Mitch McConnell rams through 15 more federal judges

Mitch McConnell rams through 15 more federal judges
Posted by William A. Jacobson Thursday, October 11, 2018 at 7:30pm

https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/...s-through-15-more-federal-judges/#more-262549

In exchange for mass confirmation, McConnell agreed to put the Senate into recess allowing vulnerable Dem Senators to return home to campaign

Fresh off his victory in confirming Brett Kavanaugh, Mitch McConnell forced stalling Democrats to agree to 15 more federal judicial confirmations in exchange for putting the Senate in recess so vulnerable Democrats could return home to campaign.

Politico reports:

Senate Democrats accepted an offer from Senate Republicans to confirm 15 lifetime federal judges on Thursday in exchange for agreeing to go into recess through the midterms so endangered Democrats can campaign.

After senators weighed the package of three Circuit Court judges and 12 District Court judges on Thursday afternoon, they agreed to the demand from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to confirm roughly the number of judges he could confirm between now and the election if he kept the Senate in continuously. A half-dozen vulnerable Democrats and a pair of at-risk Senate Republicans are eager to go home for the election….

By the end of Thursday, McConnell and President Donald Trump will have confirmed 84 judges over the past two years, including two Supreme Court nominees.

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Chuck Grassley, Chair of the Judiciary Committee, had wanted the Senate to stay in session until all 49 nominees awaiting a floor vote (including 8 approved by the committee today) were voted on:

Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wants the upper house to stay in session until all of the 49 currently pending judicial appointments are confirmed.

A tweet from Grassley, R- Iowa, on Thursday came just hours after the committee cleared eight more judicial nominees to the full Senate ,and puts Democrats in a bind over whether to stay in Washington to fight the confirmations or head out on the campaign trail to defend vulnerable seats ahead of the midterms.

“Lots of work to do,” Grassley tweeted. “Senate [should] stay in session til all 49 judges are CONFIRMED/ work comes [before] campaigning.”

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So did McConnell really own this libs on this? The libs seem to think so:

In response to announcement of a deal in the United States Senate to confirm 15 judicial nominees to lifetime seats on the federal bench, People For the American Way Executive Vice President Marge Baker issued the following statement:

”Mitch McConnell has made clear again and again that he’ll do anything to install ideological extremists and narrow minded elitists onto our federal courts. Today’s deal represents the latest chapter in his cynical campaign to jam through nominations without meaningful debate or adequate vetting. This is another step towards creating a federal court system where the wealthy and powerful get one kind of treatment, and ordinary Americans looking to vindicate their rights get another.

“No senator should have agreed to this deal. Americans deserve to know that they can depend on the courts to stand up for the constitution and the law. When our courts—and our rights—are on the line, senators should take the time to seriously debate the merits. Allowing these confirmations to be rushed through as senators head out of town does a disservice to our democracy and the rule of law. If Republicans intend to move forward on even a single nomination in the lame duck congress, Democrats should make clear that they won’t stand by silently.”

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This chart appears to reflect the updated list of vacancies and pending nominees. There is a lot more work to do.

Republicans appear to be approaching ramming speed, with Trump nominating 13 more federal judges. The Daily Caller reports:

President Donald Trump announced his eighteenth wave of judicial nominees Wednesday night, just four days after the Senate confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Wednesday’s nominees include two candidates for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and three for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 2nd Circuit is based in New York City and has jurisdiction over New York, Connecticut and Vermont. The 9th Circuit is based in San Francisco, and hears appeals arising from nine western states as well as the outlying Pacific territories…

Trump has struggled to secure confirmations to both courts. The president’s sole confirmation to the 9th Circuit, Judge Mark Bennett, is a largely unknown quantity with questionable conservative bona fides. A second 9th Circuit nominee, Ryan Bounds, lost a narrow floor vote due to racially tinged opinion columns he wrote as an undergraduate at Stanford University.

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Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network has more information on the new appeals court nominees at National Review.
https://www.nationalreview.com/benc...ps-nominees-to-the-second-and-ninth-circuits/

So why stop at 15?

