GOP PUSHES FORWARD JUDICIARY PRIORITY | Trump Staying Away From 9th Circuit | Jury Still Out On Trump Subpoena
May 7, 2018
LET'S GIVE 'EM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT
|“When the Senate reconvenes this week, one of the first items of business will be the confirmation of six more of PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S federal judicial nominees, adding more momentum to an already torrid pace that is remaking the federal bench and providing motivation for Republican voters ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.” That’s Leigh Ann Caldwell writing for NBC News about SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL’S push in the Senate to put more conservatives on the federal bench so that Republicans have something to tout in the November elections.
DANCING WITH THEIR HANDS TIED
|Lawrence Hurley with Reuters also reports on the GOP push to get more conservative judges confirmed in the Senate. He notes that of the six nominations the Senate will take up this week, four are from states that have at least one Democratic senator. “A long-standing Senate tradition that gave senators clout over judicial nominees from their home states has been fraying for years, meaning Democrats have less of a chance of blocking appointees they oppose, as they did with some success during Republican former PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH’S administration.”
STRAIGHT FLEXIN
|We now know all too well that PRESIDENT TRUMP’S biggest accomplishment in his first year has been his effort to reshape the judiciary. And while it didn’t take him long to make a legacy that would last, it similarly didn’t take much time for these judges to get to work and have a real impact on American society. Richard Wolf with USA Today says, “The men and women President Trump has elevated to federal judgeships across the nation are having an impact on issues ranging from civil rights and campaign spending to public prayer and the death penalty. Nearly a year after the first of them won Senate confirmation, 15 nominees have made their way to federal appeals courts, representing perhaps Trump’s most significant achievement in his 15 months as president. A dozen more are in the pipeline. While it’s too soon to detect a definitive trend, Trump’s judges are making their presence felt through the weight of their votes and the style of their rhetoric.”
THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL
|Although Trump has prioritized his judicial legacy, he still has yet to take aim at the court that most annoys him: the 9th Circuit way out west that has “stymied some of his most ambitious and controversial proposals.” Seung Min Kim notes in The Washington Post that although the 9th Circuit has a staggering eight vacancies, Trump has only put forward only two picks — neither of which has been confirmed.
OTHER NEWS
Can Trump Get Subpoenaed? Honestly, No One Knows For Sure.
The Washington Post“Legal experts say both sides are stepping out in front of the facts by making claims about a presidential subpoena. This sort of thing has never been done before, which means that we don’t know how the courts would rule when a president is pitted against an independent investigation with ties to the president.”
Trump Vs. The Constitution
Slate“Trump partisans suggest he should assert complete immunity to a criminal investigatory subpoena. That gambit is bound to fail. As Bob Bauer demonstrated in Slate, it is at odds with at least two Supreme Court precedents.”