This Week in Judicial Nominations

This week the Senate confirmed Timothy Hillman to the district court in Massachusetts by a vote of 88-1 (with Senator Lee the only no vote, in continued protest of President Obama's recess appointments to the NLRB and consumer protection bureau back in January). In addition, the Senate will vote this afternoon on the nomination of Jeffrey Helmick to a seat on the Northern District of Ohio. After today's vote, there will be 14 nominees, including one female circuit court nominee and two female district court nominees, waiting for a floor vote. (Incidentally, click on the links for news coverage of the investitures of Stephanie Thacker, the first Fourth Circuit female judge from West Virginia, and Morgan Christen, the first Ninth Circuit female judge from Alaska).

As Senator Patrick Leahy noted in his remarks on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, it would not be unprecedented for the Senate to confirm all 14 pending nominations in one fell swoop — on November 14, 2002, the Senate confirmed 18 of former President George W. Bush's nominees. Here's hoping for such an oasis of productivity in what has otherwise been an uninterrupted sea of Senate dysfunction due to almost automatic filibusters on virtually everything that comes before the Senate (fair pay, anyone?).