In recent years, presidential nominations of federal judges have become tangled in the politics of Washington. Locally, there are two federal court nominations stalled in process, Lawrence Vilardo and Denise O'Donnell.
Added to budget pressures which blocked creation of new judgeships and cut staff, the courts are bogging down with hundreds of thousands of civil cases stalled.
"It stresses and stretches further the people who are already working in the system," said Interim UB Law School Dean Jim Gardner.
"It constrains the ability of the system to process cases. it makes it more difficult to take on new cases. It makes everybody wait longer for the outcomes of the cases that they are involved in."
Both New York Senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, say there are likely to be some confirmations and a district judges was confirmed on Monday. Schumer says he doesn't expect any appeals court judges to be confirmed although some district judges may be.
