After 14 months, Senate finally approves Latino judge

*It’s done, finally. Four hundred days after he was nominated by President Obama, Luis Felipe Resptrepo was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to sit on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. It took a change of Senate rules to make it happen. VL

By Jonathan Tamari, The Philadelphia Inquirer

WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed Philadelphia Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo to a federal appeals court seat Monday, ending a 14-month delay that had become a flash point in a national fight over the judiciary.

Restrepo, an Eastern District of Pennsylvania judge who will fill an emergency vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, was easily approved; the vote was 82-6.

But the year-plus wait for confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate transformed his nomination into a larger political issue.

Democrats accused Republicans – including Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania – of slowing Restrepo’s appointment as part of a broad effort to stall President Obama’s nominees, dampening his influence on the federal bench and leaving vacancies for the next president to fill.

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