Judge Garland Obama's nominee to replace Justice Scalia waited
over 10 months for Senate hearing
(McConnell would not schedule one)
The biggest hypocrite in Senate history
This is an update of the original post which follows below as we await Trump’s big announcement (scheduled for July 9 at 8 pm or so) of his new Supreme Court nominee.
That announcement is surely historical for any president to be able to get two new high-court justices in his first 18 months in office.
The most-giddy one, other than Trump and the entire GOP across conservative la-la land, is Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Analysis of his giddiness is below from the AP article link and with my emphasis noted therein).
All that written about McConnell may be true and factual, and even acceptable in most GOP corners of the land while putting him in the as the #1 deal-maker or top savior for his legacy and GOP and certainly for Trump, even though he says it’s “too early to be talking about my legacy.”
I say bluntly, yes that all may favor him, the entire Republican establishment, and even their ultra-rightwing conservative agenda, but what about the country as a whole?
In all this and for so many reasons and examples simply shows me and millions of Americans I am sure that all is true, however, they also put the country second or lower on the McConnell-GOP and now Trump ladder of success scale, or so it seems.
From this AP article with my emphasis and key parts noted.
I strongly believe that no matter who believes or trusts Trump when he bashes the media (other than FOX which he never bashes or insults) that God bless them for doing their jobs to report as factually as possible the news.
Where would we be without a free press? I shudder to think about that. We need media balance and open debate regardless of Trump’s nasty insults and labels about “Fake News” and such.
Besides, who can really trust Trump to speak factually or truthfully and honest about anything except that which he picks and chooses for is base to trust and believe, and most of the time he is flat out wrong – just blustering hot air. So, I fall on the side of the media, their work, and I can sort through the stories for the facts and make up my own mind – not be told by Trump “Believe me” a thousand times a day.
FOX news is content when Trump is content. Their sole mission is to fluff Trump and keep him happy. He then dishes kudos to them.
That is the Trump-FOX symbiotic relationship. Just to be fair and balanced, right? (Now huge smile).
WASHINGTON (AP via MSN) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was upbeat the night after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced he was retiring from the Supreme Court.
The Kentucky Republican had already led the Senate in confirming more circuit court judges in the first year of Donald Trump's presidency than in that of any other president in history. Now McConnell had the chance to confirm a second Supreme Court justice, a thrilling prospect for his party.
More than any other accomplishment, including the passage of the GOP's tax cuts, the remaking of the judiciary is fast becoming the cornerstone of the Republican leader's legacy. It's something he's been working on for a long time. “Well, I think it's a little too early to be talking about legacy,” McConnell said with a smile as he left the Senate chamber, adding: “A year and a half ago, I said it was a top priority confirming judges, and it remains so.”
With McConnell leading the way in the Republican-controlled Senate, Trump is seeking to put his imprint on the federal judiciary for generations to come. While the latest opening on the Supreme Court is commanding all the attention, with Trump set to announce his pick, the nominees to the lower courts are also consequential. More than 40 federal district and circuit court judges have been confirmed to lifetime appointments so far during Trump's term, and those judges will have enormous sway in shaping legal arguments nationwide.
Nearly 100 other judicial nominees are awaiting Senate confirmation. In all, there are more than 150 vacancies on the courts.
The GOP's focus on the judiciary has been sharpened by their narrow 51-49 Senate majority, which has made passing legislation difficult. Sixty votes are normally required to advance a bill, while judges can be confirmed with a simple majority.
The newcomers to the bench follow a type.
An Associated Press analysis found that roughly two-thirds of the judges who have been confirmed under Trump are white men. Of the 42 confirmed nominees, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, none are black. Ten are women, nine of them white. Three of the judges are Asian-American men and one is a Hispanic man.
In contrast, during President Barack Obama's two terms, only 37 percent of judges confirmed were white men. Nearly 42 percent were women — the highest share of female judicial appointments of any president.
“What the administration is seeking is to transform the face of the entire federal judiciary,” said Nan Aron, president of Alliance for Justice, a liberal group that tracks court issues.
Aron added: “The nominees share one basic characteristic — their hostility to progress that's been made in women, workers and civil rights as well as health and safety over the past several decades. This probably is the most extremist slate of judges we've ever seen.”
Conservative judicial advocates say the judicial appointments are correcting the leftward tilt of the bench. They see Trump and McConnell's revamping of the courts — in the face of Democratic filibusters that stall even popular nominees — as more important than even legislative victories.
Carrie Severino, the chief counsel and policy director at the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, says: “It's something that's viewed across the Republican and libertarian base as a huge accomplishment.” Republicans have often been seen as taking greater interest in the judiciary than Democrats.
McConnell works closely with the Federalist Society, which is at the forefront of conservative judicial thinking, and he helped the group draft Trump's list of 25 potential Supreme Court nominees. He well understands the power of the judicial branch to shape policy and mobilize voters.
McConnell laid the groundwork for this moment with a startling move just hours after Justice Antonin Scalia's sudden death in February 2016.
He announced the Senate wouldn't consider Obama's nominee because it was a presidential election year. He followed through on that vow, holding the seat open until after Trump took office. Democrats remain livid over the move to this day, calling it a stolen seat.
(More on this in below video of McConnell - in he own words).
But the Republican blockade helped solidify conservative and evangelical support for Trump during the election, as many rallied to the cause of having a Republican president fill the seat. McConnell has characterized the gambit as his single greatest achievement.
