GOP ends truce on judicial hopefuls

By Stephen Dinan
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The Washington Times
Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Senate Republicans on Tuesday filibustered one of President Obama’s appellate court nominees, ending a six-year truce and reigniting one of the bitterest recurring battles on Capitol Hill.

The 54-45 vote, almost entirely along partisan lines, blocked former New York Solicitor-General Caitlin Joan Halligan from getting a seat on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and put the final nail in the coffin of the 2005 agreement by the so-called “Gang of 14â€