The U.S. Senate broke filibuster and today confirmed the presidential appointment of Timothy Brooks, a Fayetteville lawyer, to a federal district judgeship. The nomination had been pending for months, delayed by a general Republican roadblock to judicial confirmation.
The cloture vote to end obstruction of a confirmation vote for Brooks passed 59-41. His confirmation vote followed without a dissenting vote, 100-0.
Earlier, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy blasted the Republican obstruction again. It was clearly illustrated first by a 98-0 vote to confirm a Puerto Rican judge after 41 Republican senators voted to continue a filibuster on the nomination. Before a recent Democratic-backed rule change, those 41 votes would have been enough to block the confirmation vote, notes Glenn Sugameli, who follows the judicial process for Judging the Environment and sends me information along the way.
At 3 p.m. the Senate began another round of votes, each with debate possible. Finally, Brooks nomination was done about 5:30 p.m. D.C. time.
Sen. John “Dr. No” Boozman was among the Republicans who continued to filibuster non-controversial nominations today, except the Arkansas nomination. (He Tweeted he was proud to support Brooks.)
