Calls for Feinstein’s resignation grow as her absence stalls Biden judges

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein is facing fresh calls to resign in the wake of news reports detailing how her extended absence from the Senate since being diagnosed with shingles earlier this year is impacting her party’s ability to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees.

With Feinstein out, the Senate Judiciary Committee is deadlocked at 10-10, leaving the panel unable to advance judges that don’t garner support from Republican senators.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has come under fire in recent days for letting Republicans obstruct the nomination process via the informal “blue slip” process, which effectively gives senators veto power over appointments to court seats in their home states.

But Feinstein’s absence from the judiciary committee has also contributed to a marked slowdown in confirmations to open federal court positions, which Republicans rushed to fill when they controlled the Senate under former President Donald Trump.

The Senate confirmed Biden picks at a rapid clip during his first two years in office despite narrow margins in the chamber, but the pace has basically ground to a halt in recent months.

“Only two candidates for lifetime positions as judges appeared before the panel for its first judicial nominations hearing in five weeks [late last month], even though two of President Joe Biden’s other nominees were pending long enough to appear before it too,” Reuters reported.

Durbin himself has pointed to Feinstein’s absence as a primary reason for the log-jam, noting that a “tie vote is a losing vote on the committee” under current rules.

According to The American Constitution Society, a dozen of Biden’s judicial nominees are waiting for a Senate Judiciary Committee vote and six have yet to receive hearings before the committee.

“This is unacceptable,” The New Republic‘s Alex Shephard wrote Tuesday. “It is also, like Durbin’s continued inexplicable deference to blue slips, easily resolvable. It is time for Feinstein to resign her seat.”

“In fact, it’s long past time for her to bring her career to a close,” Shephard argued. “For the past several years, there have been escalating concerns that she is no longer up to the task of serving as a U.S. senator. In December 2020, Politico reported that there was ‘widespread’ fear among Democrats that Feinstein was starting to slip—which is understandable, given her age. (Feinstein, who has served in the Senate since 1992, is the oldest sitting senator.) Aides and other senate staffers told Politico that the then-87-year-old frequently ‘gets confused by reporters’ questions, or will offer different answers to the same question depending on where or when she’s asked,’ and appears ‘frail.'”

In February, shortly after her office put out a statement announcing she would not run for reelection in 2024, Feinstein told reporters that she had not decided whether to retire, prompting a staffer to tell her the statement was already released.

The California senator is set to leave office in January 2025, and several prominent Democrats—including Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter, and Adam Schiff—are vying for her seat.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.