Now that Idaho finally has a nominee for its vacant federal judgeship, state 6th District judge David Nye, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch is defending the lengthy, secretive process he and Sen. Mike Crapo followed over the past 19 months to vet potential nominees, saying anything else would have violated the U.S. Constitution. “I solicited advice from people whose judgment I trust, but nobody, nobody voted on this but me,” Risch said. “No commission, no group – I made the decision, as the Constitution requires.” Russell Wheeler, a fellow with the Brookings Institution, former deputy director of the Federal Judicial Center and an expert on the selection of federal judges, said, “That’s patently absurd”/Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise. More here.

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