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Very little public attention is being paid to a serious situation in the federal court system, which is that 93 of the 857 federal district and appeals court judgeships are vacant right now. That’s about 11%—an unacceptable number that is preventing deserving Americans from receiving justice.

Why are these judgeships vacant? Because members of Congress are deliberately putting up barriers to confirming highly qualified judicial candidates whose politics they might not agree with, as a political tactic. And as the court system becomes impossibly backlogged due to the lack of appointed judges, these members of Congress can turn around and talk about how inefficient and in need of reform our legal system is. Of course, none of these people will mention that their own obstructionist tactics are causing the inefficiency.

Because of the delays – an average 119 day confirmation process for each candidate -…judges face overwhelming caseloads and are forced to wait months or years for their cases to be heard. As the President, himself, explained, this means justice and fairness is delayed-and often denied- for those in need, from working mothers seeking timely compensation for their employment discrimination claims to communities hoping for swift injunction of corporate environmental polluters to small business owners seeking protection from unfair and anti-competitive practices. –Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

This divisive hobbling of the federal court system for political gain is an abomination, and Americans should be outraged. Click here to let your representatives know that you’re angry about this, and want it to stop.

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