2004—Continuing their unprecedented campaign of judicial filibusters, Senate Democrats exert their minority power to prevent cloture on President George W. Bush’s nominations of Richard A. Griffin, David W. McKeague, and Henry W. Saad to supposed Michigan seats on the Sixth Circuit. Griffin, first nominated in May 2003, and McKeague, first nominated in November 2001, are finally confirmed in June 2005. Saad, never confirmed, finally withdraws his nomination in March 2006.
2013—Barely three weeks after the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor, federal district judge Timothy S. Black enters an order barring the state of Ohio from applying its laws that prohibit recognition of same-sex “marriages.” Contending that “This is not a complicated case,” Black simply ignores those parts of Windsor that recognize the broad authority of each state to define and regulate marriage within its borders.
Black’s one-sided reading of Windsor will quickly be repeated by other judges.