A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court, voting 2-1 on partisan lines, has struck down the EPA’s “good neighbor” air pollution rule, which attempted to protect Eastern states from upwind pollution from Midwest and Southern states via tougher pollution laws. A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down a key Obama administration air pollution rule [...]

Senate Republicans believe that no more judicial nominees should be confirmed for the balance of the year until the elections, citing something called the Thurmond rule, which sets an arbitrary deadline for election-year confirmations. So the withheld enough votes to deny 60-vote confirmation of a judge so conservative he was acceptable to Oklahoma’s Senators.

The Ninth Circuit decision on the Prop 8 matter underlines the importance of judicial nominations in our political system, and the stunning lack of emphasis that the current Administration has put on it. In a new report liberated by Steven Aftergood, the Congressional Research Service took a look at judicial vacancies, finding that, at the beginning of 2012, the federal judiciary had more open seats than they did when President Obama first came into office.