WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate will remain in Democratic control for six more weeks, during which time Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has vowed to continue confirming President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees for lifetime appointments.
During President-elect Donald Trump’s first presidential term, the Senate’s then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made the confirmation of Trump’s judicial nominees the body’s “highest priority” and removed the cloture requirement for Supreme Court nominees that, effectively, entails a 60-vote threshold for confirmation.
In 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) led a successful effort to remove the cloture requirement for executive posts and judicial appointees below the Supreme Court during the Obama administration….