Chief justice urges progress naming judges. (click title to entry - thank you)

Justice Roberts has offered an olive branch to President Obama prior to the State of the Union Address.  I believe that was rather magnanimous of him.  Seriously.  He has to reflect on the fact he has not made the best impression to President Obama beginning with his 2009 inauguration and oath of office.

So.

With Congress returning and there being one 'hold out' or another by the Republicans of the appointees to the court, it was decent of him to bring this to the legislature's attention.

The reform needed to 'tone down' the Plutocratic influence on the elections, especially those noted in 2010, should be taken up by the Senate soon after Janaury 5th so everyone knows the 'political ground rules' for the 2012 elections.

..."Each political party has found it easy to turn on a dime from decrying to defending the blocking of judicial nominations, depending on their changing political fortunes," Roberts said Friday in his year-end report. "This has created acute difficulties for some judicial districts. Sitting judges in those districts have been burdened with extraordinary caseloads."
There are more than 90 judicial vacancies in U.S. district and appellate courts. But only 60 nominees have been confirmed by the Senate for U.S. appellate and district courts in the past two years, with another 19 receiving no up-or-down vote.
Thirteen of the unconfirmed nominees received unanimous support from the Senate Judiciary Committee....