Several left-leaning political groups in Florida sent a letter to Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson this week urging them to quickly confirm a slate of judicial nominees.
President Obama nominated five judges to fill vacancies in federal courts in Florida about a month ago.
The nominations couldn’t come a moment too soon. Mark Ferrulo with Progress Florida said because of the vacancies, there’s a massive backlog of federal cases.
Ferrulo said judicial confirmations in the Senate are typically political, but resistance from Republicans these days is at all-time high.
“Floridians and all Americans have a right to their day in court and timely access to the courts is just critical for a healthy functioning Democracy,” he said. “We just need Senator Rubio in particular to end his obstruction of the president’s nominees to the federal bench.”
Rubio blocked the confirmation of what would’ve been the first openly gay African-American federal judge. That nomination was eventually pulled.
In the latest slate of nominees, Obama chose another openly gay African American. Rubio recently told NPR he does not anticipate having an objection to moving forward on any of these recent nominations.
Ferrulo says federal courts are particularly crucial in Florida, where one party dominates both the legislative and executive branches of government.
Many controversial laws—including a 2011 law Ferrulo says restricted voting rights-- have wound up in court in the past few years.
