04.09.2019

Senate Republicans Are Planning To Further Break The Senate To Speed Through President Trump’s Radical And Unqualified Nominees

As Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on the Senate floor yesterday: “The Senate needs to do its job. We should not be a conveyor belt for President Trump's radical and unqualified judicial nominees. So let's call this for what it is. This rules change is yet another power grab by Leader McConnell, the Republican Party, and its rightwing allies. It is a transparent attempt to further politicize our courts by packing them with President Trump's hard-right, ideological, and too-often unqualified nominees, and we will not be complicit in the Republican leader's games, which sacrifice much of the comity and bipartisanship that this Senate used to represent.” LINK

Six of President Trump’s nominees for judgeships have been withdrawn because of controversy or lack of qualifications. Some of these nominees (Farr, Bounds) were withdrawn at the last possible moment of post-cloture debate time; the very time Republicans seek to dramatically cut down for district court judges and many executive nominees. According to CRS, President Trump and the Republican Senate have confirmed the largest percentage of nominees rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association in recent history. Despite this, Leader McConnell has bragged about the speed of confirmation for President Trump’s judicial nominees.

President Trump’s confirmed judicial nominees were approved more quickly– not more slowly – than President Obama’s nominees in the 114th Congress, the first Senate in which Sen. McConnell became Majority Leader.

In addition to his unprecedented refusal to consider the nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, Senate Republicans more than doubled the number of circuit and district court vacancies by refusing to consider the vast majority of President Obama’s court picks in the 114th Congress.