Posted on 10/03/2017 6:40:50 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The start of a new Supreme Court term is a good moment to note some under-reported news: President Trump is rapidly remaking the federal appellate and district courts, with highly qualified nominees who fulfill his campaign promise to pick “constitutional conservatives.”
The White House announced its eighth batch of judicial nominees on Thursday, including four excellent choices for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. They include a pair of Texans: Don Willett, who is now on the Texas Supreme Court and is well known for his witty Twitter feed; and James Ho, a Gibson, Dunn partner in Dallas who clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and was Texas solicitor general.
The other two Fifth Circuit nominees have notable legal achievements to their credit. Stuart Duncan was solicitor general of Louisiana and general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He was counsel of record in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, the landmark 2014 decision allowing closely held companies to be exempt from regulations they object to on religious grounds.
Kurt Engelhardt is chief judge for the federal district court for eastern Louisiana. In 2013 he wrote a withering 129-page opinion documenting misconduct by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney in prosecuting New Orleans police. Prosecutors attempted to inflame the potential jury pool against the officers with prejudicial public comments, including the use of a fake name on the website of the Times-Picayune. Justice appealed, but Judge Engelhardt was upheld by the Fifth Circuit he will join if he’s confirmed.
The speed of the nominations and the quality of the nominees is a result of the close ties between White House judicial vetters and the Federalist Society that is a national clearinghouse for conservative legal talent.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Must be snowing in hell for the WSJ to say something nice about the prez.
The problem is the Rat judges making these outrageous rulings and then declaring them national.
I could give a poop how many Trump is nominating. The real question is how many is Yurtle the Turtle confirming? ZERO!!
I think that logjam has been addressed, iirc. LS has been keeping up and I think he is actually on a historic pace for getting judges approved.
I could give a poop how many Trump is nominating. The real question is how many is Yurtle the Turtle confirming? ZERO!!
Quite a few others have been confirmed.
True, the Democrats are doing everything they can to delay, delay, delay.
I was under the impression the democrats were using the blue slip procedure to stymie judges.
Amen! The Turtle needs to rescind the blue slip tradition.
You have Yurtle to thank for the fact that Merrick Garland is not on the Supreme Court and Neil Gorsuch is.
It seems that’s the purview of Grassley as the committee chairman.
Could be. Grasley, McConnell, whoever, get rid of the blue slip provision. It allows one senator to hold up the whole train.
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