Posted on 11/10/2018 6:56:20 AM PST by Kaslin
When Bill Clinton was running for president in 1992, his campaign strategist James Carville gave him the formula for success: Focus on the economy. In Carville's famous words, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Today, President Trump could easily campaign with a similar mantra, since many Americans are pleased with the economic uptick under his leadership.
But, in terms of a lasting legacy, in terms of societal impact, the real mantra should be, “It’s the courts, stupid.” You can be assured that Trump and his Republican colleagues have a good grasp on this already.
And now, with a strengthened majority in the Senate, the sky is the limit with the good they can do.
As noted (with great concern) by Jennifer Bendery in the Huffington Post, “With a newly strengthened Senate majority, Mitch McConnell can plow ahead with reshaping the nation’s courts.”
Yes, “McConnell has said all along that judicial confirmations are his No. 1 priority as Senate leader. That won’t change going forward.”
And this, in fact, is a major reason many of us voted for Donald Trump: Supreme Court appointees and, more broadly, federal court appointees at all levels. Transforming the courts was our No. 1 concern.
How much has been done already?
Bendery writes, “To date, the Republican leader has confirmed two Supreme Court justices, 29 circuit judges and 53 district judges. He’s confirmed so many circuit judges, many of whom are strongly anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ rights and anti-voting rights, and nearly all of whom are ideologues handpicked by the conservative Federalist Society, that 1 in 7 seats on the U.S. circuit courts are now filled by judges nominated by Trump.”
Some might say, “But this is not healthy. The courts will now become distinctly conservative. They’re supposed to be neutral and impartial.”
To the contrary, the goal is to get the courts back to where they’re supposed to be, namely, rightly interpreting our Constitution rather than creating new laws. Yet for decades, many of the courts have swung dangerously left, leading to rampant (and dangerous) judicial activism.
Judicial activism, in turn, has become a direct threat to our freedoms. (For Mark Levin’s now classic exposé, see here.)
How much has been done already?
Bendery writes, “To date, the Republican leader has confirmed two Supreme Court justices, 29 circuit judges and 53 district judges. He’s confirmed so many circuit judges, many of whom are strongly anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ rights and anti-voting rights, and nearly all of whom are ideologues handpicked by the conservative Federalist Society, that 1 in 7 seats on the U.S. circuit courts are now filled by judges nominated by Trump.”
Some might say, “But this is not healthy. The courts will now become distinctly conservative. They’re supposed to be neutral and impartial.”
To the contrary, the goal is to get the courts back to where they’re supposed to be, namely, rightly interpreting our Constitution rather than creating new laws. Yet for decades, many of the courts have swung dangerously left, leading to rampant (and dangerous) judicial activism.
Judicial activism, in turn, has become a direct threat to our freedoms. (For Mark Levin’s now classic exposé, see here.)
Sixty-million slaughtered babies later – far more than the population of Canada (about 38 million), even more than the population of England (about 55 million), and roughly equal to the population of Italy – our nation is still reeling from this unjust and unconstitutional ruling.
It’s about time we had a reformation in our courts.
More recently, what if the Supreme Court had ultimately ruled against Hobby Lobby? Against the Little Sisters of the Poor? Against Jack Phillips?
Back in 1962, without any legal precedent, the Supreme Court removed organized public prayer from our schools.
Fifty years later, on June 16, 2012, the Saturday Evening Post ran this story: “Atheists v. Evangelists: The School Prayer Decision of 1962."
“50 years ago, school prayer was declared unconstitutional, causing Billy Graham to wonder if we were becoming a spiritually-bankrupt nation.”
The article begins with these simple but striking lines: “How much has America changed in the past 50 years? Imagine kids in American public schools now starting each day with a prayer.” (For my answer to the question of how much America has changed since the early 1960s, see here.)
Earlier in the year, Graham had warned Post readers that “if the Court decrees negatively, another victory will be gained by those forces which conspire to remove faith in God from the public conscience.
“American democracy rests on the belief in the reality of God and His respect for the individual. Ours is a freedom under law. But it is also a freedom that will evaporate if the religious foundations upon which it has been built are taken away.”
Of course, he was right, although he had no idea of just how radically the society would be transformed in the decades that followed.
