The Senate did not confirm 10 judicial nominees for Washington, D.C., courts before it adjourned for the year, to the disappointment of officials who say vacancies on the bench are causing unacceptable court backlogs and delays in both civil and criminal cases. There are 11 vacant judgeships, with two more judges scheduled to retire in January. The result is an overburdened system: Civil caseloads have doubled while the court operates without about 1 in 7 judges, according to the court’s chief judge and a letter D.C. Council members sent to senators, the Washington Post reports. Replacing judges is a perennial challenge for D.C., which does not have the power to confirm its own judges and is instead at the mercy of the Senate to confirm languishing nominees. In the D.C. Court of Appeals, where two judgeships are vacant, case dispositions are down by almost half compared with the last time the court had a full bench, in 2013, the letter to senators said.
“This is just one reason why many of us support statehood for the people of the District of Columbia,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said after he tried to put the nominees up for votes but was summarily blocked by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS.) Van Hollen stood on the Senate floor and asked his colleagues to consider a vote on 10 vacancies — eight in D.C. Superior Court and two in the D.C. Court of Appeals. One. by one, Marshall objected to the votes on the nominees. He did not explain his reasoning, Judges for the D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals are selected by the Judicial Nomination Commission, a body with members appointed by local and federal officials. Then the commission sends nominee options to the president, who in turn picks some to send to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for consideration “I wish we could have gotten more appointments done, like local D.C. judges, but as we got closer to the end of the year Republican intransigence made everything harder,” said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said. “The whole system of the Senate confirming D.C. superior court judges is ridiculous and should be fixed.”
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