Free Republic

Trump Appoints Supreme Court Justices and Federal Judges

The next president will likely solidify a lasting majority on the courts of appeals, either cementing President Trump’s judicial legacy or largely undoing it. Our nation’s courts are nearing a tipping point. During President Trump’s first term, he has achieved a slim conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court (5 of 9) and has evened the score in the critically important federal courts of appeals, which are the final stop for more than 99 percent of all federal appeals.Now, data compiled by the Article III Project (A3P) shows that the next president will likely solidify a lasting majority on the...

Near-total control of the federal appeals courts is within reach for legal conservatives if President Donald Trump is reelected, administration allies believe. While the pace of Trump's judicial appointments has been steady, about two-thirds of his circuit court nominees have replaced Republican-appointed judges, University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias told the Washington Free Beacon. A second Trump term would offer Republicans a chance to replace many judges nominated by Democrats as well, elevating Trump's judicial record from productive to transformational. The prospect of further appointments to the Supreme Court is also realistic, a chilling notion for Democrats that prompted...

A Canaanite fortress from the middle of the 12th century BCE (the days of the biblical judges), was unearthed in an excavation of the Israel Antiquities Authority and volunteer youths near Kibbutz Galon outside Kiryat Gat,some 50 miles south of Tel Aviv. The size of the fortress is 60 by 60 ft. and it includes towers at the four corners. A huge threshold was preserved at the entrance to the structure, hewn from a single stone weighing about 3 tons. Inside the citadel was a courtyard paved with stone slabs which had pillars in the center. Rooms were arranged on...

Baroudi & Associates, who represented the Russian vessel's crew, published a statement on Wednesday saying they sent letters in July 2014 to officials at Beirut Port and the Ministry of Transportation "warning of the dangers of the materials carried on the ship." Customs authorities issued repeated notices to a judge about the dangerous cargo, according to documents seen by CNN. But the judge, who cannot be named for legal reasons, responded multiple times saying that the ship and its cargo might not be within the court's jurisdiction, the documents show. In four handwritten responses written in 2016 and 2017, the...

The Michael Flynn case has opened a new front in the woke war on objectivity: Within the federal judiciary, we now have judges taking sides in the cases before them. It’s a development directly at war with the political philosophy that animates our Constitution. It would, if left unchecked, destroy the neutrality of the federal courts. If that were to go, the judiciary’s legitimacy and public respect for its dictates would be destroyed. Now, [Judge] Sullivan has doubled down on his insistence that he need not be neutral: He has, as if he were a party to the case, filed...

The coronavirus pandemic and recession that followed make it hard for any other news to make it to the front page, but the end of the tragedy is in sight. Just this week, researchers at Oxford announced positive results in human trials for their vaccine. Even if we are not yet at the beginning of the end, we may be, as Winston Churchill once said, at the end of the beginning. That means it might be time, at last, for the presidential campaign to focus on more than the pandemic. By this point in the election cycle, we should be...

In January, the Trump administration issued a rule prohibiting immigration judges from speaking about their job or their take on US policy. The one exception is judges who serve in their union. But the Trump administration is also trying to decertify that union. On July 1, the National Association of Immigration Judges filed a lawsuit alleging that the administration is violating the right to free speech. "We are in the midst of an urgent public debate about immigration reform in this country and some of the most crucial voices in that debate are being silenced," Ramya Krishnan, staff attorney at...

A former judge appointed to oppose the Justice Department’s request to drop its case against Michael Flynn urged sentencing to move ahead in a court filing Wednesday, arguing the government’s request to dismiss the case has only “pretextual” justification. Ex-Judge John Gleeson said in a DC federal court filing that “[t]he facts surrounding the filing of the Government’s motion constitute clear evidence of gross prosecutorial abuse. They reveal an unconvincing effort to disguise as legitimate a decision to dismiss that is based solely on the fact that Flynn is a political ally of President Trump.”--- U.S. District Court Judge Emmet...

Wilson might as well have been hatched in a Federalist Society lab; his lengthy political record reveals a deep commitment to Republicans’ political goals. Alliance for Justice, a progressive group that has opposed most of Trump’s judicial nominees, compiled a record of Wilson’s many controversial positions. Examples of his partisanship are not difficult to find. Wilson called Barack Obama “King Barack,” “petty and small,” “a fit-throwing teenager,” the “Anointed One,” a “radical leftist,” and “shrill, dishonest, and intellectually bankrupt.” He charged Obama with running the “most paranoid and politicized White House since Nixon.” He has also called Hillary Clinton “Crooked...

