicial nominees from their own state. In an interview with the Huffington Post’s Jennifer Bendery, Burr refused to explain why the woman he once said has “the requisite qualifications to serve with distinction” as a federal district judge is suddenly unfit to be a federal district judge.
It’s about time to start listening to Rep. Fudge — enough of this. If Republican senators don’t want judges who will protect the civil rights and civil liberties of their constituents they can try winning a presidential election.