There are still over 100 more vacant spots!

Melensdad said:

So why stop at 15?

There are still over 100 more vacant spots!

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That is a good question. I have no idea.

Melensdad said:

So why stop at 15?

There are still over 100 more vacant spots!

Click to expand...

Bob, found this:

Senate confirms 15 Trump judges after GOP leaders, Democrats strike deal
By Alex Swoyer - The Washington Times - Thursday, October 11, 2018

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/11/senate-confirms-15-trump-judicial-nominees/

The Senate confirmed 15 of President Trump’s judicial picks Thursday night after GOP leaders reached a deal with Democrats, clearing about a third of the backlog and closing up shop through Election Day to give senators a chance to campaign.

Three of the judges are for the powerful circuit courts of appeals, while the other 12 were for district court positions.

Many cleared on near-party line votes, while others were approved by voice votes. They were the first judicial confirmations since last weekend’s vote on Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Some Republicans had hoped senators would stay in town to work on all 49 judicial picks who’d been ready for floor votes. But the 15 was the best deal the GOP could get, representing the amount of judges who could realistically have been confirmed if the Senate had devoted full time to confirmations over the next few weeks.

Liberal activists were incensed that Democratic leaders agreed to the votes.

“This deal was totally unnecessary and it is a bitter pill to swallow so soon after the Kavanaugh fight that so many progressive activists poured their hearts and souls into,” said Chris Kang, chief counsel for Demand Justice.

Conservative activists had been hoping for even more judges, but were enthusiastic about the 15 who did clear.

“I’d love for them to stay and grind them into the ground over the next four weeks, but truth be told, if you got 15 — that’s huge,” said Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government.

The three circuit court nominees confirmed were David Porter for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 50-45 vote; Ryan Douglas Nelson for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 51-44; and Richard J. Sullivan for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 79-16.


Hours before the floor vote the Judiciary Committee approved eight more judicial nominees and readied them for the floor. That means there will be 34 judicial nominees waiting for votes when the Senate returns in November for a lame-duck session.

Two of the district judges who made it through committee Thursday were first picked by President Obama, but had their nominations expire. Mr. Trump renominated them.

Also clearing committee was Jonathan A. Kobes for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who was approved on a party-line vote.

Democrats said Mr. Kobes, who works as a lawyer for Sen. Mike Rounds, South Dakota Republican, wasn’t ready to be a judge, citing the American Bar Association’s rating him as unqualified.


But Republicans said the ABA evaluator who reviewed the nomination was biased, saying she had also rated a previous 8th Circuit pick, Judge Steven Grasz, unqualified last year.

“This particular evaluator has a long history of liberal activism. So it’s no surprise that the ABA’s two ‘not qualified’ recommendations for circuit-court nominees came for nominees she evaluated,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican and the Judiciary chairman.

Mr. Trump on Wednesday announced yet another slate of 13 nominees, though they may not see action until next year.

Among them were three picks for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a famously liberal court whose bite conservatives have hoped to blunt by adding GOP-appointed judges.


The 9th Circuit nominees were Patrick J. Bumatay, Daniel P. Collins and Kenneth Kiyul.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, objected to all three, accusing the White House or shirking its duty to consult with senators before making picks.

She said she would withhold her blue slips, in a move meant to register official objection. Blue slips are a Senate courtesy that, at times, has given home-state lawmakers a veto over judges.

“The decision to move forward with these nominees without consultation or responding to my acceptance of the White House offer reflects President Trump’s desire to remake the court,” Ms. Feinstein said. “I expect my blue slips to be honored as I was acting in good faith.”


But Republicans have said they will treat blue slips as one factor in a nomination, not as an absolute veto over a president’s pick.

Melensdad said:

So why stop at 15?

There are still over 100 more vacant spots!

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Exactly. There are several hundred unfilled positions at present. Fill those and we will see much less legislating from the bench, and when it happens, the legislating will be overturned.

Lock them all up until they do their job!!!