After President Trump was elected, there was a huge increase in blocking judicial nominees. Thomas Jipping writes:
One year ago, a shocking headline greeted readers of these pages: “Opposition to Judicial Nominees Skyrocketed from 3 to 70 Percent After Trump Took Office.” As this new Heritage Foundation report documents, things have gotten even worse.
That headline referred to the fact that, before President Trump took office, only 3 percent of judicial nominees encountered any opposition at all — not even a single negative vote in the Senate. Recently, however, such opposition jumped to 70 percent by last year and more than 75 percent today.
That’s not all. The column noted that more than 40 percent of all Senate votes against confirmation of judicial nominations, and nearly 40 percent of all votes to filibuster them, had been cast against Trump nominees. Those totals are now 51.3 percent and 53.6 percent, respectively. And yes, that counts all votes cast by all senators on all nominations to life-tenured courts in all of American history.
[Thomas Jipping, “After Trump Took Office, Judicial Nominee Obstruction Skyrocketed From 3 To 75 Percent,” The Federalist, July 10]