http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/mitch-mcconnell-judges-225455 McConnell's historic judge blockade
The window for approving more Obama court picks is narrowing — but it's not slammed completely shut.
By Seung Min Kim
07/14/16 05:16 AM EDT
Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland may be the most prominent casualty of the GOP-controlled Senate’s election-year resistance on the federal judiciary — but the pace of overall judicial confirmations under Mitch McConnell is on track to become the slowest in more than 60 years.
Under the McConnell-led Senate, just 20 district and circuit court judges have been confirmed at a time when the vacancies are hampering the federal bench nationwide, according to the Congressional Research Service. During George W. Bush’s final two years in the White House, Senate Democrats in the majority shepherded through 68 federal judges — a courtesy that Democrats now complain Republicans aren’t affording to President Barack Obama, even though Obama has had more judges confirmed overall.
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