Last week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) became the latest GOP lawmaker to fabricate a reason why he thinks Justice Elena Kagan must recuse from the Affordable Care Act litigation. On Friday, Senate Republicans escalated these frivolous assaults on Kagan’s ethical integrity even further — sending a letter signed by Sens. Mitch McConnell (KY), John Kyl (AZ), and Chuck Grassley (IA), the #1 and #2 Republicans in the Senate and the Senate GOP’s top lawmaker on the Judiciary Committee, to Attorney General Eric Holder laying out the exceptionally weak case for Kagan’s recusal:

Federal law requires recusal from a case if a judicial officer of the United States “has served in governmental employment and in such capacity participated as counsel, adviser or material witness concerning the proceeding or expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case or controversy.” 28 U.S.C. § 455(b)(3). In addition, a federal judge must disqualify herself from participating in a matter if her “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Id. at § 455(a). It appears that former Solicitor General Kagan’s participation in the Obama Administration’s defense of the PPACA may satisfy both requirements for recusal.

Then-Solicitor General Kagan acknowledged to the Senate Judiciary Committee last year that, in fact, she played a “role” in the Obama Administration’s defense of the PPACA, including attending “at least one meeting” that discussed the litigation. But she minimized her degree of involvement in the litigation, characterizing it as not “substantial.” Federal law, however, requires recusal if a government official participated in a matter that is the subject of litigation; it does not require the government official’s past participation in that same matter to be “substantial” (as determined by the self-same government official).

Unsurprisingly, the letter from McConnell and his colleagues misrepresents Kagan’s actions. Although Kagan did testify at her confirmation hearing that she was once present in a meeting where the existence of the Affordable Care Act litigation was brought up, she also testified under oath that she did no work whatsoever as an attorney on this litigation. Being in a meeting where a particular lawsuit is mentioned does not constitute participation “as counsel, adviser or material witness” on a case any more than attending a football game makes you a coach.

Moreover, even though a far-right group filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking evidence that Kagan must recuse from the Affordable Care Act litigation, this request proved so fruitless that even the National Review’s Carrie Severino — a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas — was forced to conclude that the documents uncovered by this request contain no evidence requiring Justice Kagan’s recusal.

Yet, while McConnell’s letter is clearly just the latest chapter in a witchhunt seeking to discredit Kagan, it is nonetheless significant simply because McConnell’s name is on it. Previously, only a few senators such as Sessions and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) — both of whom represent the Senate’s far right fringe — had jumped onboard the anti-Kagan witchhunt. The fact that McConnell, Kyl, and Grassley are now lighting up torches and demanding that Kagan be burnt at the stake indicates that this witchhunt is the official position of the Senate GOP caucus.

Few if any courts are more handicapped by the judicial vacancy crisis than the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. After the murder of Chief Judge John Roll in the same mass shooting that targeted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), there are currently three vacancies on this court. And the Judicial Conference of the United States believes that eight additional judges are required to keep up with the court’s exploding caseload, where felony case filings alone nearly doubled from 3,023 in 2008 to 5,219 in 2010.

Yet, despite this pressing need, Arizona’s two senators have done little but throw roadblocks in the way of confirming new judges. Traditionally, a president will not nominate district court judges without consulting with a potential nominee’s home-state senators. Yet Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) delayed so long in sending names to President Obama that even the Republican chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals that includes Arizona was pleading with them to stop holding things up. When Obama nominated two people to fill the longest-standing vacancies on this court, court watchers hoped that this was the end of McCain and Kyl’s roadblocks — but it appears that the two senators are now back up to their old tricks:

President Obama did his part by nominating two women to fill those vacancies. One of those, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer Guerin Zipps already has the green light.

But Rosemary Marquez, a defense lawyer working out of a downtown Tucson office, is being held up by Arizona’s two Senators. [...]

The average judge nationwide handles 566 actions. An Arizona judge handles 854. And those numbers are constantly climbing.

Although nominees to more powerful court of appeals judgeships have previously been the subject of political warfare, conservative obstruction of district court nominees was unheard of prior the Obama presidency. District judges spend the overwhelming majority of their time on routine, non-ideological issues such as trial scheduling, sentencing hearings, and routine jury instructions. So, by blocking Marquez’ nomination to a district court, McCain and Kyl are depriving their constituents of a desperately needed public servant without even gaining much of anything ideologically in return.

Traditionally, a president will not nominate district court judges without consulting with a potential nominee’s home-state senators. Yet Arizona Senators John McCain (R) and John Kyl (R) appear to be absent from this process — despite a GOP-appointed chief judge literally begging them to step up:

The Arizona Republic reported that at the time of [Chief Judge] Roll’s death, Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain, both Republicans, had yet to submit any names to the White House. Four months later, there are few public signs of progress.

“The latest I know is there has been no nomination,” said [Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex] Kozinski, a Reagan appointee. “This is very disconcerting. I have the impression it took a very long time to get names to the White House. […] We’ve pleaded with senators to hurry up the process, and I’m sure they’re doing [the] best they can.”

McCain and Kyl’s failure to engage leaves thousands of their constituents without meaningful access to justice. The U.S. district court in Arizona is among the most overburdened in the country. Felony filings doubled in just two years, and the court is currently operating eight judges short of what it needs to adequately handle its caseload — a vacancy crisis that was exacerbated after its chief judge was murdered while waiting to speak to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) about how to solve this problem.

Moreover, Kyl and McCain’s foot-dragging is just one part of the Senate GOP’s widespread obstruction of Obama’s judicial nominees. As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, GOP obstruction of Obama’s judges was so widespread during the president’s first two years in office that the Senate confirmed a smaller percentage of Obama’s judges than it did during the first two years of any previous presidency.

Indeed, this obstructionism has produced such a severe vacancy crisis that Kozinski is just one of many GOP judges begging Senate Republicans to stop playing partisan games. Eleventh Circuit Chief Judge Joel Dubina recently complained that “I don’t know what it’s going to take to break this logjam. But something needs to be done.” Republican former appeals court Judge Timothy Lewis described Senate obstructionism as “outrageous” and “shameful.” Even George W. Bush-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts used his annual report last January to speak out against the vacancy crisis.

Sadly, at least in Arizona, their pleas appear to be falling on deaf ears.