Harry Reid may have set off an unprecedented constitutional crisis Thursday with his decision to allow the Senate to approve judicial nominees without 60 votes. A little historical background is in order.<\/p>\n
When Reagan was President, Democrats vowed to block any Reagan appointment to the Supreme Court on the principle that no one acceptable to Reagan would be acceptable to them.\u00a0 They did block the nomination of Robert Bork.\u00a0 Reagan was forced to choose \u201cmoderates\u201d because Democrats would never have confirmed a true conservative.<\/p>\n
Republicans, however, did not block liberal Supreme Court appointments when Clinton was President.\u00a0 That is how we ended up with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Neither candidate was considered acceptable on ideological grounds by Republicans, but Republicans acknowledged that elections have consequences.\u00a0 They decided that in spite of what Democrats did when Reagan was President, Republicans would allow Clinton to appoint anyone who was legally qualified.\u00a0 Republicans could have blocked those appointments without resorting to a filibuster, because they had majority control of the Senate.<\/p>\n
When George W. Bush became President, Democrats immediately began to block nominations on ideological grounds again.\u00a0 Apparently liberals believe that elections have consequences only when a liberal is elected. \u00a0Republicans received zero credit for confirming Bader and Breyer. \u00a0Democrats were determined to block both John Roberts and Sam Alioto.\u00a0 That is when Republicans considered the \u201cnuclear option.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Then Senator Obama and Senator Harry Reid were outraged at the thought of this and gave angry speeches about how changing the Senate rules would be a threat to democracy.\u00a0 Ultimately Roberts and Alioto were confirmed after John McCain organized the gang of eight to by-pass the filibuster.<\/p>\n
What makes this different and particularly dangerous is that Obama wants to fill three slots on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.\u00a0 There are current 11 slots with eight of them currently occupied.\u00a0 Obama wants to fill the three open slots.\u00a0 Republicans believe the court is adequately staffed for the current workload.\u00a0 They do not see the need for additional judges.\u00a0 Currently the court is evenly balanced with 4 Democrats and 4 Republicans.<\/p>\n
This court is extremely important because it handles the initial legal challenges to regulations and executive orders. That obviously includes ObamaCare.\u00a0 If President Obama is able to add three new judges, there is a very good chance that the judges making the initial ruling on critical decisions will be likely to rubber stamp the administration\u2019s position.\u00a0 In other words, Obama is trying to stack the court and Harry Reid just helped him do it. This also stopped the filibuster by Lindsay Graham that was forcing this administration to answer questions on Benghazi. \u00a0 The following article in The Hill explains this:<\/p>\n
Senate poised to tip regs court in Obama\u2019s favor<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n