Posted on 01/22/2020 6:26:07 AM PST by Kaslin
Despite his short time in politics, President Trump has mastered the art of the stump speech. Beyond his trademark speaking style, he has proven adept at firing up his base by citing the most popular accomplishments of his administration. Among those garnering the loudest reactions are construction of the border wall, reforming the Veterans Administration and getting more worker-friendly trade deals. Big cheers all around.
Further down the list is the president’s growing number of appointments to the federal bench. It gets applause, but do people really understand what it means? While it lacks the red-meat sizzle of the border wall, Trump’s judicial appointments stand to be the most transformational accomplishment of his presidency, and one that will likely outlast anything else he does.
While the importance of the Supreme Court is well-known, it only agrees to hear about 100 of the more than 7,000 cases it is asked to hear each year. Those cases come from district courts and then the courts of appeal, or circuit courts.
At those levels, Trump is remaking the judiciary. Currently, one in four circuit court judges is now a Trump nominee. Since his presidency began barely three years ago, Trump has nominated and seen a whopping 187 of his federal judges confirmed by the Senate. Fifty of those appointments were to the circuit court. For comparison, former President Obama appointed 55 circuit judges over eight years.
The Ninth Circuit—which covers California, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and part of Washington state—has long been notorious for its preponderance of left-leaning judges. It is the favorite circuit of well-funded, left-wing legal groups who go “forum shopping” for favorable rulings against Trump in cases regarding the border wall, refugees, sanctuary policies and many other issues.
Thanks to Trump, the Ninth Circuit’s makeup is changing. Of the 29 active judges in the circuit, ten are now Trump appointees. The split of Ninth Circuit judges appointed by Democrat vs. Republican presidents is currently 16-13, respectively. If Trump wins a second term, the Ninth Circuit’s nickname among conservatives as “the Ninth Circus” may be a thing of the past.
While groups on the left will no doubt raise millions of dollars on the fear that Trump’s appointments herald the coming apocalypse, a more sober analysis is that the change will help restore order to the federal government.
For too long, the judiciary has been used by activists as an insurance policy against their side losing elections. The will of the people, via a duly elected executive, can be subverted by finding the right activist judge in the right court.
Such behavior has been on display in the lawsuits filed against the Trump administration regarding the travel ban, building the border wall, and numerous others. This gave anonymous, unelected lower court judges powers superseding those of the elected commander in chief on matters of national security. This is a perversion of our system of checks and balances among the three branches of government.
The firewall against this misuse of judicial authority has been the Supreme Court, which ultimately sided with the executive branch in most of these cases. However, progressive activists are also trying to tinker with the high court, advocating for FDR-style court-packing by expanding the number of Supreme Court justices.
These are not the acts of people who revere the Constitution, but of those who seek to change the rules of the game because the results are not matching their radical agenda. This should be treated as the threat to the republic that it is.
More originalists on the bench would serve to put the three branches of the federal government into their intended and proper lanes. The chief executive’s powers on matters of national security are clearly spelled out in the Constitution. If the opposition finds the president’s actions unsatisfactory, the remedy should be the ballot box, not forum shopping. For a political group to use the bench to achieve judicially what it cannot achieve electorally is de facto voter nullification, and that should be unacceptable along the entire political spectrum.
In a time when it seems the pillars of our society are wobbling, the judiciary matters more than ever. It is an essential arbiter of our country’s most perplexing issues, and functions best when a majority of its judges do not tilt to one ideological extreme. Trump’s appointments should bring more balance to the bench, and that is good for America, its people and its government.
Thank you for posting this excellent piece!
Mrs AV
I think Trump has a legacy plan for himself and he hasn’t even started revealing it yet. That is why these false hoaxes are bombarding him. He can smell the fear from the Democrats.
“but do people really understand what it means?”
I,for one, am getting very tired of the Media Elites assuming that we are morons. We Do understand President Trump’s accomplishments both major and minor. And we do not need a constant, not so subtle, condensation from the media, who think that they are oh so much smarter than us poor rubes.
“Most Enduring Legacy”
The Dems can and will reverse within a year everything he’s done, if they ever retake the reins of power. They could void all trade deals, reenact all those stifling regulations and pile on more, stack the courts, put an end to national sovereignty, punish and bring to ruin anyone that disagrees with them. Finally, they can and will change the laws to ensure that they stay in power until they drag the nation completely down to oblivion.
You know the funniest thing is that Trump has already built the wall.
