A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday could help Texas’ federal court system begin tunneling out of a years-long logjam created as several benches in the state have sat vacant for years. The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet to consider five Obama administration nominees for federal district court seats, including three in the Northern District of Texas, one in the Western District of Texas and one in the Eastern District of Texas. But even the most optimistic court observers and legal scholars note that — if eventually confirmed by the upper chamber — the five judges won’t completely solve a shortage they say has been exacerbated by Texas’ Republican Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. Critics argue that the senators have played politics with the seats and done little to encourage the full Senate to approve judges, leading some vacancies to linger for years. In all, there are 10 federal court vacancies in Texas that the federal government considers “emergencies” based on the backlog

Source: Texas Public Radio