There's a way President Obama and Democrats can use the Republican obstruction that has created a crisis in our judiciary system against them, and it
is not this.
[T]he White House is considering a deal that would effectively allow Republicans to name four federal judges in Georgia while giving President Obama only two nominees.
Under the proposed deal, Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA) would agree to stop blocking attorney Jill Pryor’s nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit—a nomination that they have effectively held up for well over 1000 days. In return, Obama would nominate a George H.W. Bush-appointed judge—Chief Judge Julie Carnes of the Northern District of Georgia — to the other open seat on the Eleventh Circuit, creating a fourth vacancy on this federal trial court. Chambliss and Isakson would then be allowed to select three of the four attorneys named to these seats.
[A]t least one of the district court nominees Chambliss and Isakson are expected to name, attorney Mark Cohen, defended a voter suppression law when he was a lawyer for the State of Georgia. Though an attorneys’ actions while representing a client do not necessarily reflect their personal views, Senate Republicans used former DC Circuit nominee Caitlin Halligan’s advocacy in favor of gun laws on behalf of the State of New York as a reason to block her nomination. Now, however, Chambliss and Isakson apparently believe that the White House should ignore Cohen’s advocacy and nominate him anyway.
What's worse, judicial vacancies or extreme right-wing judges with lifetime appointments? As Ian Millhiser writes in this story, we've got some precedent to guide us on that question. A similar deal led President Clinton to name Judge Frank Hull to the Eleventh Circuit. Guess which appeals court was the only one in the nation to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional 14 years later? Yep, the Eleventh.
Right now, President Obama and Senate Democrats are locked in a critical battle to have his three nominees to the second most important court in the land, a fight in which Republicans are showing no signs of relenting. Why, at this juncture, make such a bad deal with them now on judges?
Politically, Democrats have the upper hand against the obstruction, and they have the threat of breaking the filibuster in their back pocket. The White House making these kinds of deals undermines the threat Harry Reid still holds to use the nuclear option to break a filibuster on judges. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), as chair of the Judiciary Committee, has the power to prevent this deal from happening. He needs to use it.
Tell your Democratic senators to keep filibuster reform moving, and to bring back the talking filibuster.