Even as Democrats reel from draconian impact of Republicans’ success at stacking the U.S. Supreme Court, the Biden administration is in danger of leaving scores of lower-court federal judgeships vacant by the end of this year — at which point, a Republican Senate might be in place to continue pushing the bench far to the right of America.
The reasons for the delays include hesitancy from the Biden administration and top Democrats to strain procedural norms — unwritten rules and standards of conduct that Republicans have in fact already torched. This is one area where the White House and the slim Democratic Senate majority can and should act unilaterally, and immediately, before it’s too late.
Under the Constitution, federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed or rejected by the Senate. That fairly simple principle is more complicated in practice, with a process of Senate-made rules and traditional norms long guiding how the process is carried out. For example, presidents traditionally let senators recommend which judges should be nominated to fill vacancies in their home states, through what’s known as a “blue slip” process.
