by Jeremy Leaming
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) a champion of obstructing President Obama’s nominations to the federal bench and some to executive branch positions, has focused special attention on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The D.C. Circuit is a significant court that hears high-profile national security concerns and cases regarding federal regulation, among other lofty matters. Patricia Wald, retired, served on the august Circuit court for 20 years, including 
five as its chief judge. She noted in a piece for The Washington Post, “Aside from the U.S. Supreme Court, it resolves more constitutional questions involving separation of powers and executive prerogatives than any court in the country.”
The eleven-member court has four vacancies and President Obama has yet to fill one of them, because of Senate obstructionism. Senate Republicans twice scuttled Obama’s nomination of Caitlin Halligan to fill one of the Court’s vacancies. Some pundits say too much focus is placed on increasing obstructionism and grope for other excuses for the federal bench’s high vacancy rate. (See JudicialNominations.org for more on the vacancies.) But those pundits are simply uniformed or disingenuous. Republicans, led by the ringleader of obstruction, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-K.Y.) have stalled nominees to the Circuit courts and even some to the federal district courts. At The Dish, Andrew Sullivan has blasted the GOP for its rampant obstructionism, in reporting on a Party that has become increasingly hostile to governing.
The D.C. Circuit with its four Republican appointees and three Democratic appointees has eagerly invalidated regulations to protect the environment, which is good for corporations, bad for humans, and earlier this year issued an opinion re-writing the president’s recess appointment power. Several of the D.C. Circuit's judges are also on senior status, which means they have much more flexibility in what cases they participate, and a greater chance exists that a three-judge panel will more often be made up of three Republican appointees. It’s a Court that caters to corporate interests, which is likely one, if not the compelling reason, Grassley and other Republicans are striving to keep Obama from placing judges on the Court.
Grassley a part of the apparatus that blocked Halligan has not, so far, stood in the way of another nominee to the D.C. Circuit, Sri Srinivasan. But Grassley is pushing legislation that would cut the number of judges on the bench, signaling an effort to make sure the president has no more chances to shape the make-up of the D.C. Circuit. Grassley would move judgeships to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Part of Grassley’s push entails the canard that the D.C. Circuit has a light caseload. The Constitutional Accountability Center’s Judith E. Schaeffer in post for the group’s Text & History blog blasted Grassley’s effort as a “partisan sham.” She continued, adding that the Grassley effort amounted to “a ‘mass filibuster’ of President Obama’s future nominees to this critical circuit court. Senator Grassley’s bill is nothing more than a ploy to give cover to Senate Republicans who have no intention of letting a Democratic president fill those three vacancies on the D.C. Circuit.”
The right-wing editorial board of The Wall Street Journal has also joined Grassley’s cause. In a May 20 editorial, it apes Grassley’s talking points, saying the D.C. Circuit “doesn’t need the judges. The D.C. Circuit is among the most underworked court in the federal system.”
rinivasan
as since been adopted at least partially by 34 states, a non-partisan commission (usually with close ties to the state bar) reviews candidates for a judicial vacancy, and produces a list of people from which the governor can make an appointment. If the governor doesn’t make an appointment, the selection committee can put a judge on the bench itself. The only popular “check” on the process is a retention election that is typically held once the judge has completed one year of service.
ch, much longer. Caitlin Halligan, one of President Obama’s nominees to the influential Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has been