Call on Cornyn & Hutchison to End Obstruction on Judicial Nominees

In America, if you have a dispute, you go to court, and within a reasonable amount of time, you should be able to get a decision. Right now, that's not the case in most of Texas. There are 5 emergency judicial districts in Texas and we need your help to make sure justice is no longer delayed or denied in the Lone Star State.

Call Senator John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison toll free at 1-866-338-5720 and urge them to end the obstruction and give an up or down vote on judicial nominees. However, if you can't call, please e-mail Senator John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison right now and tell them to support Costa and Guaderrama.

Ask our U.S. Senators to support their nominees - Greg Costa (pending over 180 days, seat vacant over 640 days) and David Guaderrama (pending over 180 days, seat vacant over 1110 days).

Republicans are blocking so many judicial nominees that they've left half of all Americans -- over 160 million people -- without enough judges to handle the caseload. It shouldn't be so hard for women, small businesses, and families trying to hold big corporations accountable to have their day in court.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has offered a solution. Congress can solve this problem right now by voting to confirm highly qualified judges with bipartisan support. Senator Reid has filed cloture asking that these nominees get a fair up or down vote. It is up to Republicans to choose between further obstruction and giving our courts the judges they need to function.

Think Progress summed up the issue perfectly:

It is clear from recent cases that no matter the issue—health care, immigration, environment, marriage equality, consumer protections, ethics—the judiciary will continue to make decisions that affect the lives of hardworking Americans as well as the success of the progressive legislative agenda. Every issue progressives fight for ends up in the courts. If you’re a progressive and you care about progressive issues, who gets a lifetime appointment to the federal courts should matter to you.

Conservatives know the courts matter, which is why they are doing everything in their power to stop the president from appointing more judges.

[…]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that Senate Democrats had had enough.  Reid threw down the gauntlet and announced that he was filing cloture petitions (the procedural maneuver needed to halt a filibuster in the Senate) on an unprecedented 17 judicial nominees.

Now it’s up to Republicans to choose whether they will finally allow votes on these nominees right away or whether they will instead waste hundreds of hours of the Senate’s time on procedural votes.

At this point, Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy and Richard Blumenthal have been fighting for us on the Senate floor. Our elected U.S. Senators have come out in support of their own nominees to the press, in letters to President Obama, and have been historically on the right side of this issue. Now they need to fight for Texans and stop delaying and denying justice to millions of Texans.

To see the faces of the judicial nominees, where they are from and how long they have been waiting for an up or down vote, Alliance for Justice has put together this flyer. Below are links to additional research and information that includes quotes from Sens. Cornyn & Hutchison on the importance of not obstructing judicial appointments, the historic obstructionism Republicans are currently practicing, and a breakdown of judicial vacancies in Texas.

More information from Progress Texas:

• Take Action to End Obstructionism of Judicial Nominees
• Reid Will File To End Seventeen GOP Filibusters Of President Obama’s Judicial Nominees
• TFJ: Facts and Figures on Texas Judicial Vacancies
• TFJ: Republican Statements Against Filibusters
• TFJ: Obstruction by the Numbers
• Progress Texas Primer on Judicial Emergency Districts