WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has failed to make significant progress in his plan to infuse federal courts with a new cadre of judges, and liberal activists are beginning to blame his administration for moving too tentatively on what they considered a key priority.
During his first nine months in office, Obama has won confirmation in the Democratic-controlled Senate for just three of his 23 nominations for federal judgeships, largely because Republicans managed to use anonymous holds and filibuster threats to bring the pace of the proceedings to a crawl.
But some Democrats attribute that GOP success partly to the administration’s reluctance to fight, arguing that Obama’s emphasis on easing partisan rancor over judgeships has backfired and only emboldened Senate Republicans.
Some Republicans contend that the White House has hurt itself by its slow pace in sending over nominations for Senate consideration.
George W. Bush sent 95 names to the Senate in the same period that Obama has forwarded 23 nominees.
“I commend the president’s effort to change the tone in Washington,” said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. “I recognize that he is extending an olive branch to Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and in the Senate overall. But so far his efforts at reconciliation have been met with partisan hostility.”
The delays are having a ripple effect in the overloaded federal courts, where caseloads continue to back up, said Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Currently, about 90 judicial seats — about 10 percent of the total — remain vacant in appeals and district courts.
The White House predicts that both nominations and confirmations will pick up soon.
