Noah Bookbinder (former counsel for Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee) and Gregg Nunziata (formerly counsel for Republicans on the committee and chief nominations counsel beginning in 2006) in a Guest Essay at the New York Times:

“Efforts to bypass F.B.I. background checks and even Senate confirmation itself via mass recess appointments, made by the president when the Senate is not in session, never would have flown with past iterations of the Judiciary Committee, regardless of which party was in charge. The Senate shouldn’t stand for it now.

. . . Americans may disagree about the policy agenda set by a president and enacted by his executive branch appointees, but the Senate must perform its constitutional duty to ensure that president’s nominees understand their obligations under the law and possess the character and fitness to perform their duties. That means, among other things, understanding their duty to the law and the Constitution.”