GOP pushing legislation to eliminate DC court seats because Obama wants to fill those vacancies

[Cali_Democrat]

Republicans Charge Obama With Court-Packing For Trying To Fill Empty Seats
Posted: 05/28/2013 6:00 pm EDT

WASHINGTON -- Republican senators are fuming about President Barack Obama's attempt to fill empty seats on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, charging him with "court-packing" and alleging that his push to confirm nominees is all politics.

But not only is Obama not "court-packing" -- a term describing an attempt to add judges to a court with the goal of shifting the balance, not filling existing vacancies -- but Republicans' efforts to prevent Obama from appointing judges amount to their own attempt to tip the scales in their favor. What's more, some of the GOP senators trying to prevent his nominees from advancing previously voted to fill the court when there was a Republican in the White House.

As it stands, the powerful D.C. Circuit has 11 seats, three of which are vacant. Obama has signaled plans to put forward nominees for all three open slots as soon as this week. But Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and other Republicans are pushing legislation that would eliminate those seats and keep the court where it is: with eight judges, four of whom were appointed by Democrats and four of whom were appointed by Republicans.

Grassley has argued that the court simply doesn't need to have three more judges because it has a lighter workload than other circuit courts -- a stance that Democrats say overlooks the fact that the court is second in stature only to the Supreme Court and takes on particularly complex cases. But Grassley has also suggested that Obama is trying to pack the court.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/28/obama-court-packing_n_3347961.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[surrealAmerican]

1. Could they be any more transparent?

These clowns aren't fooling anybody. We all know what "packing the court" means, and this isn't it,

[Cali_Democrat]

2. They just make it up as they go along. n/t