Washington, DC – Following the hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon for Srikanth (“Sri”) Srinivasan, nominated by President Obama to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, Constitutional Accountability Center President Doug Kendall released the following reaction:

“Sri Srinivasan’s testimony today demonstrates why prominent lawyers from across the ideological spectrum have advocated his confirmation by acclaim. He rightly celebrated the ‘genius’ of the Constitution and its ‘enduring , fixed quality.’ In fact, several Senators questioned rhetorically how anyone could oppose this nomination.

“It is disappointing, however, that Senate Republicans would use his hearing primarily to recycle tired arguments about the workload of the DC Circuit that they rejected when President Bush was nominating judges. The legislation they proposed today is just a smokescreen to justify a future blockade of any nominees – however qualified – to this critical court. This legislation is just a mass filibuster by another name.”

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Resources:

“Let’s Try This Again – Judiciary Committee Hearing for Srinivasan the Next Step to Fixing the D.C. Circuit,” April 3, 2013: http://theusconstitution.org/text-history/1940/let%E2%80%99s-try-again-%E2%80%93-judiciary-committee-hearing-srinivasan-next-step-fixing-dc  

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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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