The Republican Insurgency Against the Judicial Branch

>

Our country is in the midst of a full-blown "politically-motivated" judicial crisis.

That's the conclusion of a new report from the Alliance for Justice, a watchdog group located in Washington, DC.

The group looked at the number of federal judges confirmed since Republicans took over the Senate in January, and what it found was shocking.

So far this year, the Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed just six federal judges, the fewest it's confirmed in the first eight months of a year since 1953.

We've never seen anything like this before in our history, or at least not in our recent history.

As of today, President Obama is on pace to have fewer judicial confirmations over the final two years of his presidency than any president since World War II.

Even the Democratic-controlled Senate during the final years of the George W. Bush administration got its act together, did its constitutional duty and approved 68 judges.

Today's Republicans, though, could care less about doing their constitutional duty - they just hate President Obama.

Even though Chief Justice John Roberts warned three years ago that we were heading towards a major judicial crisis if something weren't done soon about the rising number of judicial vacancies, they've gone ahead and delayed votes, put off hearings and done pretty much everything in their power to stop the senate from voting on Obama's nominees.

This, of course, comes as the number of federal judicial vacancies has jumped from 43 to 67 and the number of federal judicial emergencies has jumped from 12 to 31.

Apparently having a functioning court system isn't on the top of Republican priorities.

And here's the thing: It's not like the nominees President Obama has put forward are unqualified or super liberal -- they're not.

Every time one of their nominations has been put to vote, they've been confirmed unanimously.

What's really going on here is another example of the "Caucus Room Conspiracy," the plot Republicans hatched on the day President Obama took office to prevent him, our nation's first Black President, from building up any legacy what-so-ever.

On January 20, 2009, the night when the Obamas were dancing at inaugural balls and most Americans were out celebrating the end of the Bush years, a group of powerful Republicans was planning the end of Obama presidency before it even got going.