WASHINGTON, D.C., January 18, 2024 – Today the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first executive business meeting of the year with the agenda to reapprove the judicial nominees who had been renominated in the new year. Most of those nominees had already been advanced by the committee in 2023 but had to be reapproved because the nominees had not yet received their final confirmation.
Republican members of the community seized the opportunity to rehash their opposition to the well-qualified nominees in hopes of preventing all of the votes from being completed in the time allotted for the committee’s meeting. This stands in stark contrast to how, during the Trump administration, Senate Democrats agreed to simple voice votes for Trump nominees who were carried over across the new year and had to similarly be reapproved.
Despite the ugly delay tactics, which mirrored recent efforts by the Republicans on the committee to block subpoenas of Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo as part of ethics investigations into Justice Clarence Thomas, the committee successfully advanced the slate of nominees.
Alliance for Justice President Rakim H.D. Brooks issued the following statement:
“It’s telling how desperately Senate Republicans have tried to slow down the advancement of these judicial nominees. They fully appreciate that these well-qualified legal minds will dilute the extreme conservative control they’ve secured over the courts. That is why it’s as important as ever to quickly advance these nominees through their final confirmations.
“We applaud Chair Durbin for efficiently moving these nominees out of committee today and we encourage Majority Leader Schumer to act with the same haste and priority. With over 80 vacancies remaining to be filled by the end of this year, there’s no time to waste.”