Gang of 14 - Epilogue

Epilogue

In the 110th Congress, the Democrats possessed a 51-49 majority in the Senate. With the Democrats in control, the purpose of the Gang of 14 disappeared. Realizing that the Democrats no longer needed to resort to the filibuster to block judicial nominees, President Bush attempted to reconcile with the Senate Democrats by not renominating Boyle, Myers and Haynes in January 2007. As the new majority party, the Senate Democrats easily blocked several conservative appellate judicial nominees during the 110th Congress using traditional methods. Conservative appellate nominees like Peter Keisler, Robert J. Conrad and Steve A. Matthews were blocked in committee and never given a hearing. If a Supreme Court justice had chosen to retire during the 110th Congress, it would have been just as easy for the Democrats to have blocked his replacement in committee. Even if the replacement nominee had made it out of committee, then the Democrats still could have defeated him with a party-line vote. As it developed, no Supreme Court justice retired or died during the 110th Congress.

On November 17, 2009, two members of the Gang of 14 - Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Graham (R-SC) - voted against the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of David Hamilton, President Obama's pick for a vacant seat on the Seventh Circuit. At the time, neither Senator linked his vote to the "extraordinary circumstances" standard announced in the Gang's original agreement. Senator Graham indicated that he thought that Judge Hamilton's views were "so far removed from the mainstream" that a vote against cloture was warranted.