Senate Democrats Reveal Proposed Judiciary Replacement For Feinstein

The Senate’s top Democrat revealed his pick to temporarily replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on the Senate Judiciary Committee as Republicans rally against such a swap aimed at ending the freeze on President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) named Ben Cardin, a Democrat who is the senior senator from Maryland, as the proposed stand-in.

Chuck Schumer says he will try to temporarily replace Dianne Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee with Ben Cardin pic.twitter.com/iKtqmiDziv

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) April 18, 2023

Feinstein, the Senate’s oldest member at the age of 89, announced in early March that she had been hospitalized in San Francisco after being diagnosed with a case of shingles. Facing calls from some fellow Democrats to resign, Feinstein asked Schumer last week to temporarily replace her on the Judiciary Committee while she continues to recover.

The proposed shuffle is being characterized as a short-term move. Schumer told reporters on Tuesday that he spoke to Feinstein a few days ago and both of them hope that she will return to the Senate “very soon.”

A number of Republicans have voiced opposition to the swap, and hours after he proposed Cardin, Schumer’s request for unanimous consent was met with an objection by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). If Democrats press the issue, replacing Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee would require 60 votes in the narrowly-divided Senate.

At least 10 Republicans need to join with Democrats and independents, but they would do so at the risk of breaking with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who just returned to Capitol Hill himself after recovering from a fall.

“Senate Republicans will not take part in sidelining a temporary absent colleague off a committee just so Democrats can force through their very worst nominees,” McConnell said on Tuesday, per NPR.

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Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) recently conceded that Feinstein’s absence is holding up the ability of the panel, which is split 10-10 along party lines without her, to advance Biden’s nominees to federal courts around the nation. “I can’t consider nominees in these circumstances because a tie vote is a losing vote in committee,” he told CNN.

Feinstein announced in February she would not seek re-election in 2024, and three prominent House Democrats — Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee — have announced campaigns to replace Feinstein in the Senate. Cardin is expected to announce whether he will seek another six-year term in 2024 in the near future, according to POLITICO.

Another aspect of the current debate about Biden’s nominees is whether to uphold the “blue slip” tradition in which home-state senators can effectively put a stop to a nominee if they do not support the individual. This issue is exemplified by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), who refuses to return her blue slip for district court nominee Scott Colom.

Schumer said Durbin and the Judiciary Committee “are considering” what to do about the issue.

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