Along the SOUTHERN Mexico border and YEP it didn’t cost US a dime because Mexico is paying for it!-)
“...Trump’s judicial appointments stand to be the most transformational accomplishment of his presidency, and one that will likely outlast anything else he does.”
Appoint, Baby! Appoint! :)
Another part of the Obunghole residency that Trump and American Know How destroyed!-)
The $3.677 is not the highest gas prices have been under President Obama. That record was reached the week of May 9, 2011 when they averaged $3.965 per gallon.
I agree. That statement was completely unnecessary. And, indeed, we Trump supporters are very much aware of what this president has accomplished in spite of being under a 24/7/365 assault by the dems, Hollywood, the MSM, etc...and we know it will continue every single day of his presidency.
And, likely everyday for the rest of his life. What this man has chosen to do for us and this country is awe inspiring.
You make valid points but sweeping away judicial appointments is not that easy. Court packing has been threatened but never tried. Trump’s fingerprints will be all over the courts for many years to come.
I agree....the deep state is committed to their marxist plans for America...look at what they have done to the Brits, Aussies and the Canadians.
They have infiltrated our educational system and have a complete stranglehold on the Media...
In short, America as we know it, is DOOMED.
Are we entering the biblical end times?
Not to annoy anyone but I like to repost this article any time we are discussing judges so those that missed this article can have a better understanding of the importance of the lower court judges.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/9/20962980/trump-supreme-court-federal-judges
Remember this.
https://cis.org/Steinlight/Never-Trust-Mainstream-Pundits-Bearing-Gifts
Wilson is best remembered as a leading supporter of the 1994 anti-illegal immigration ballot initiative Prop 187 or SOS (Save Our State). The purpose of the initiative, the first by any state seeking to control immigration — anticipating Arizona’s SB1070 by 16 years — was to prohibit illegal aliens from accessing public education and health care, among other social services. Vilified then by left-liberal mainstream media, “compassionate” post-American leftist clergy, the foundation elite, etc., as xenophobic, the voters showed their usual common sense and passed Prop 187 by a wide margin: 59 percent in favor and 41 percent opposed.
Setting a pattern to be repeated in the case of Arizona’s SB1070, the courts intervened at once. Only three days after Prop 187 passed, a temporary restraining order was issued by a federal judge. Several months later Judge Mariana Pfaelzer issued a permanent injunction against virtually all other provisions of the bill, ruling it had pre-empted the federal government’s “exclusive jurisdiction” over immigration policy. Wilson appealed the case to the Ninth Circuit, the most liberal circuit in the federal judiciary, and the appeal predictably failed. When Gray Davis succeeded Wilson he ceased further appeals in 1999, ending the initiative. Though historical hindsight is 20/20, it is certainly arguable that Prop 187 might well have eliminated the magnets that drew massive illegal immigration to California in the ensuring years and might have prevented the financial meltdown of the state, the huge widening of income disparity, the expansion and implosion of its social safety net, the collapse of its public education system, and the out-migration of many of the state’s best-trained workers and professionals.
At this point, this is a big accomplishment. But, if he manages to be reelected, a bigger, more enduring legacy will be his handling of the census. It’s been reported that the administration wants to eliminate considering those who are here illegally from as a part of a legislative district. If they can manage to peel away illegals from counting toward the “population,” then the democrat built-in majority evaporates.
The media, even the so-called "conservative" media have little or no concept of what John Q. Citizen thinks, wants and/or cares about.
The value of the worker-friendly trade deals is undone however, if he continues to see it spurring a need for ever more immigration. Because even those high-skill immigrants are pushing our country to the left, while the “low-skill” immigrants too often also become multigenerational burdens on taxpayers. And all those immigrants (except the creme de la creme tech innovators) help to keep American worker wages from rising.
Have you noticed how many medical doctors now are immigrants? Do we really not have enough Americans interested in training to become doctors? I know the AMA has kept a cap on med school slots for ages, but I would think they would be seeing how useless that attempt to keep down competition.
“In short, America as we know it, is DOOMED.”
I’m somewhat more optimistic. I did say “if” they ever get the reins again, not when. America hearts and minds can be retaken in the same way they have been getting taken away. It just takes time.
It's good for our side to talk up our 'wins'. Remember - democrats are totalitarians who will use judges to put us and our children in gulags and re-education camps. They ARE monsters who will do massive voter fraud in the upcoming election... We're in for the fight of our lives.
Judges and single handedly changing 75 years of flawed Manged Trade policy despite opposition from everyone in DC and the Financial world.
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