Thoughts on Carlton Reeves' Confirmation as U.S. Dist. Judge
Here is the Clarion-Ledger's article on Carlton Reeves' confirmation as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi. The Senate confirmed Reeves in a voice vote on Sunday.
This has been a long time coming to say the least. The fact that Reeves would get the position after President Obama won two years ago was common knowledge.
The fact that it took two years for the confirmation to happen was due to a combination of inefficiency in the Obama administration combined with Republican foot dragging in the Senate. The former is harder to stomach than the latter, since Republicans consider blocking Obama's agenda part of their job. Obama's administration has just been indefensibly slow with making appointments and pushing them through.
Hopefully, the confirmation will mean increased efficiency in the Southern District. Some cases will presumably be reassigned to Reeves from other judges. That should allow for faster rulings. That would please a lot of lawyers and parties who sometimes have to wait a long time for rulings.
It's my understanding that Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. is now the Chief Judge in the Southern District. I am also hearing that Judge Henry Wingate will not be taking senior status anytime soon.
Reeves will be missed on North Congress Street. He arrived at work early, stayed late and came in a lot on the weekends. I am sure that Judge Reeves will bring that work ethic to the bench. If anyone needs a Pigott Reeves Johnson Law Firm sign, I can probably get you a deal on one.
Good news, but to be fair, the Democrats didn't fall all over themselves in haste to approve W's appointees.
Long overdue, and a very well-deserving individual. Now if they would only confirm Judge Graves. . .
If these stats are correct, the current obstruction is much worse than what the Dems did to Dubya or the Repubs did to Clinton.
Bear in mind also that the Dems have *controlled* the Senate and yet had a much lower rate of confirmations. I blame Obama and the Dems for tolerating this, but it doesn't excuse the GOP.
As the first congressional session of Obama's presidency draws to a close, what began as a slow process of confirmation has ballooned into a full-blown judicial crisis. The Senate has overseen the slowest pace of judicial staffing in at least a generation, with a paltry 39.8 percent of Obama's judges having been confirmed, according to numbers compiled by Senate Democrats. Of the 103 district and circuit court nominees, only 41 have been confirmed.
By this time in George W. Bush's presidency, the Senate had confirmed 76 percent of his nominees. President Clinton was working at a rate of 89 percent at this point in his tenure.
I'd like to see a side-by-side timeline of the nomination and confirmation of Carlton Reeves and Dan Jordan.
Jordan nominated 4/24/06, confirmed 7/20/06.
Reeves nominated 4/28/10, confirmed 12/19/10.