Senate Judicial appointments have continued to trundle forward even without Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 89, whose critical vote has been missing from the chamber for weeks as she recovers from shingles.
“We’re going to keep confirming highly qualified, diverse candidates to these lifetime appointments!” Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin said in a Friday tweet.
Even without Feinstein’s vote on the committee, Senate Democrats there were able to confirm seven judges to the federal bench for lifetime appointments this week, bringing the total number of judges confirmed under the Biden administration so far to 126.
Progressive lawmakers including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called on Feinstein to resign, saying her absence is slowing down critical Senate business.
Even before her illness, the longtime California senator — who will be 90 in June — had faced questions about her mental capacity.
Durbin himself has come in for criticism from many of the same progressives for his refusal to end the committee’s traditional “blue slip” process.
The Senate convention requires that both home-state senators sign off on a potential judicial appointment from their state before a confirmation hearing can be scheduled.
Once a symbol of bipartisan collegiality, left-wing critics now say…
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