As for prayer in the schools, from the founding of our nation until 1962, it never occurred to the courts that this was a violation of separation of church and state. It was judicial activism that made this landmark decision.
And even though the prayer itself was quite generic and any student could opt out of praying, it was the symbolism that mattered. Prayer no longer belonged in our schools.
All of which leads us back to where we started: It’s the courts, stupid.
Thank God President Trump is keeping his promise to nominate conservative justices – meaning, Constitutionalists – to the courts. Keeping this up for two more years (or, better still, 6 more years) could well be his greatest legacy, not to mention the greatest legal bulwark against the loss of our fundamental freedoms.
As for those who protest, “Trump and the Republicans have no right to do this!”, to the contrary, the American people elected them to office.
They are doing what we the people have empowered them to do.
He’s confirmed so many circuit judges, many of whom are strongly anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ rights and anti-voting rights...
OK, the FIRST two are GREAT and the last one is a lie.
When they still existed, I couldn’t get a DVD at Blockbuster without showing my license!!!!
Proving who you are when you vote should at least be up there with renting “The Fast and The Furious”
We are changing the judicial landscape for DECADES to come.
BTW,
HOW DARE you post an article that isn’t hand wringing, dismal, downbeat, depressing or pessimistic to the extreme.
I thought that was outlawed around here lately :)
I believe this explains why the democrats will do anything no matter how outrageous to tip the senate into their hands in addition to the house.
Leslie Abrams is the federal judge that ruled a city in Georgia had to accept ballots through yesterday. Yes, she is the sister of Stacy Abrams. She was hired as an Assistant District Attory by Sally Quinn and appointed by Obama as a Federal Judge.
I like it.
That means you really like his chief of staff, Matt Whitaker.
**THIS** is why the rats are stealing FL and AZ
SMH
Trump has made a lot of appointments and now can make a lot more, Very Conservative ones.
But honest, how many judge positions are there?
And I thought they were lifelong positions.
Wouldn’t a president fill them all and the courts would just be D or Conservative across the country?
I KNOW I am missing something and getting some things wrong because that doesn’t sound right.
Are they NOT all for lifetime.
And can any be replaced?
There are over 600 district judges alone any one of which can stop an action or block a law from taking effect. Add the circuit court judges to be mix and well.
These are lifetime appts but about 30+ come open every year due to retirements, occasional step downs for family or other reasons, death, etc.
So in 8 years, that could be a couple hundreds replacements.
That would be great.
And thanks.
I wonder what the maximum number of SC picks was for a president.
Trump is VERY LIKELY looking at 3 as RBG is hanging by a thread.
I wonder if it’s possible to hold a competency hearing for a SC Justice.
I think my friend that too many don’t see that the game has entered a new phase. But many who you label as “negative” might.
We see our government institutions as things to be respected. We see elections as a choice to be respected by our population. We see a good economy as great for the country. The left sees all this as an irrelevant punch line.
In their minds all that matters is seizing power. And they are seizing power and to do so they could care the less what a court says that ruled agaisnt them, or a congress that is not theirs when the “pen and phone” is. And now we will witness, I suspect, a situation the next two years where the media and democrats will treat the House as the ONLY government.
Saying things like “it’s the courts stupid” mah have mattered years ago. It mattered before the left decided to just say: “heads we win, tails we win but we win or else.”
I keep hearing this last election described as a “blue ripple.” I regard it as a test of the new improvements to the “blue tsunami.”
You see, in nature a tsunami sort of sneaks up on you. At first, the bay drains and you say, “big deal.” Then, the water starts to come in, slow at first but here it comes. It looks like a small ripple from afar. Only when it is upon you do you begin to understand the magnitude of its destructive power. By then, it is too late.
So let us look at the blue tsunami:
They created a pump. The pump was primed with an educational system that indoctrinated generations to reflexively think, “GOP bad, GOP to blame, no matter what liberals do to me, GOP bad and to blame. My needs and emotions are all that matters. Oh and there is no God.”
They have changed the definitions of fundamental words such that anything that they disagree with is “hate” or “racist” or “Nazi” or just “evil.” And what act isn’t justified in battling against any of that?
