While President Obama has been successful in getting women and minorities confirmed to federal judicial posts, as this NPR story shows, two nominees in Wisconsin, a woman and an African-American, are going nowhere. That?s because of a Senate procedure that allows a single senator to thwart judicial nominees that would serve in the senator?s home state.
In this case that senator is Ron Johnson, a Republican businessman who narrowly defeated veteran Democrat Russ Feingold last fall. Johnson has vowed to block the confirmations of former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler and UW law professor Victoria Nourse.