Free Republic

Republican attorneys general are mounting a judicial attack on President Biden’s record number of executive orders and eyeing a favorable legal battlefield thanks to scores of conservative judges whom President Trump appointed to the federal bench. Lawsuits against Mr. Biden’s moves on climate change and immigration are working their way through district courts, where Mr. Trump installed 174 judges. Further up the judicial ladder, Mr. Trump appointed 54 circuit judges and three Supreme Court justices.

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” network political analyst Jason Johnson predicted if Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) becomes the vice president “she can help us impeach some of these judges, these under-qualified judges that Donald Trump has managed to push in.” Johnson said, “I’m going to jump a little bit forward. I’m going to assume — let’s say magically that Joe Biden wins the presidency and Senator Harris becomes Vice President Harris. What I think she would be best at, what I actually think makes her more qualified than some of the other people. Someone, once Biden takes office, is going...

WASHINGTON — The Senate has approved the nomination of a Mississippi judge to a federal appeals court, the 200th federal judge named by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Republican-controlled chamber. It’s the highest number of judicial nominees confirmed at this stage of a presidency in four decades. Cory Wilson was elevated to a seat on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal despite Democratic objections that he has a record of working to undermine voting rights of African Americans and other minorities. Approval came on a nearly party-line, 52-48 vote Wednesday. Maine Sen. Susan Collins was...

"No vacancy left behind." That quote, repeated over and over by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in the past year -- to cheers from Republicans and the outrage of Democrats -- has been the creed behind the Senate's single-minded push to confirm as many Trump-nominated federal judges as possible. And the 52-48 confirmation of Cory Wilson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday means that McConnell, in one respect, has quite literally accomplished that goal. Wilson fills the final remaining federal circuit court vacancy. None have been left behind.

WASHINGTON — Justin Walker epitomizes the conservative judicial project. He became a federal judge at 37 with no trial experience and sterling right-wing credentials. Eight months later, he has been promoted to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a frequent feeder to the Supreme Court. Walker’s confirmation Thursday by a Senate vote of 51 to 42 puts President Donald Trump one shy of his 200th judicial confirmation, which is teed up for next week. It’s a number not achieved by any president at this stage in four decades. A Harvard J.D., Walker’s meteoric rise was aided...

This will be a weekly post. Count is now 194 judges confirmed. 141 District Court judges 51 Circuit Court judges 2 Supreme Court justices McConnell has scheduled cloture on several more for next week. This week Cory Wilson (5th Circuit nominee) had a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Justin Walker (DC Circuit nominee) is currently awaiting a vote on the floor. When Walker and Wilson are confirmed, Trump will have 53 Circuit judges in less than four years. Obama had 55 in EIGHT years!

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...

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...

President Trump has reshaped the “notoriously liberal” U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, according to Carrie Severino, the conservative Judicial Crisis Network's chief counsel and policy director, who noted it was often referred to as the “Ninth Circus.”The former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas made the comments Monday on “Fox & Friends” in response to a Los Angeles Times article titled “Trump has flipped the 9th Circuit — and some new judges are causing a ‘shock wave.’”  The article said that when President Trump talks about his accomplishments in office, “he frequently mentions his aggressive makeover of a key sector...

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...

When President Trump ticks off his accomplishments since taking office, he frequently mentions his aggressive makeover of a key sector of the federal judiciary — the circuit courts of appeal, where he has appointed 51 judges to lifetime jobs in three years. In few places has the effect been felt more powerfully than in the sprawling 9th Circuit, which covers California and eight other states. Because of Trump's success in filling vacancies, the San Francisco-based circuit, long dominated by Democratic appointees, has suddenly shifted to the right, with an even more pronounced tilt expected in the years ahead. Trump has...

CONCORD, N.H. — Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Saturday said religious conservatives are making a “deal with the devil” so the federal judiciary can be stacked with nominees from a Republican president. “Does anybody really think that religious conservatives view Donald Trump as a religious [figure]?” Mr. Buttigieg said. “They’re riding a tiger, they’re making a deal with the devil knowing that they can get certain objectives met on the bench.” Mr. Buttigieg and other 2020 Democratic presidential contenders were appearing Saturday morning at a forum on the judiciary hosted by several liberal advocacy groups at a community...

The current presidency has been one of the biggest political roller coasters of modern times. Terms like “emoluments” that have not been bandied about in several hundreds of years have become verbatim. Seldom is there a time when the cover story in any major news media does not involve President Trump. While calls for impeachment have ebbed and flowed since Trump took office, they appear to have grown in tenor in recent weeks since a whistleblower described Trump’s interaction with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attempting to direct the Ukrainians to investigate political rival Joe Biden’s son, Hunter’s role working with...

Vote Scheduled: At 5:30 pm on Monday, February 10th, the Senate will proceed to a vote on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar #562 Andrew Lynn Brasher to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit. Leader McConnell has filed cloture on Executive Calendar #535 Philip M. Halpern to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York Leader McConnell has filed cloture on Executive Calendar #461 John Fitzgerald Kness to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois Leader McConnell has filed cloture on Executive Calendar #565 Matthew Thomas Schelp to be U.S....

On the day of his impeachment acquittal, President Trump has announced another round of judicial nominees. Below are their names and bios, courtesy of the White House. David W. Dugan of Illinois, to serve as Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. David Dugan currently serves as a Circuit Judge for the 3rd Judicial Circuit, Madison County, Illinois. Prior to taking the bench in 2017, Judge Dugan was in private practice for more than 30 years, where his practice focused on personal injury and commercial litigation in both State and Federal Courts. Judge Dugan...

Washington -- Dare we call it the Trump Revolution? We call the presidency of Ronald Reagan the Reagan Revolution. Well, consider what President Donald Trump has achieved in but three years. He has revived the economy with ample growth, historically low levels of unemployment and efficiencies in the economy thanks to the removal of unnecessary stultifying regulations. He promises more if reelected. He has assured international peace and stability. Becoming a prominent terrorist is no longer a smart career choice. Longevity can be problematic. And the president has assured a judicial system stocked with men and women who really believe...

As Democrats’ efforts to oust President Trump from office have played out in the Senate this week, his opponents in the judiciary branch of government quietly maneuvered to curb conservatives’ growing influence on the federal bench. The ethical advisory arm of the federal judiciary is quietly circulating a draft rule that would ban judges and their clerks from belonging to the Federalist Society, an organization aimed at fostering an originalist interpretation of the Constitution at law schools and through forums and debates across the country. The proposed rules change is the latest salvo in a campaign to cast the Federalist...

Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, who was appointed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Donald Trump, struck back against transgender insanity on Wednesday in a court case. Norman Varner, a man who pleaded guilty to child porn charges in 2012, has since come out as transgender. He now demands special rights due to his gender transition, which he announced in 2015. He demanded that the court use female pronouns to address him, and call him by his preferred name of “Katherine Nicole Jett.” Duncan was having none of it while writing his majority opinion about the case. “Norman...

Vox.com noted last week: There’s no completely objective way to measure legal ability, but a common metric used by legal employers to identify the most gifted lawyers is whether those lawyers secured a federal clerkship, including the most prestigious clerkships at the Supreme Court. Approximately 40 percent of Trump’s appellate nominees clerked for a Supreme Court justice, and about 80 percent clerked on a federal court of appeals. That compares to less than a quarter of Obama’s nominees who clerked on the Supreme Court, and less than half with a federal appellate clerkship. In other words, based solely on objective...