WASHINGTON -- Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. And in this Senate, even a judicial nominee moves forward on occasion.
It took eight months, but the Judiciary Committee easily cleared circuit court nominee Luis Felipe Restrepo on Thursday. He had so much support he passed on a voice vote. It was over in a matter of seconds.
Restrepo is the latest casualty of Republicans' decision to slow-walk President Barack Obama's judicial picks, with some hoping they can hold out until 2016, when a Republican may be in the White House, to fill the bulk of the 62 federal court vacancies that currently exist. The Senate has confirmed a total of five district or circuit court nominees this year. In contrast, when Democrats controlled the Senate during President George W. Bush's seventh year in office, they had confirmed 25 of his judicial picks by this point in the year.
When judicial vacancies go unfilled, cases get backed up and people have to wait -- and wait -- for justice.
In Restrepo's case, it was his own home-state senator holding him up, even though he supported the nomination (something that other GOP senators have done to nominees from their states, too). Obama nominated Restrepo in November to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Both of his home-state senators, Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), sang his praises at the time. But up until May, Toomey prevented Restrepo from getting a hearing by withholding his so-called "blue slip," which is literally a blue piece of paper that senators turn in to the committee to let their nominees advance.
The Huffington Post asked Toomey in May why he was delaying Restrepo's nomination, but Toomey answered in a confusing manner and walked away quickly. He finally turned in his blue slip the following week, and after another two months passed, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, scheduled Restrepo's vote.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, lamented Thursday that Restrepo has been "languishing" and wondered aloud when Republicans would step up the pace of judicial nominees. Grassley, who has given numerous reasons for Restrepo's delays -- committee members wanted answers to more questions, Toomey withheld his blue slip, a committee member asked that Restrepo be held over from the last hearing -- was not amused by Leahy's remarks.
"Do you really want me to respond?" Grassley asked.
"You're the chairman," Leahy said. "You're the one who could move these anytime you want to on the floor, so feel free."
That was the end of that.
As of Thursday's hearing, which advanced Restrepo and two other district court nominees, there are eight district and circuit court nominees ready for a Senate floor vote. Another eight are waiting for a Judiciary Committee hearing. Some of those nominees, including Restrepo, would fill a vacancy that's been deemed a judicial emergency. That means that the volume of cases per panel of judges on the court in question exceeds 700, or has been between 500 and 700 for more than 18 months.
The Senate made a bit of history earlier this week when it confirmed its first circuit court nominee of the year, Kara Farnandez Stoll, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Stoll, who is Latina, is the first woman of color to serve on that court.
CORRECTION: This article was corrected to note that Kara Farnandez Stoll is the first woman of color to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
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