Senate did not ignore Obama on judges
A letter on the Daily Herald's Opinion page on Nov. 9 entitled "The full picture on packing the court" didn't live up to its billing.
The writer claimed that Obama "nominated over a hundred persons for federal judgeships, but Mitch McConnell" announced he "would not consider any nominee of the Obama administration. And he didn't."
Federal district, appeals, and Supreme Court judges are nominated by the president, but require Senate confirmation. McConnell has been the Senate Republican leader since before Obama's first term.
According to Wikipedia, Obama nominated 325 folks to the above courts who were confirmed by the Senate (including two Supreme Court justices).
Trump nominated, and the Senate confirmed, 218 judges to those courts (three are Supreme Court justices).
By my Wikipedia count, during the Obama years, 222 (68%) of the President's nominees were confirmed unanimously or by voice vote. Voice votes in the Senate are typically only undertaken when support is overwhelming.
Only 49 (15%) of Obama's nominees received 20 or more nay votes.
During Trump's term, only 50 (23%) of his nominees were confirmed unanimously or by voice votes.
One hundred eight (49.5%) of Trump's nominees received 20 or more nays.
Except for their opposition to his nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, the Republicans were overwhelmingly supportive of Obama's judicial nominees compared with the reactions of the Democrats to Trump's.
Chris Ellis
Palatine