Senate's filibuster rule change will help Obama achieve key second-term priorities The Senate vote Thursday to lower the barriers for presidential nominations should make it easier for President Obama to accomplish key second-term priorities, including tougher measures on climate change and financial regulation, that have faced intense opposition from Republicans in Congress. The move to allow a simple majority vote on most executive and judicial nominees also sets the stage for Obama to appoint new top officials to the Federal Reserve and other key agencies - likely leading to more aggressive action to stimulate the economy and housing market. And it frees Obama to make changes to his Cabinet without the threat of long delays in the Senate before the confirmation of nominees. The most immediate effect will be felt at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Widely regarded as second only to the Supreme Court in influence, it plays a central role in upholding or knocking down federal regulations. The panel is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats but has three vacancies that Obama has been attempting to fill. The court will likely help decide whether Obama can enact new Environmental Protection Agency regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions by power plants - a key element of his second-term plan to combat climate change - as well as a variety of other rules affecting the environment and the financial industry. Republicans have blocked Obama's three nominees to the court so far. The Senate's action Thursday all but ensures that they will take seats on the panel in coming months, moving the advantage to Democrats by a 7-to-4 margin. "It shifts the court quite substantially to the left," said Amanda Cohen Leiter, a law professor at American University who previously clerked on the court. This rebalances it to a considerable degree, and that's exactly what Republicans were afraid of. Democrats say the shift in the court will be especially important given that Obama's legislative proposals have little chance to prevail in the GOP-controlled House. "With Congress gridlocked, much of the second term's success is going to be based on his administrative actions and this should ensure that at least those actions get a fair hearing in this critical court," said Douglas Kendall, founder of the left-leaning Constitutional Accountability Center. Republicans, however, said the Senate's move represented an outrageous repudiation of the minority party's right to influence policy. "This is the most important and most dangerous restructuring of Senate rules since Thomas Jefferson wrote them at the beginning of our country," Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said. It's another raw exercise of political power to permit the majority to do anything it wants, whenever it wants to do it. The most contentious issue likely to face the appeals court are climate regulations being pursued by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has already announced tough new rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions by new power plants using its authority under the Clean Air Act and is pursuing new - and far more controversial - rules for existing power plants as well.