This morning, after ignoring the story for a week, the Free Press reports "GOP sets vote on U.S. judicial nominee - Michigan judge caught in Democrats' objections". As have other reports, this one says that the hearing for Judge Henry Saad will be held tomorrow. The fact that there is still nothing about it on the officially-published agenda for the Senate Judiciary Committee has confused matters on this issue.
As How Appealing points out, the Detroit News also has its first story in a week this morning. This one provides a graphic list of the vacancies on the Court and the pending nominations, and it also notes that not everyone agrees with the AOUSC that the Sixth Circuit is in a "crisis".
"I've been on the court going on six years, and I haven't seen much of a change," said [Judge Eric Clay, a Clinton nominee who was approved by the Senate in 1997]. "I think the contention that the work of the court is impeded by the vacancies is greatly exaggerated and overblown. For one thing, I don't think the court has ever had a full complement of judges filling all 16 spots in many, many years, and the court has still managed to get its work out."
The fact that there are several relatively young and active Sixth Circuit judges on senior status does take the edge off the sense of crisis. Nonetheless, as the News article observes, the Sixth Circuit is currently the slowest of the Circuits in getting cases resolved, and has traded off with the Ninth for that dubious honor for the last several years.
7:37:27 AM 
|
