Judicial Nominee Filibusters: The Facts

Republican obstructionists are quick to point out the filibusters used by Democrats to hold up some White House judicial nominees during the 108th and 109th Congress. But the comparison is unfair.

First, Republicans now filibuster far more than Democrats ever did. The Republicans in the current Congress are on pace to filibuster more than twice the historical high.

Second, Republicans have filibustered the entire Democratic agenda, while the Democrats’ filibusters were only on judicial nominees.

Third, the Democrats’ filibusters of judicial nominations were uncommon. Most nominees passed without controversy. Only a handful of extreme partisan judicial nominees received opposition. The filibuster was the resistance of last resort against a president who refused to compromise and ignored the constitutional mandate that judges be nominated with the “advice and consent” of the Senate.¹

The vast majority of Bush’s judicial nominees passed (290 of 338). Democrats only filibustered extremists.²
The Democrats passed a higher percentage of Bush’s judicial nominees than the Republicans passed of President Bill Clinton’s nominees (85 percent v. 72 percent).³

President	Confirmed	Not Confirmed	Total Nominated	Percent Confirmed
George W. Bush	290	48	338	85.8%
Bill Clinton	372	116	488	76.2%
George H.W. Bush	192	58	250	76.8%
Ronald Reagan	375	47	422	88.9%

1. U.S. Constitution, Article II, section 2.

2. Campaign for America’s Future analysis
http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/judicialnominations107.htm [1];
http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/judicialnominations108.htm [2];
http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/judicialnominations109.htm [3];
http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/judicialnominations.htm [4]

3. Campaign for America’s Future analysis
http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/judicialnominations107.htm [1];
http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/judicialnominations108.htm [2];
http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/judicialnominations109.htm [3];
http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/judicialnominations.htm [4]