What Trump has done to the courts, explained

[Saviolo]

From Vox, here: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/9/20962980/trump-supreme-court-federal-judges

Trump hasn’t simply given lots of lifetime appointments to lots of lawyers. He’s filled the bench with some of the smartest, and some of the most ideologically reliable, men and women to be found in the conservative movement. Long after Trump leaves office, these judges will shape American law — pushing it further and further to the right even if the voters soundly reject Trumpism in 2020.

Let’s start with some raw numbers. Both Obama and Trump appointed two justices to the Supreme Court but Trump’s impact on the highest Court far exceeds Obama’s, because Trump replaced the relatively moderate conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy with the hardline conservative Brett Kavanaugh (that was after appointing conservative Neil Gorsuch to fill Antonin Scalia’s vacant seat). Obama’s appointees — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — largely maintained the balance of power on a conservative Court, while Trump has shoved that Court even further to the right.

On the courts of appeal, the final word in the overwhelming majority of federal cases, more than one-quarter of active judges are Trump appointees. In less than three years, Trump has named a total of 48 judges to these courts — compared to the 55 Obama appointed during his entire presidency.

It’s tempting to assume that Trump’s judicial appointees share the goonish incompetence of the man who placed them on the bench, but this assumption could not be more wrong. His picks include leading academics, Supreme Court litigators, and already prominent judges who now enjoy even more power within the judiciary.

And they’re young, too. “The average age of circuit judges appointed by President Trump is less than 50 years old,” the Trump White House bragged in early November, “a full 10 years younger than the average age of President Obama’s circuit nominees.” Trump’s nominees will serve for years or even decades after being appointed. Even if Democrats crush the 2020 elections and win majorities in both houses of Congress, these judges will have broad authority to sabotage the new president’s agenda.

McConnell and The Federalist Society have been waiting for this moment for years, and they've pounced on it. Calling them "Trump's" appointees is giving him a lot of credit. I'd call them McConnell's appointees.

[dem4decades]

1. By this measure, they've won. At least for a couple of generations anyway.

[Saviolo]

8. But only in some ways.

It's a shitty thing they've done that will take a LONG time to undo, but it's not the end. It may have cost them the foundation of their base.

[SterlingPound]

2. I will call them McConnells Follies

because they will come back to embarrass the GOP time and time again for the next 4 to 5 decades.

[ffr]

3. tRump has fired many public servants regardless of appointment

When it comes to who sits where, I'm for firing them all, using tRump's own precedent. They serve at the pleasure of the president.

While we're at it, fire all judges who affiliate themselves with republicans and replace them liberals, open liberals, and anyone thinking they might be thinking of becoming a liberal if they were given such a public post.

No problem with me. Do it on day one of the next democratic president's term. 100% supportive.

[Lochloosa]

7. You can't fire judges. They can be impeached and removed.

But it's the same threshold in the Senate. 2/3's.

[Autumn]

4. It will be a generation before we even begin to recover from what they have done.

We must do away with lifetime appointments in all the courts. When the founding fathers set this up lawyers and judges were few and far in between. Now they are a dime a dozen and no where near impartial.

[badhair77]

5. Just plain depressing.

[Nitram]

6. Trump could never have done it alone. The Republican Senate is equally complicit.

And along with some competent and experienced untra-conservatives, we have quite a few totally inexperienced and unqualified ultra-conservatives who the American Bar Association rated as unfit for duty as judges.