Barack Obama judicial appointment controversies

U.S. President Barack Obama nominated over 400 individuals for federal judgeships during his presidency. Of these nominations, Congress confirmed 329 judgeships, 173 during the 111th & 112th Congresses^[1] and 156 during the 113th and 114th Congresses.^[2]

Republicans successfully blocked some confirmations, either by filibuster or voting against cloture, even while the Democratic caucus held a Senate majority (2009–2015). Senator Chuck Grassley, then-ranking Republican on the judiciary, said that more nominees could have been considered if not for the January 2012 National Labor Relations Board recess appointments;^[3] the Supreme Court later unanimously ruled these January 2012 appointments illegal in NLRB v. Noel Canning.^[4]

In response, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid invoked the so-called parliamentary nuclear option on November 21, 2013, which changed the Senate's confirmation threshold for all executive nominees except for the Supreme Court.^[5] While Senate confirmations of Obama judicial nominees rose in 2014 following the "nuclear option," the greatest number of rejection of Obama nominees occurred following the 2014 United States Senate elections, where the Republicans gained nine seats and majority control of the chamber. Obama ultimately nominated 70 individuals for 104 different federal judgeships during this Congress, with 20 confirmations.^[6]

With the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016 in the beginning of a presidential election year, the Republican majority in the Senate made it their stated policy to refuse to consider any nominee to the Supreme Court, arguing that the next president should be the one to appoint Scalia's replacement.^[7] Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the open Supreme Court seat, but the Senate did not consider the nomination.