http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/06/05/3666582/majority-leader-mcconnell-calls-extraordinary-blockade-obamas-judges-justices/
"This is not the first time McConnell has moved the goalposts on judicial confirmations. In 2012, for example, when President Obama was up for reelection, McConnell announced that he would attempt to block all appeals court confirmations under the so-called “Thurmond Rule.” The Republican leader claimed that this rule “holds that within six months of a presidential election, the opposition party can, and typically does, refuse to allow votes on circuit court judges.”
No such rule exists. Although the “Thurmond Rule” has, at times, been invoked to slow down confirmations in a presidential election year, prior Senate practice does not support McConnell’s claim that confirmations should simply halt. As we explained shortly after McConnell announced that he was invoking this so-called rule, “President Carter had 5 appeals judges confirmed between this day in 1980 and that year’s election, one of whom was future Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. President Reagan had 7 in his first term and 2 in his second. The first President Bush had 7. No appellate judges were confirmed in the lead up to the 1996 election, but one was confirmed at the end of President Clinton’s second term. The second President Bush had 3 confirmed during this period in 2004 and 2 in 2008"."
