After more than a year and a stall tactic and procedural obstacles, the Senate failed to close debate and continue to vote up or down the nomination of impeccably qualified lawyers, Caitlin Halligan, United States Court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. By blocking the exemplary candidate qualifications with bipartisan support in the legal community, the Senate has put political qualifications and competence of candidates for the judiciary, threatening access to justice in this country.
If a candidate who is eminently feasible as Caitlin Halligan could not up or down vote in the Senate, how will any future candidate seriously considered? And how the nation will come out from the judicial crises that confront us?