Warren: If GOP Continues To Filibuster, Senate Has 'Duty' To Change Rules

 TPM Livewire 

 Catherine Thompson – November 13, 2013, 1:58 PM EST

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called for a Senate rules change Wednesday, calling GOP shutouts of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees "naked attempts to nullify the results of the last presidential election."
Warren blasted her Republican colleagues on the Senate floor for their filibuster of Nina Pillard, the third of Obama's nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to have her confirmation stalled.

"If Republicans continue to filibuster these highly qualified nominees for no reason other than to nullify the President's constitutional authority, then senators not only have the right to change the filibuster rules, senators have a duty to change the filibuster rules," Warren said.
The freshman senator also turned the "court-packing" allegation leveled against President Barack Obama by the GOP on its head, accusing Senate Republicans of attempting to "rig" the lower court in favor of business interests.
"In the next five years, the D.C. Circuit will decide some of the most important cases of our time," she said, "including cases that will decide whether Wall Street reform will have real bite or whether it will just be toothless … These big industry players want business-friendly judges to help them out."
Warren struck that same populist chord in September when she warned of what she called "pro-corporate" trend in the Supreme Court, citing an academic study that counted the five conservative-minded judges currently sitting on the high court among the top 10 pro-corporate justices in a half century.
[h/t Huffington Post]
Correction: This post has been updated to reflect that Nina Pillard was the third of Obama's nominees to the D.C. Circuit to be blocked by Senate Republicans.