Sen. Santorum on Judicial Nominations

Majority Vote Should Trump Minority Rule : "the Democratic leadership has written the American people out of the Constitution's system for appointing judges. The people have only two methods for influencing the selection of federal judges: their votes for president and their votes for senator. In November they rejected the presidential candidate who vowed to impose an ideological litmus test on all judicial nominees, and they chose the one who promised to appoint men and women who would uphold the law. They voted out the Senate minority leader who devised these destructive judicial filibusters and returned a Republican Senate with an enlarged majority. Senate Democrats, however, have opted to disrespect the people's voice and continue their audacious and constitutionally groundless claims for minority rule.
If a senator opposes a nominee, that senator should go to the Senate floor and explain why -- to the American people and the Senate. The senator should try to convince 50 colleagues that they ought to vote against the nominee. And when the nomination comes to a vote, the senator should vote no.

For over 200 years, that was how senators opposed nominees. The time has come for the Senate to reestablish that tradition, to end these destructive judicial filibusters and to give all judicial nominees the up-or-down vote they deserve. "