Trump Wants to Reshape the Courts. A Liberal Judge Unwittingly Helped Him.
Trump Wants to Reshape the Courts. A Liberal Judge Unwittingly Helped Him.
Quote:
WASHINGTON — In the spring of 2014, a friend tried to nudge Judge Stephen Reinhardt, then an 83-year-old liberal stalwart on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, into stepping aside from full-time duties so President Barack Obama could nominate a successor.
The friend, Erwin Chemerinsky, now the dean at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, said he had gently suggested to Judge Reinhardt that he and another longtime liberal figure on the San Francisco-based court make way while Democrats still had the power to assure that jurists with a similar philosophy would take their place. Judge Reinhardt swiftly rejected that notion and stayed on.
Now Judge Reinhardt, who died this past week at age 87, could very well be replaced by a nominee chosen by President Trump. The president suddenly has a chance to seat a judge with a markedly different judicial outlook, giving conservatives a greater voice on the liberal-leaning court, which has been a particular thorn in Mr. Trump’s side.
The president’s opening does not end there.
The vacancy is one of eight on the appeals court, which has 29 active judges — a vivid illustration of the larger opportunity for Mr. Trump to put an enduring stamp on the makeup of the federal judiciary nationwide by installing candidates of a more conservative bent.
“With a Republican Senate and no possibility of a filibuster, he can have whoever he wants on the circuit court,” Mr. Chemerinsky said. “It will dramatically change the Ninth Circuit.”
Currently, there are almost 150 federal district and appeals court vacancies around the country, a number that has risen from just over 100 when Mr. Trump took office, despite his notable success at filling openings. Democrats’ weakening of the filibuster against nominees in 2013 and a recent Republican decision to limit the veto power of home-state senators over judicial candidates have left few avenues to impede Mr. Trump and his Senate allies in their determination to fill judicial openings.
The Republican Senate needs to quit dicking around and get these vacancies filled. This is how they get the reputation as the "do nothing Republicans". The other side is never going to like you. Just get it done.
