Politics of confirmation depletes ranks of judges

LAHAINA, Hawaii - Almost one in eight federal judgeships is vacant in the country and legal scholars warn that the increasingly politicized confirmation process threatens the administration of justice across the nation.

Democrats and Obama administration officials accuse the Republican minority in the Senate of systematically opposing the president's nominees to prevent him from putting his stamp on a judiciary that, Democrats say, moved to the right under President George W. Bush.

Republicans and conservative analysts say the stalled pace is part payback for congressional Democrats' efforts to scuttle some Bush nominees and part indifference on the part of President Barack Obama, who they say has been slow to nominate judges.

Of the 102 federal judgeships open, there are nominees pending for 39 seats.

"Republicans can't block something that's not there," said Don Stewart, an aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Obama's confirmation rate is the lowest since analysts began tracking the subject 30 years ago, with 47 percent of his 85 nominations winning Senate approval so far. That compares with 87 percent during the first 18 months of the previous administration, 84 percent for President Bill Clinton and 93 percent for President Ronald Reagan.

At the current rate of replacing retired, resigned and deceased judges, Assistant Attorney General Christopher H. Schroeder warned, nearly half of the 876 federal judgeships could be vacant by 2020.

"A determined minority is skillfully navigating the process to prevent an up-or-down vote on nominees," Schroeder told a gathering of judges and lawyers here recently, referring to Senate Republicans who have refused to provide the traditional unanimous consent for a confirmation vote on most Obama nominees.