Washington, DC – At an historic Rose Garden ceremony today, President Obama formally announced the nomination of three highly qualified nominees to the Nation’s second most important court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In response to repeated Republican assertions that he was “court packing” in exercising his constitutional duty to fill these vacant seats, President Obama correctly responded that he was simply “doing his job.”

CAC President Doug Kendall said, “We hail President Obama’s nomination of three highly qualified individuals to serve on the understaffed D.C. Circuit, the second most important court in the country.  All three deserve prompt and fair consideration in the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

“President Obama has bent over backwards to accommodate concerns of Senate Republicans,” Kendall continued, “but has been met with unprecedented obstruction – and in the case of the D.C. Circuit, a legislative initiative that amounts to a mass filibuster of any nominees to this court. The President’s Rose Garden address today was a necessary and welcome response to the Republicans’ proposal to gut the D.C. Circuit.” Kendall said. 

CAC Vice President Judith E. Schaeffer said, “Senator Charles Grassley and some of his Republican colleagues have proposed to eliminate these three vacant seats altogether under the pretext of re-balancing judicial workloads.   These alleged concerns did not stop Senate Republicans from confirming George W. Bush’s nominees to the same court when its caseload per judge was less than it is now. 

“As President Obama observed today, having eleven judges on the D.C. Circuit made sense to Republican senators when George W. Bush was president, but somehow doesn’t make sense now,” Schaeffer said.

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Resources:

“It’s Not Packing, Just Filling the D.C. Bench,” Judith E. Schaeffer, May 24, 2013:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578497511399066342.html

“Grassley aims for GOP political spin on federal judiciary,” Doug Kendall,  May 10, 2013: http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/05/10/grassley-aims-for-gop-political-spin-on-federal-judiciary/ 

“Did Senator Grassley Not Check His Inbox? — His Proposal to Gut the D.C. Circuit Ignores the Judicial Conference,” Judith E. Schaeffer, April 17, 2013: http://theusconstitution.org/text-history/1959/did-senator-grassley-not-check-his-inbox-his-proposal-gut-dc-circuit-ignores 

“While Acclaiming Srinivasan, Senate Republicans Propose A Mass Filibuster By Another Name,” News Release, April 10, 2013: http://theusconstitution.org/media/releases/while-acclaiming-srinivasan-senate-republicans-propose-mass-filibuster-another-name 

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Constitutional Accountability Center (www.theusconstitution.org) is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history.

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