by Nicole Flatow
Around the country, an alarming rate of vacancies on our federal courts is leading to “exasperating delays for all parties involved,” writes former U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Judge Timothy K. Lewis in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“As a former federal judge, I know the toll this persistently high vacancy rate takes on our courts,” writes Lewis, who is now counsel at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis. “Federal judges have reported being forced to handle criminal caseloads more than double what they confronted just two years ago. This, in turn, is limiting the access people have to the judicial system.”
Much of the problem is caused by unprecedented Senate obstruction – there are now 41 judicial nominees awaiting Senate action and some Republicans are threatening to hold up votes on every nominee. But in Pennsylvania, Lewis notes, there is a different problem: There are six vacancies on Pennsylvania’s district courts, and none of them have a nominee. Before the president can make a nomination, the state’s senators must submit names for the White House’s consideration, and Pennsylvania’s senators, Bob Casey and Pat Toomey, have not yet done so.
“So long as the senators do not submit names, the process cannot move forward - and the seats remain empty,” Lewis writes. “Casey and Toomey have a good working relationship, and they have indicated that they are working on identifying appropriate judicial nominees. But it is long past time that they make this issue a higher priority.”
Visit JudicialNominations.org to learn more and follow developments.