May 26

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Key Player: Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

When Sen. Arlen Specter switched parties in April 2008, Sen. Jeff Sessions became the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, bringing a more conservative voice to the hearings vetting President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominees.

A bipartisan group of senators struck a deal Monday night to allow a vote on a handful of President Bush's judicial nominees while maintaining the Democrats' right to filibuster others under "extraordinary circumstances."…