EDITORIAL: Republicans should finish job on judicial nominees

Republicans in the House and Senate will be relegated to minority status beginning Jan. 3. They’d be wise to use their last few weeks in the majority productively.

Specifically, there are currently 28 federal judicial vacancies. President Donald Trump has 11 pending nominations for existing openings, with another five awaiting confirmation for future vacancies, Newsweek reports. The GOP leadership should move to push those nominees along in the Senate while also urging the White House to send over as many additional nominees as possible.

Mr. Trump made great strides over his two terms selecting judges who recognize the importance of preserving our liberties and respecting the Founders’ skepticism of an overactive federal government. To this point, Congress has approved 290 of Mr. Trump’s judicial nominees — including 57 during his second term — the fifth highest of any president. Along with tax relief and regulatory reform, it is a cornerstone of his administration’s accomplishments.

Time is limited — Congress will be in session for just five weeks between now and the end of the year — and Republicans no doubt have many priorities, including legislation to avoid a government shutdown and permitting reform. But filling judicial vacancies should be near the top of the list.

“Senate Republicans either finish the judicial job now,” Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project, wrote this weekend in an op-ed for Fox News, “or they leave these seats open for the left if Democrats win back the White House in 2028.”

The task isn’t impossible. Three nominees are already on the Senate floor, the website Balls and Strikes reports, while four are awaiting a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Another 10 nominees still need hearings. There is time for them to move forward, Balls and Strikes notes, “and that’s partly because Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley is breaking more norms to speed things up.” The committee has slated hearings for back-to-back weeks later this month.

Some demoralized Republicans may be tempted to sporadically attend any lame-duck sessions, given the holidays and the thumping the party took last week. That would be a mistake, given the GOP’s slim majorities. It would be a disservice to let apathy trump an opportunity to appoint up to two dozen more federal judges who embrace the nation’s founding principles.

Given the extent of their midterm thrashing, it may be years before Republicans regain control of Congress. Squandering opportunity over the next seven weeks would only compound their electoral failure.