As expected, the Senate blocked an up-or-down confirmation vote Tuesday on one of the nations leading womens rights attorneys, Georgetown University law professor Nina Pillard. Pillard is one of three nominees to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that Republicans committed to block. Democrats have warned that if Republicans go forward with their threat and block all three nominees, they will invoke what is known as the nuclear option, and change the Senate rules with a simple majority vote. Under existing rules, 60 votes are needed to invoke cloture and overcome a filibuster. The Senate vote Tuesday evening was 56-41, meaning that Pillards nomination had the support of a majority of senators but was nonetheless blocked. Two weeks ago, Senate Republicans signaled their commitment to filibustering these nominees when they similarly blocked a vote on Patricia Millett, a nominee that has garnered little particularized opposition from Republicans. Instead, Senate Republicans have cited misleading statistics to claim that judges are no longer needed to fill the three vacant seats, belying the reality that filibustering Obamas nominees would maintain the conservative stronghold over the court that has blocked environmental regulations and issued a radical ruling that could undercut all federal labor regulation.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 20:30:02 +0000
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