Filibuster Weakened, Senate OK’ing Judges Faster
Seven months after curbing filibusters, Democrats are aggressively pushing President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees through the Senate, speeding the pace of confirmations and shrinking vacancies on the federal bench to their lowest level since days after Obama took office.
The Democratic drive comes with the party facing difficult November elections that could turn over Senate control to Republicans and make it harder for Obama to win approval for judges during his final two years in office. That also would threaten his chances for matching the number of circuit court of appeals and district court judges his immediate predecessors put on the federal bench in their eight-year terms: 324 by President George W. Bush and 372 by President Bill Clinton.