Republican senators on Wednesday accused President Obama of trying to stack an influential U.S. appeals court with friendly judges in the hope they would approve forthcoming federal regulations.
In June, Obama named three lawyers to serve as judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which often weighs industry challenges to regulations issued by such agencies as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Wednesday's hearing was for Patricia Millett, a Washington lawyer in private practice who has argued 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, said Obama wants more Democratic-appointed judges on the court as he focuses on issuing regulations, including closely watched rules addressing climate change, which will almost certainly be subject to legal challenges that will be heard by the court.
The president is hoping to "stack the deck to his advantage," Lee said.
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz adopted a similar line, saying the White House is trying to "pack the court."
Senate Republicans acknowledged that Millett had strong credentials but said there was no need for additional judges on the court because the case load was not sufficiently high. The court currently has eight active judges, equally divided between Republican and Democratic appointees. The court has 11 judgeships in total but all the positions have not be filled since a brief period in 2005 when Republican George W. Bush was president. At that point, Republicans controlled the White House and Senate and Democrats said the court did not need additional judges.
The senior Republican on the committee, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, has introduced legislation that would strip the court of the three vacant seats, saying they are not needed.
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