Idaho Senator Mike Crapo will start his next term in Congress by joining the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Crapo already sits on four committees, Budget, Finance, Indian Affairs, as well as Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Now he joins the Judiciary Committee.
Crapo will be part of the group that has jurisdiction for judicial and executive nominations - everything from Attorney General to the nation’s highest court. Plus, many district and appeal courts. Crapo says he’s ready to weigh in on a new Supreme Court nominee, to replace Judge Antonin Scalia, who died last year.
“That nominee must follow in the model of Justice Scalia, looking first and foremost to the Constitution for guidance,” says Crapo.
Crapo says he’s also hopeful he can fill the state’s vacant federal judgeship with Idaho Judge David Nye. Nye’s nomination got a unanimous vote last year by the Judiciary Committee but it never came up for a full Senate vote. The vacancy means Idaho only has one full-time federal district judge.
Nationwide, there are more than 100 judicial vacancies that the Trump presidency will inherit after years of gridlock between President Obama and the Republican-controlled Senate.
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