Why 60 is the magic Senate number

Defying the Constitution?
“We had an intervening election after the (Paez) nomination was first made, and President Clinton won (in 1996),” complained Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., on March 8, 2000. “It is indefensible to hold a nomination hostage for his entire second term. It defies the clear constitutional prerogatives of the duly elected president to choose nominees to the bench and the duty of the Senate to say yes or no.”

“I plead with my colleagues to move judges with alacrity, vote them up or down,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. during the Paez saga. “This delay makes a mockery of the Constitution.”

Eventually the Republicans relented and Paez won confirmation.

But both Feingold and Schumer voted to filibuster ten of Bush’s judicial nominees in 2003 and 2004.

By 2005, Democrats were saying they regarded the 60-vote requirement as the new threshold for judicial nominations, even though the Constitution has no such super-majority requirement.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., explained to a rally held by the group Moveon.org in 2005: “We think you ought to get nine votes over the 51 required. That isn’t too much to ask for such a super-important position. There ought to be a super-vote, don’t you think so?”

Finally in 2005, a bipartisan group of 14 senators, seven from each party, including Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, reached an accord in which they agreed to not use filibusters to block judicial nominees, except in “extraordinary circumstances,” a phrase left undefined.

Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama did not join the bipartisan compromise.

In fact, Obama voted to continue filibusters of Bush judicial nominees Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor in 2005 — but this was after the bipartisan compromise, so only 31 Democratic senators joined with Obama in that losing cause.

If Obama wins the presidency, Republicans might want to filibuster some of his judicial nominees, but of course they’ll be powerless to do that if the Democrats get that magic 60.

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