Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, you owe it to Missouri to confirm federal court nominees | Opinion
Now that the session of the Senate has essentially concluded, it is past time for Missouri Republican Sens. Josh Hawley, a long serving Judiciary Committee member, and Eric Schmitt to discharge their constitutional responsibility for helping nominate and confirm well qualified, mainstream candidates to three current and one future vacancies on the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Missouri.
The senators’ neglect of this critical responsibility deprives the court, judges and court staff of the valuable resources that each needs to smoothly fulfill duties for expeditiously, inexpensively and fairly resolving criminal and civil litigation. This situation is exacerbated in civil suits, because the Speedy Trial Act mandates that criminal cases receive expeditious disposition, particularly trials. These phenomena require that federal jurists delay civil suits generally and make litigants wait interminably on trial dates.
The Missouri senators must promptly cooperate with President Joe Biden, as well as with all their Democratic and Republican Senate colleagues. For instance, the White House has collaborated with many GOP senators who represent red states to fill these open court posts with highly qualified centrist jurists. One example was Indiana GOP Sens. Mike Braun and Todd Young, who coordinated with the administration to smoothly confirm a prominent 7th Circuit judge and a respected Southern District jurist, while the Senate will soon confirm two very experienced Northern District nominees. Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz similarly worked with the White House to appoint a well-qualified, moderate 5th Circuit judge, to nominate an experienced Southern District magistrate judge whom the Senate will elevate in early January, and recently to help select a pair of Western District nominees. Louisiana Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy also cooperated with the White House to appoint one well qualified, mainstream 5th Circuit jurist and three fine district judges.
Biden and the razor-thin Democratic Senate majority have nominated and confirmed record numbers of highly qualified, centrist jurists, who are diverse in terms of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ideology and experience. Democrats have redoubled selection efforts, because they could lose this narrow majority in 2024, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, now the minority leader, would drastically slow confirmations if the GOP captures the Senate majority, just as he and his Republican colleagues did in 2015-2016.
The above concerns regarding delays and resources in the Eastern District mean that Sens. Hawley and Schmidt must collaborate with Biden to promptly suggest excellent, moderate candidates for the Missouri district openings that lack nominees. Sens. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, and Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee Chair, should redouble their concerted endeavors to fill the vacancies in 2024. Durbin must convene hearings, which include the four Eastern District nominees, twice each month that the Senate is in session. The chair should also conduct robust discussions and votes soon after hearings for every nominee. Schumer then needs to convene rigorous floor debates and confirmation ballots quickly.
In short, Missouri’s senators must work together with Biden, Democratic and Republican Senate leaders and colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fill all Eastern District openings rapidly with strong centrist nominees for the good of their state’s federal courts, judges and staff, as well as litigants, who all deserve prompt, economical and fair resolution of their cases.
Carl Tobias is the Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia.
