Judicial Nominations

Jeff Sessions Rants Against Judicial Nominees With 'ACLU DNA' (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 21, 2010, 3:25PM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) railed against President Barack Obama's nominees to the federal bench on Tuesday afternoon, complaining that Obama was only nominating individuals with "ACLU DNA" and rattling off a list of potential judges who are now or have ever been a member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I'm sure that less than one percent of the lawyers in America are members of the ACLU," Sessions said. "It seems if you have the ACLU DNA, you get a pretty good leg up to being nominated by this president."

The ACLU -- which has over 500,000 members and supporters -- did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Judicial Nominations

Progressives To Dems: Get Moving On Judicial Nominations

Zachary Roth | May 12, 2010, 12:26PM

As the Senate gets set to take up Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court, the slow pace of confirmation for lower-court nominations is creating vacancies that are gumming up the system and could even pose a long-term threat to President Obama's agenda. In response, some who follow the process are calling on Democrats to get tougher on GOP obstructionism. "We need a Nancy Pelosi in the Senate," said one progressive activist.

After yesterday's confirmations of Jon DeGuilo and Timothy Black to district court judge-ships, the Senate has now confirmed 26 of President Obama's nominees -- compared to 52 at this point in President Bush's tenure. Forty-two nominations are pending -- 20 in committee, and 22 on the Senate floor. Meanwhile, there are currently 102 court vacancies. That's an unprecedented backlog, observers of the process agree.

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