A third grade civics lesson about the judicial branch

Most of us learned about that government three-legged stool in our third grade civics lessons.  It was the three legs that gave our government stability: executive, legislative and judicial.

The legislative branch is Congress. The House of Representatives and the Senate are bodies of lawmakers whose job it is to make law—to write, debate and pass bills, which are then passed on for executive (presidential) approval.  The United States Senate has other extra special duties and one of those is the approval of presidential nominees, including cabinet officers, ambassadors, justices and others. 

The President of the United States heads up the executive branch of government and has national security powers, legislative, administrative and judicial powers.  Among those judicial powers is the appointment of federal judges.

The third leg of that balanced stool is the judicial branch, which has the authority to argue the meaning of laws, how they are applied and decide on the laws’ constitutionality. 

Are you following me?  Good.

So here is the problem. There are 91 vacancies on the federal district and appellate courts—the longest period of historically high vacancy rates in 35 years, according to the Congressional Research Service. The number of seats considered to be “judicial emergencies” has risen by 85 percent since 2008, meaning that millions of people live in a judicial emergency jurisdiction, and will not have the issues they care about heard in a timely manner. This is unacceptable.

So what’s the hold-up?  It is not President Obama.  He has made the nominations that need to be made.  In fact, he has offered nominees to fill the D.C. Circuit Court—often called the second most important court in the nation—and has nominees pending for more than half of the judicial emergencies.  The backlog is a result of the Senate, especially Senate conservatives.  It is the constitutional duty of the Senate to confirm qualified nominees to the judiciary in a timely manner, but the Senate Judiciary Committee—under the leadership of Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley—is not doing its job. 

So, let’s end our civics lesson with a call to action.  Our Senators need to be called and emailed.  We need to thank Senator Harkin for his work. Senator Grassley, who is currently the ranking conservative on the Judiciary Committee, must be asked to move on the President’s judicial nominations.  Tell him that you know how the branches of government work, and that partisan politics has no place in this judicial nominations process. (You can even use the three-legged stool as an example.) 

Before you go to recess, here is Senator Grassley's contact information:
Chuck Grassley (R-IA) 
135 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington D.C. 20510 
(202) 224-3744 
http://www.grassley.Senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm