Obama picks up steam on judicial nominations

The Senate Republican obstruction gambit is responsible, in part, for the fact that President Obama ended his first term in office with more vacancies and judicial emergencies than when he was inaugurated and with far fewer confirmations than his two predecessors had at the end of their first terms. But there's another part of the story, and that's been that filling vacancies'making nominations'hasn't seemed to be a high priority for the president. But he's now closing the gap.

Reelected with strong support from women, ethnic minorities and gays, Obama is moving quickly to change the face of the federal judiciary by the end of his second term, setting the stage for another series of drawn-out confrontations with Republicans in Congress.

The president has named three dozen judicial candidates since January and is expected to nominate scores more over the next few months, aides said. The push marks a significant departure from the sluggish pace of appointments throughout much of his first term, when both Republicans and some Democrats complained that Obama had not tried hard enough to fill vacancies on federal courts. [...]

The diversity of Obama's judicial nominees stands in contrast to staff selections at the start of his second term that have been dominated by white men, including White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. [...]

Liberal groups have been pressuring the White House to look for diversity not just in race, gender or sexual orientation, but also in professional experience. They want fewer corporate lawyers from white-shoe firms and more public defenders and lawyers from outside what is sometimes called the 'judicial monastery.'

It's a very smart fight for President Obama to take on right now, and one that could be made even smarter if he does follow the advice of progressives and look beyond corporate law for his nominees. His record on demographic diversity on nominees is impressive: 37 percent of his confirmed judges are people of color, compared to 19 percent for Bush, and 42 percent of Obama's first-term judges are women, compared with 21 percent for Bush. He can make the judiciary look even more like the rest of America by drawing from those who deal with the issues of the 99 percent in their legal careers.

It's well past time that Obama takes the Republicans head on over the judiciary because it's a clear-cut political winner for him. Republican obstruction on judges has been extraordinarily political and without basis because Obama hasn't been nominating unqualified liberal firebrands. Putting a raft of nominees before them will keep a spotlight on the GOP's tactics.

At the same time, it will highlight just how important real filibuster reform is. If you haven't already, please sign our petition urging Harry Reid to re-open the process of filibuster reform in the Senate.