Reid warns GOP not to filibuster Halligan nomination to DC court

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republicans should not filibuster a vote on the confirmation of Caitlin Halligan to serve on the District of Columbia circuit court.

Reid filed a cloture motion on her nomination Monday, setting up a procedural vote for Wednesday morning. 

“If someone doesn’t want to vote for her, have them vote no, but don’t stop her from having an up-or-down vote out here,” Reid said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “If my Republican colleagues choose to filibuster Ms. Halligan’s confirmation a second time, their naked partisanship will be exposed."

Reid said that Halligan was filibustered two years ago when the D.C. circuit court had only two vacancies. Now the court has four vacancies.

Reid said that President Obama is the first president not to have a single nominee confirmed to the D.C. circuit court. He added that it wasn’t because Obama’s nominees weren’t qualified.

“If a truly exceptional candidate such as Caitlin Halligan isn’t qualified to be a judge in the United States of America, I don’t know who is,” Reid said.

Reid warned that if Republicans once again filibuster her nomination, it would show “bad faith” on their part.

Some GOP members have criticized Halligan’s views on gun control and abortion as too extreme.

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