The title of the post was the headline of an April 15 staff editorial on PennLive.com, criticizing Senate Republicans’ “absolute fetish of blocking President Barack Obama’s judicial appointments – an obstructionist posture that has burdened benches across the nation, particularly in Pennsylvania.” One of the obstructed nominations mentioned, of course, is that of Rebecca Ross Haywood to the Third Circuit.

From the editorial:

Reporter Rob Hotakainen writes that the Senate has approved just 17 judicial nominations since Republicans took control in 2015. That’s fewer than half the 40-plus circuit and district court nominees approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate during a similar period during George W. Bush’s presidency. In fact, last year saw the fewest judicial confirmations since 1960.

So much for Republican majority demonstrating it can govern.

The result is an overburdened federal judiciary for which there is little hope of assistance any time soon. That’s bad news for Pennsylvania, which has four judicial appointees awaiting votes – tied with Texas for the most in the nation.

Otherwise, Haywood’s nomination has been getting disappointingly little media attention recently, as the Garland nomination continues to use up all the judicial-nomination-coverage oxygen.