They pumped illegals into their most populous state and, in turn, made it a pump. That pump became so uninhabitable (and more so every day) that it sends their indoctrinated masses to other non-blue states. They also use said populous state as a laboratory for what they want for the country.
Those newly arrived masses instantly forget why they moved and vote dem cause it’s “GOP BAD.” Ahh the power of indoctrination!!
They primed the tsunami further by making elections irrelevant. A permanent government was created comprising judges and a Deep State that are fathoms deeper than the deepest ocean. When they lose an election, so what!!
They bribe the “GOP BAD” that can be bribed. Hi Mitt Romney, your bribes await!! Those that won’t be are hit by. . . . The ministry of destruction/compliance/propaganda called the media. It swings into action. All it’s members are products of said indoctrination system. You comply or they ruin your life. Fake stories followed by non-refractions, even doubling down in the face of exculpatory evidence. (Think Kavanaugh)
But despite all that careful building of the “Tsunami Pump” they suffered a setback and that was not to be tolerated. So, they have turned the tsunami pump on full to include:
-The normalization of violent mobs. Their propaganda wing is providing cover by equivalizimg the act of one or two isolated whackos or groups (completely disavowed by every GOP member) with the systematic and sponsored mobs of the radical left. Make no mistake that radical left is now mainstream democrat.
-The normalization of election fraud as an “in your face” tactic. Whereas in the past it was an election here or there, now we are seeing that it will be utilized to overturn any result, in any election regardless of the margin of victory. 10, 20, 30 whatever thousand votes are child’s play.
-coming soon a Soviet style House of Representatives where they wait to be shown the people so that they can find the crimes. And why not? They are battling evil, racist, white nationalist nazis!! (Again that power of indoctrination).
Heads they win, tails they win but either way they win OR ELSE!
Blue ripple?!?! It’s the courts?! Please. This election was a test of the newly updated tsunami pump. Said pump works. Florida and Arizona say hello as does Georgia.
Ginsberg is gone in January. Supposedly retiring. My guess is that she will die from her recent injuries before then.
I’m sorry all that is is a list of excuses.
There are TENS OF MILLIONS of us.
We can keep making lists like the one your did and wringing our hands or hit them the #### back as hard as we can.
NONE of this is happening on my half a million people island.
Because we have b.lls.
I suggest any that don’t start buying them.
Reality, my friend, not excuses. You can’t begin to defeat your enemy unless and until you understand them and what they are doing and have done. Our current President sure does understand them.
I am not defeatist but need to know where I stand.
As for tens of millions of us, they can and will outnumber us so long as they can continue to import entire populations of other countries.
Perhaps, we need a second wave of immigrants that are more likely to vote red? A wave of educated ones.
And another damn thing, check the scoreboard!! The premise of the article isn’t even correct. Newly enlarged majority?!?! Florida is likely no longer a flip. Arizona and Nevada slipped dem. By my score we have picked up a whopping one seat with the Dems gearing up to TRY and pull a Florida in Mississippi and put that seat in jeopardy.
They have to, how else can they win an election? (You know what I mean, don’t you?
> “To date, the Republican leader has confirmed two Supreme Court justices, 29 circuit judges and 53 district judges
OK, let’s talk percentages.
Did a lookup on wikipedia (probably OK on this sort of thing), and ...
Circuit Courts:
“There are currently 179 judgeships on the U.S. courts of appeals authorized by Congress in 28 U.S.C. § 43 pursuant to Article III of the U.S. Constitution.”
District Courts:
Not in the Constitution, but Authorized by the very first Congress
“There are 89 districts in the 50 states, with a total of 94 districts including territories”. and “As of 2010, there were 678 authorized district court judgeships.”
So, 29 of 179 and 53 of 678 in two years. Double that in 2 more years (at least) and its 60 of 179 and 106 of 678. Along with 2 of 9 Supreme Court judges.
8 years and it will be about half of all the judges.
Not bad, but the Senate have to stay on point.
The courts, the press and the schools.
Can’t do anything abut the press without hurting ourselves and every generation after.
We can do something about both the courts and the schools.
President Trump is making great progress on the courts.
I wish he would get the feds out of the schools totally.
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