Is Obama trying to stack the courts with liberals?

President Obama is planning to launch an aggressive push to get his judicial nominees through the Senate by simultaneously naming three judges to a key federal court, reports Michael D. Shear at The New York Times. And Republicans aren't happy about it, claiming that the president is trying to "stack" the judiciary with liberals.

By trying to fill all three vacancies on the 11-member U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit at the same time, Obama "will effectively be daring Republicans to find specific ground to filibuster all the nominees," says Shear.

The D.C. court is often called the second-most important in the country, after the Supreme Court. It has four judges appointed by Democrats — now that Obama's first nominee, Sri Srinivasan, was confirmed last week — and four named by Republicans. However, an overwhelmingly right-leaning pool of retired judges still hearing cases gives it a clear conservative bent.

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In the last four years, the court has overturned Obama's initiatives on the environment, labor issues, and more, and liberals are pressuring him to do more to fill the vacancies and leave his mark on the court. But Obama's judicial nominees have been bottled up by the GOP, which is making unprecedented use of the filibuster to keep Obama from filling vacancies.

As a result, news of a tougher approach has been welcomed by some liberals, particularly if it leads to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) using the "nuclear option," which would entail sidestepping the filibuster entirely to force the nominees through. "For those hoping for a more progressive federal judiciary, there's a lot to like in this plan,"" says Steve Benen at MSNBC. "Indeed, it's arguably overdue."

Republicans say this isn't a fight over Senate rules or minority intransigence. They are painting it as a battle to prevent Obama from "stacking" the court, even though there are vacancies to be filled.

And they have their own plan to deal with the D.C. court. Under the GOP plan, the vacancies on the bench would be eliminated. That would leave the court split between four liberal appointees and four conservative ones, with retired judges preserving its conservative tilt. The open spots would be transferred to other courts.

Democratic aides reportedly say the proposal amounts to a naked attempt at court-rigging, akin to Franklin D. Roosevelt's failed attempt to change the size of the Supreme Court.

However, Jonathan S. Tobin at Commentary argues that Democrats are being hypocritical and that Obama is trying to radically change a court that has acted as a check on his agenda. "But that ambition is running head on into the determination of the Senate's Republican minority to use the filibuster rules to prevent a radical shift to the left in the judiciary," he says.

With opinions so sharply divided, this is shaping up to be an epic battle. Greg Sargent at The Washington Post warns that the nuclear option could become a reality: