In the US lower courts,there are an unprecedented number of vacancies that are the result of ideological differences and political point-scoring
The Republican obstructionism over Obama nominating a replacement for supreme court justice Antonin Scalia should be no surprise. It follows logically from their treatment of judicial appointments throughout the Obama administration, which has led to an unprecedented judicial emptiness crisis. Once the Republicans recaptured a Senate majority in 2014, or the party’s leadership allowed the fewest lower court appointments in one year since Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency,all the while incessantly trumpeting how the party had returned the Senate to “regular order”. Earlier in Obama’s tenure, their obstruction caused 90 vacancies to remain unfilled for a whopping half decade.
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Source: theguardian.com