Thursday, April 11, 2013

Charles Grassley also does not like the D.C. Circuit.

We have previously covered how Iowa Senator Charles Grassley does not think much of the Ninth Circuit (or at least how the circuit schedules its judicial conferences).  In the interest of balance we should also point out that Senator Grassley also does not like the D.C. Circuit.  On April 10, he announced legislation to remove three judgeships from the circuit (add add one judgeship to the Second and Eleventh Circuit).  Senator Grassley, a Republican, announced this legislation as part of his opening remarks on considering the nomination of Sri Srinivasan to the D.C. Circuit.  If Mr. Srinivasan is confirmed and Senator Grassley's proposed legislation passes, there will be no vacancies on the D.C. Circuit and President Obama presumably will not have any more appointments to that circuit.

Given how partisan things are in Washington, one should be forgiven for assuming that Senator Grassley is doing this simply to prevent President Obama from packing the courts with judges.  However, in Senator Grassley's defense, there are currently 62 vacant federal judgeships for which President Obama has not nominated anyone.  If Republicans are out to stop the President from appointing judges, President Obama is giving them a lot of help.

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