This has nothing to do with checks and balances. The House, Senate, President and Supreme Court are the system of checks and balances, not a BS procedural item that is only used to block votes from happening.
I doubt there is any backlash over this. The people who are really upset about it are the same people who get upset about everything.
It can't possibly make things any worse. You had Mitch McConnel making statements that the #1 priority was to make Obama a 1 term President. I'm sure there are some members of the GOP that would make a point to disagree with Obama on a comment about the weather on a given day. Actually running the gov is not something they want to do.
The fact of the matter is that due to the House making complete obstruction their #1 goal, all issues like immigration reform, or anything else, is DOA right now. So the Senate might as well get the large numbers of judge positions filled with qualified ideologically compatible people.
FIFY