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This article is an excerpt from the “2020 Mandate for Leadership: A Clear Vision for the Next Administration.” It looks back at policy decisions made by the Trump administration over the past four years. You can purchase your copy of “Mandate 2020” here. Our system of government and the liberty it provides are compromised when judges decide cases based on their own personal views and political beliefs rather than the law.
When it comes to judicial confirmation obstruction, blame flies over which party did what first, or more often, or with more negative consequences. Our fellow citizens still need to know, and have a reliable way to evaluate, what their government is doing. One way to approach this is to apply criteria or standards of the other party to the confirmation process. Democrats have frequently said how the process should work, at least with a Democrat in the White House. How does it measure up today?
With the 118th Congress underway, the Senate’s process of evaluating President Joe Biden’s judicial nominations has resumed. This means that, joining death and taxes on the certainty list, is pressure for the majority to rig the process by abandoning the “blue slip” process that gives deference to senators in whose state a judicial nominee would serve.
When there was a Republican president and GOP-led Senate, Democrats said "blue slips" were key in the judicial confirmation process. Not now.
The 117th Congress has finished its work, putting the judicial-appointment process on hold until the next Congress begins on January 3, 2023. Here’s a judicial-confirmation recap. You can also check the Judicial Appointment Tracker, which is regularly updated and provides current and comparative data for the previous six presidencies on seven features of the appointment process.