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Judicial nominees
Karma Catches Up to Joe Biden
I’m starting to wonder whether I should believe in karma for real. There is something fitting about the fact that the Barrett nomination comes at the very moment that the person most responsible for blowing up judicial politics more than 30 years ago is the Democratic nominee for president—Joe Biden. There’s no way he can dodge questions at the first presidential debate next week about Barrett, and I hope Chris »
Thank Dems for the Barrett Nomination
Among the reasons President Trump has reportedly decided to appoint Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is that the Democrats already attempted to “Bork” her, but failed, and disgraced themselves in the process while elevating her public profile. Think I exaggerate? Check out this Tweet from Center for American Progress far-leftist Ian Millhiser: You can expect a lot of news reports over the next few days to re-run Sen. »
Amy Coney Barrett, superstar
Ed Whelan points out that in 2017, every Supreme Court law clerk who served the same term (October Term 1998) that Amy Coney Barrett clerked for Justice Scalia signed a letter supporting her nomination to the Seventh Circuit. The signatories hailed Barrett as a “woman of remarkable intellect and character,” as someone who “conducted herself with professionalism, grace, and integrity” and “was able to work collaboratively with her colleagues (even »
Democrats Then and Now
It was Justice William Brennan—initially put on the Supreme Court through a recess appointment only three weeks before the presidential election of 1956—who said the most important number at the Supreme Court is five—with five votes, he said, “anything is possible.” (Eisenhower later said his two biggest mistakes as president were his appointments of Earl Warren and Brennan to the Court.) Likewise, everyone over the age of six understands that »
What it all comes down to
In the coming weeks, as the struggle to confirm a Supreme Court nominee fires up, we will be inundated with facts about past confirmation timetables and other “precedents.” Advocates will try to elevate past practices to matters of principle, and maybe even to matters of morality. I think all of these arguments should be ignored. The only rule that applies, and it’s a reasonable one, is that Supreme Court nominees »
Why so much trouble nominating reliably conservative Justices? Part Two
In this post from last month, I tried to explain why Republican presidents have far less success nominating reliably conservative Supreme Court Justices than their Democratic counterparts have in nominating liberal ones. The main reason, I said, is that the conservative legal movement in America has multiple strands, not all of which point adherents to a result that can be called, or agreed upon as, conservative. For example, if one »
Why so much trouble nominating reliably conservative Justices?
Today, Yoram Hozany, an Israeli philosopher, tweeted: I wonder: Has there ever been an ideological movement this incompetent? They only had one job to do: Distinguish conservative lawyers from liberal lawyers. They formulate lists of approved individuals and everyone murmurs that they’ve been vetted. Then all sorts of distinguished persons publicly pronounce in chorus that the candidate is brilliant and the nomination fine. What criteria are involved in all this? »
Is that all they got?
The ABA’s finding that Judge Justin Walker is “well qualified” to serve on the D.C. Circuit removes the Democrats’ main, though always specious, talking point against confirming Walker. As a result, the Dems are reduced to basing their case against Walker on the Wuhan coronavirus. During today’s hearing on Walker’s nomination, Sen. Durbin found it ironic that, in this time of a pandemic, a “strident” opponent of Obamacare is up »
ABA rates Justin Walker well qualified to serve on D.C. Circuit
The Senate is set to consider the nomination of Justin Walker for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. One of the talking points about Judge Walker’s nomination consistently raised by the mainstream media is that, when Walker was nominated for his federal district court judgeship, the ABA rated him “not qualified.” The rationale for this rating was that Walker had no experience trying cases in »
Trump nominates 37 year-old Kentucky judge for D.C. Circuit
President Trump has nominated Judge Justin Walker for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the nation’s second most important court. Walker, age 37, serves on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. He has been on that court for about half a year. The American Bar Association rated Walker “unqualified” when he was nominated for the district court position. To the extent, if »
This year in judicial confirmations
2019 was a banner year for confirming federal judges — an accomplishment that will reverberate long after many of the leading stories of the year, including impeachment, have been largely forgotten. Let’s start with federal district court judges. These positions didn’t used to be considered politically charged. Confirmation of district court nominees once was routine. That’s no longer true. District judges are actively participating in the anti-Trump resistance. They are »
Democrats balk but Senate confirms Knights of Columbus member for judgeship
The Senate today confirmed Brian Buescher, President Trump’s nominee to the U.S. District Court in Nebraska. Readers may recall that Senate Democrats attacked Buescher for his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic service organization. I wrote about this here. Sen. Kamala Harris was one of the Senators who led the charge against Buescher during his Committee hearing. His other main adversary was Sen. Mazie Hirono, one of the »
Whitehouse’s blacklist
What is it with Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse? During the Kavanaugh confirmation spectacle, he showed himself to be a killer clown (if you can imagine a killer clown doing his thing with haughty grandiosity). Like the rest of his colleagues on the Democratic side of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the man operates without a conscience. I wrote about him several times in posts collected here. Whitehouse recently turned in »
Neomi Rao, Josh Hawley, and the Wall Street Journal
Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Neomi Rao, President Trump’s selection to fill the seat on the D.C. Circuit that Brett Kavanaugh left. The vote was 53-46. Some Republicans, most notably Sen. Josh Hawley, had expressed concern over Rao as a nominee. However, Rao was able to address these concerns to the Senators’ satisfaction. In the end, she received the vote of every Republican member (and no Democrats). I’m glad Rao was »
McConnell ready to limit debate to counter Dem obstruction of nominees
For many months, we (along with many other conservatives) have been urging Senate Republicans to reduce the number of hours permitted to debate nominees. This step is necessary because Senate Democrats have used the 30 hours now permitted to stall nominees. The result is an unacceptable backlog of qualified, confirmable nominees. Consequently, judgeships and key administration jobs remain vacant. Now it finally looks like Majority McConnell will pull the trigger. »
The Democrats’ bad faith attacks on Kenneth Lee
Kenneth K. Lee is President Trump’s nominee to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Lee is well-qualified for the job. He clerked for Judge Emilio Garza of the Fifth Circuit; served as Associate White House Counsel to President George W. Bush and as special counsel on the United States Senate Judiciary Committee; and now is a partner at a prestigious law firm. In addition, he has taught law as an »
A Clarence Thomas non-scandal
Was it scandalous for Justice Clarence Thomas to express his support for Neomi Rao’s nomination to Senators considering whether to vote for her confirmation as a federal appellate judge? Some claim it was. Elie Mystal says: I guess we already know how Thomas would rule on any Rao opinions appealed to him. That’s… not how this is supposed to work. Nonsense. A positive report by a Supreme Court Justice about »