On August 7, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Chen to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California vacated by the resignation of Martin Jenkins.[4]
On October 15, 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-7 in a party-line vote to send Chen's nomination to the full Senate.[6][7]
On December 24, 2009, the U.S. Senate returned Chen's nomination to the president. Senator Feinstein in an interview published in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 29, 2009 reiterated her support for Judge Chen and her hope that the President would renominate Judge Chen for the U.S. District Court.[8] President Obama renominated Chen in January 2010, and the Senate Judiciary Committee approved his nomination on February 4, 2010.[6] On August 5, 2010, the U.S. Senate again returned Chen's nomination for failure to confirm.[9] President Obama renominated Chen to the seat on September 13, 2010 and again on January 5, 2011.[10]
On May 10, 2011, Chen was confirmed in a 56–42 vote.[1] He received his judicial commission on May 12, 2011.
Issues with his judicial nomination[edit]
The Los Angeles Times reported that Republicans had issues with the fact that judicial nominee Chen had previous connections to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), asserting based on a second instance that this appeared to be a thread running through Obama's nominations.[11][12] The Washington Times asserted that judicial confirmation had become a traditional partisan political battle for control of the courts and predicted that Chen would be confirmed.[13]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_M._ChenThis is how the Senate has been operating.
Democrats should take advantage of the new rules and confirm as many judicial nominees as possible in 2014.
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