A GOP-controlled Senate could grind Biden's judicial nominations to a halt
CBSN
Washington — President Biden's first year in office set him apart from his five most recent predecessors with the swift pace of judicial confirmations by the evenly divided Senate, and his second year brought a historic bipartisan confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, who will be the first Black woman to serve on the high court.
But the confirmation pipeline across the federal judiciary could grind to a halt if the GOP regains control of the Senate in the November midterm elections and its members deem nominees put forth by Mr. Biden to be too liberal, as Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina indicated this week.
"If we get back the Senate and we are in charge of this body and there [are] judicial openings, we will talk to our colleagues on the other side," said Graham, who led the Senate Judiciary Committee during Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation in 2020. "But if we're in charge, [Jackson] would not have been before this committee. You would've had somebody more moderate than this."
