Interview: Pete Buttigieg on judicial appointments, reforming federal courts

[TexasTowelie]

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has made headlines for endorsing a plan to expand and restructure the U.S. Supreme Court, an issue he has discussed more often than other candidates running for president. The topic may strike a chord with many activists; a national poll commissioned in April by Demand Justice found that most Democrats likely to participate in the 2020 primaries disapprove of the job the Supreme Court is doing.

Bleeding Heartland asked Buttigieg more broadly about potential changes to the federal judiciary in a 15-minute telephone interview on June 7.

Since most federal cases don’t reach the Supreme Court, I started with the courts that resolve most legal disputes. The Judicial Conference, a policy-making body for the federal court system, has for years recommended increasing the number of judgeships to help courts cope with their increasing caseload. The plan calls for five new slots on U.S. Circuit Courts and 65 new District Court positions around the country (one of those would be in the Northern District of Iowa). Would Buttigieg support the idea?

I don’t have a considered view on that, but I certainly think it’s the right time to be asking these questions.

You know, we’ve gotten locked in certain structures and certain numbers, so much so that I think we’ve come to assume that they’re immutable. This is true of everything from the size of the U.S. House of Representatives to the make-up of the current U.S. Supreme Court, and it follows that there are other areas across our federal judiciary that deserve a look.

So you know, I don’t know that I’m ready to weigh in on what I think the optimal number would be, but we do know that there’s a lot of evidence that the system’s ready for a tune-up, and while the Supreme Court’s getting the most attention, it’s certainly not the only place in the judiciary that’s probably fallen out of step with the times.

President Barack Obama tried to work with Senator Orrin Hatch and other key Republicans to choose judges who would be vaguely acceptable to them. Assuming the GOP maintains control of the U.S. Senate, does Buttigieg see the president’s role as working with Republicans in a similar way, to try to get more judges through? Or does he think the president should nominate the most progressive qualified people for judgeships, and let the chips fall?

You know, working with Republicans only works if you can do it in good faith. And I think what we learned from, you know, certainly things like Mitch McConnell saying that they would push through nominees in 2020, when just two years ago they made it a matter of principle, or three years ago, they made it a matter of principle that you can’t have a nomination get confirmed during an election year.

It makes it clear that at this point, they’re not even pretending that they’re in good faith. And unless that fundamental dynamic changes among Senate Republicans, it’s going to be very difficult to approach them in the spirit of compromise and fair play and expect anything other than to be taken advantage of.

Read more: https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2019/06/09/interview-pete-buttigieg-on-judicial-appointments-reforming-federal-courts/

[crazytown]

1. "it's the right time to be asking these questions"

Harris: "we should to be having this conversation"

Kamala's dodge went over like a lead balloon on the April CNN town hall.