Obama tries to speed up approval of judges

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is trying to change the face of a federal judiciary that has a long tradition of white men passing judgment on parties from all walks of life - if he can get his nominees past the Senate.

Republicans have used the powers accorded the Senate minority party to slow Obama's influence on the federal bench. But recent changes to Senate rules suggest the process may begin to move faster, at least at the lower, U.S. District Court level.

Under a recent bipartisan agreement, the Senate will limit debate on district court judge nominees to two hours, far below the 30 hours that used to be allowed. The hope is that it will curtail a tradition dating to the Clinton administration of the president's opposing party stalling judicial nominees.

Democrats also used the tactic on some of President George W. Bush's nominees, but the delays have been particularly long under Obama.

Nearly half of Obama's nominees have waited for more than 100 days for confirmation votes, while less than 10 percent of Bush's waited that long, according to White House figures. Most of the Bush nominees were approved in less than a month after clearing the Senate Judiciary Committee, the White House said.

Michael L. Shenkman, a fellow at the Center for Law and Politics at Columbia Law School who worked on Obama's judicial nominations team in the first two years of his presidency, calculated that district judge vacancies across the country represented more than 275 lost years of judicial work and $160 million in wasted public resources during Obama's first term.

"Having an empty bench means people don't get their cases heard," Shenkman said, adding that federal law requires judges to give priority to criminal cases, so civil cases can face repeated delays. "It makes litigation more frustrating and more expensive."

Nationwide, 90 out of 874 federal judgeships are vacant, with 31 of those vacancies labeled emergencies by the judiciary because of heavy caseloads. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved 13 of Obama's nominees Thursday.