For Americans hoping Senate Republicans might finally engage the Russia collusion hoax seriously, last night’s interview of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by “Special Report’s” Bret Baier was a tremendous disappointment. McConnell better figure out quickly that if he doesn’t hold the Resistance accountable for the Russia hoax that harmed his party and the entire country for many years, he won’t have a majority in the next term. If it helps to motivate him, he should remember that not having the majority in the next term means he won’t get to confirm judges, an issue he hopes will be his...

U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny, a Bill Clinton appointee who Obama tried unsuccessfully to elevate to the federal appellate court, said in an April 16 conference call with the attorneys that they had to abide by his politically-correct terminology for the student-athletes at the heart of the case, according to a transcript obtained by the National Review. “What I’m saying is you must refer to them as ‘transgender females” rather than as ‘males.’ Referring to these individuals as ‘transgender females’ is consistent with science, common practice and perhaps human decency. To refer to them as ‘males,’ period, is not accurate,...

The Senate on Monday convened for the first time since March 25 as Democrats and Republicans clashed over the health of senators, as well as GOP efforts to confirm federal judges amid the coronavirus pandemic. Calling his fellow lawmakers “essential workers” as he defended the decision to return to the Senate amid the outbreak, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R- Ky., roundly criticized Democrats for obstructing the confirmation of judges and key government posts for months and forcing the Senate to hold roll calls and floor votes during the public health crisis. “The deadly coronavirus does not take time off...

French has slandered his Christian brothers and sisters by writing that 'millions of Trump-supporting white Evangelicals no longer care about character.' David French remains very disappointed that many of his fellow evangelicals support President Donald Trump. He has used the Wuhan virus pandemic to reiterate and expand his arguments against the president’s character and competence (spoiler: He still thinks Trump is too wicked and incompetent for Christians to vote for him).But he ignores that evangelical support for Trump, warts and all, is justified by principles French has urged on us — namely, that ours is not a Christian nation...

The liberal group Demand Justice is knocking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for discussing judicial nominations during the coronavirus pandemic, urging voters to tell him "no more distractions." The progressive outside group is going up with a digital ad, obtained by The Hill ahead of its release, that will run on both Facebook and Instagram, targeting Kentucky and national audiences. "The country needs emergency relief now, not more extremist judges who will vote to overturn the Affordable Care Act and take away health care from millions when they need it most. American lives are at stake. McConnell needs to...

As a Republican candidate for the Texas Supreme Court, Don R. Willett flaunted his uncompromising conservatism, boasting of endorsements from groups with “pro-life, pro-faith, pro-family” credentials. “I intend to build such a fiercely conservative record on the court that I will be unconfirmable for any future federal judicial post — and proudly so,” a Republican rival quoted him telling party leaders. Judge Willett served a dozen years on the Texas bench. But rather than disqualifying him, his record there propelled him to the very job he had deemed beyond reach. President Trump nominated him to a federal appeals court, and...

John Charles Hinderaker, of Arizona, to be United States District Judge for the District of Arizona. Mark C. Scarsi, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California. Stanley Blumenfeld, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California.Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California. Grace Karaffa Obermann, of Virginia, to be a Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims for a term of fifteen years.

A Darien woman has been named by President Donald Trump to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Jennifer H. Rearden, a partner in the litigation and crisis management practice groups at New York City-based firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, lives in Darien according to her Facebook page.... In 2008, she donated $2,000 to Barack Obama’s campaign, and Rearden has contributed repeatedly to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Gillibrand’s Off the Sidelines PAC which works to get more women elected to office. Rearden has donated to several Democratic campaigns, according to Federal Elections Commission...

The Ninth Circuit has been known as a bastion of liberal activism for years. It was perhaps the best example of everything that President Donald Trump was elected to try to correct, with a return to what the Court is actually supposed to be doing, adhering to the Constitution and not to political activism.

If it’s not “the economy, stupid,” as James Carville famously exhorted, then it’s the judiciary, smarty-pants. Those two issues turn out Republicans and conservatives more than any others in presidential elections, and it’s a sure bet the latter is why reluctant conservatives rallied to Donald Trump in 2016 — well, most of them, anyway. And Trump has delivered in both areas, but especially on judicial appointments.His biggest triumph — shared by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — could well be the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the famously far-left appellate panel. The Los Angeles Times calls Trump’s ten appointments...