On May 22, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a speech about judicial nominations in the U.S. Senate, calling out Senator Harry Reid for breaking his commitment to get judicial nominees a vote on the Senate floor. McConnell said there would be consequences, and on June 4 he proved it by slamming on the brakes in the Senate.

With the California Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling a couple weeks ago and the Second Amendment case about to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, the issue of judicial nominations could heat up. If so, it could deliver some swing states in the presidential election and in close Senate races.

The Constitution gives the president the authority to nominate judges, and the Senate the power to confirm them. The Founding Fathers made it clear that the president’s appointment power was broad and the Senate’s role was limited. The Senate was only to ensure that the president’s nominee was a person of fit character. As Alexander Hamilton explained in The Federalist No. 76, the Senate should rarely withhold approval and only when there are extreme reasons, such as the nomination of an unqualified friend or family member.

For 200 years that was usually the way it worked. The Senate only denied confirmation if there were problems with a nominee’s education, experience, or integrity. Otherwise nominees were confirmed regardless of their political beliefs. That’s why conservative Antonin Scalia was confirmed to the Supreme Court 98-0, and liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed 96-3. They were top graduates from top law schools, with stellar careers as federal appellate judges and good character.

But things have gone badly astray. Throughout President Bush’s tenure, Senate Democrats have increasingly slowed or stopped nominations not for reasons of qualification or character but because they suspected the nominee was conservative. It started in 2001 when Judge Charles Pickering was nominated to the Fifth Circuit. Judge Pickering had support from diverse groups in Mississippi, including that of local black civil rights groups for Pickering’s stand against the Klu Klux Klan. The accusation against him? That he was racist. The real reason for the opposition was that Pickering is an evangelical Christian.

Some good nominees, like William Pryor, Priscilla Owen and Brett Kavanaugh were eventually confirmed. Others, like Miguel Estrada, were not.

This unforgivable obstructionism continues today.

As Senator McConnell explained, Peter Keisler, the former assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil division, was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He’s been waiting for 700 days for an up or down vote. Attorney General Keisler graduated from Yale Law, clerked for the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court, served as associate White House counsel, and has had a phenomenal legal career.

Another is the chief judge of North Carolina’s Western District, Robert Conrad. The Fourth Circuit has so many vacancies that it has been designated a judicial emergency. Chief Judge Conrad was nominated to a seat on the Fourth Circuit, and has been waiting 300 days for a vote.

Senator Reid gave his word to Senator McConnell that at least three nominees would receive votes by Memorial Day. Senator Reid, working with Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, only allowed a vote on one nominee. Continued...