Senate calls truce on Obama’s judicial nominees

Senate leaders have averted, for now, a showdown over a group of President Obama’s judicial nominees, reaching a tentative agreement that would allow the chamber to pick up the pace on confirmations.

The truce comes after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took the unusual move of trying to force a vote Wednesday on 17 nominees who had bipartisan backing but faced opposition from some Republicans trying to stall the president’s picks for the federal courts.

Under the agreement, the Senate will instead work to confirm 14 judicial nominees by May 7 — not as many as Democrats sought, but a schedule that would require about three confirmation votes a week while the Senate is in session, more than has been the norm.

Two of those in the agreement are from Los Angeles: Jacqueline H. Nguyen, a nominee for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, and Michael Walter Fitzgerald, who has been nominated for a U.S. District Court.

“It was something that, like all matters we do here legislatively, [was] an effort to work out a compromise,” Reid said.

Democrats were eager to show Republicans as obstructing Obama’s efforts even in areas where there is broad agreement. Overcoming a GOP-led filibuster of Obama’s judicial picks could have dragged on for weeks under Senate procedures.

But the agreement covers only a small number of the vacancies in the federal courts. There are 81 vacancies, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and 39 nominees are pending. Obama has been criticized by advocates for the judiciary for not moving fast enough to nominate candidates — a complaint echoed by Republicans even as they block some of those he has nominated.

Republicans had threatened to hold up Obama’s nominees to protest the administration’s appointment of Richard Cordray to head the new consumer protection bureau over their objections when Obama said Congress was not in session.

GOP leaders, though, were reluctant to be seen as blocking Obama’s judicial picks, especially at a time when voters are more concerned about jobs and the economy.

Sen. Mitch McConnellof Kentucky, the Republican leader, wanted to avert a showdown and move on to consideration of a House-passed jobs bill that has wide bipartisan support in Congress but has run into opposition from consumer protection groups.

“We have reached an understanding here,” McConnell said.

If the deal holds, confirmation votes would be held on 12 District Court nominees and two Circuit Court nominees by early May.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com