Douglas Johnson, the senior policy director for National Right to Life, says the federal judges being confirmed are “extraordinarily qualified,” and he praised McConnell for recognizing “this is important,” adding: “We saw Senator McConnell's extraordinary leadership at the time of Scalia's death — this is a continuation of that.”
It began when Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, then the Senate majority leader, changed the rules of the Senate. Frustrated with GOP roadblocks in the Obama era, the Democrats eliminated the filibuster for nominees for the administration and judiciary, other than for the Supreme Court. In practice, that means that 51 votes, rather than 60, are needed to confirm nominees.
Reid's move was so inflammatory — it is known as the nuclear option — that it came with a warning from McConnell on the Senate floor: “I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you will regret this, and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think.”
After Republicans won control of the Senate in 2014, McConnell became leader — and the confirmation of Obama's nominees started grinding to halt. As Trump was about to take office, there was what some call an emerging vacancy crisis, with some 100 openings in the judiciary.
My final 2 cents on this update: Back to my main point. Yes, all of that mentioned in the article about McConnell’s aim, goals, processes, statements, and mission for Trump and the GOP and especially their rightwing elements may be true, what about the country’s future?
I say as clear and concise as I can: The Republicans only care about themselves, their party, and not much else. To be fair, many DEMS hold that same view and that is what is wrong, too.
They all profess to put honor, loyalty, and duty to the “people” they represent (or so they say in their floor speeches), but in reality it comes down to protecting their own hides, their own political survival, and their own seats of power.
That has been underscored and highlighted by the corruption of so many in this administration from Trump on down to Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, and a few others grabbing all they can while they could before getting caught and resigning or whatever – the greed factor ranks off the scale when GOPers are in office.
======================================================
The original post follows from here:
USSC w/o Kennedy “swing vote” gives Trump opening to leave his mark on the high court and America possibly for a generation and that time frame under his wishes I have to say will be damn ugly.
First this reminder of how Judge Merrick Garland, Mr. Obama’s nominee was treated by the GOP senate:
Seen Above Judge Merrick Garland
Now the main post:
In Wisconsin this week, Trump said: "We're passing so much. Look at what's happening with our Supreme Court. Look at the victories we've had. Look at the victories we've had."
Filling a Supreme Court vacancy is a welcome opportunity for any president. The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy gives Trump the ability to lock in a conservative majority that could endure long after his presidency has ended.
After Trump's sweeping tax overhaul, his successful nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the court last year was his most significant achievement, affirming the unifying role that Supreme Court politics have played for Republicans. Trump can thank Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for keeping the court seat open during the last year of Obama's presidency.
He also benefits from good timing in Kennedy's decision to step down at this moment. If Kennedy had stayed for another term, Trump would have had a harder time using the issue to fire up his base of conservatives in the midterm elections.
With Gorsuch in place, the high court has been particularly generous to Trump's causes of late. Just this week, the justices (1) upheld his Muslim travel ban on visitors from several majority Muslim countries, and (2) that was followed by a ruling on union fees that was long sought by conservatives and hampers Unions all across the country.
(I note: A historical fact: Republicans hate Unions and all they stand for. How about this reminder of Union good deeds for decades that I call:
The Value of Labor Unions: What they worked hard to get passed into law, and which has helped get the following possible for all American workers).
1. Weekends off and breaks at work including lunch
2. Paid vacation
3. Family & Medical Leave Act
4. Sick leave
5. Social Security
6. Minimum wage
7. Title 7: employer discrimination
8. 8-hour work day
9. Overtime pay
10. Child labor laws
11. Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
12. 40-hour work week
13. Workers compensation
14. Unemployment insurance
15. Pensions
16. Workplace safety standards
17. Employer health care insurance
18. Collective bargaining
19. Wrongful termination laws
20. Anti-Age Discrimination 1967
21. Whistleblower protection laws
22. Employee Polygraph Protection
23. Veteran's Employment and Training
24. Compensation & Raise Evaluation
25. Sexual harassment laws
26. Americans with Disabilities Act
27. Holiday pay
28. Employer provided-insurance
29. Privacy rights
30. Pregnancy and parental leave
31. Military leave (job protection)
32. The right to strike
33. Public education for children
34. Equal Pay Act: 1963 & 2011
35. Ending sweatshops/Child labor)
Now more pertinent info on this vacancy from various sources:
Here from Vox.com:
And here from Advocate.com:
Here from the Boston Glove – a reminder of sleazy Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his shenanigans to hurt then President Obama with his nomination of Judge Merrick Garland for the Scalia vacancy.
Judge Garland never even got a GOP hearing for nearly a whole year, yet now McConnell says: “We need to replace Kennedy ASAP.”
Video clip is here from Snopes.com – McConnell’s own words not mine.
Finally, more McConnell here from the York (PA) Dispatch:
My 2 Cents: Mitch McConnell is playing the lowest of the low in politics over this USSC vacancy by all accounts will be a hardcore conservative giving this court a lock and guaranteed 5-4 on rulings that will impact tens of millions of Americans and NOT in a good way – bet on it.
If any Republican truly believes in the county that they do in so many floor speeches, then they will not allow politics one bit to enter their nomination process, period.
Weak-kneed DEMS too – take note and stick to principles and I do not mean crazy and nonsense Trump “principles” which are anything but principled, either.
Stay tuned and for good sake tell your Senator to oppose Trump and do their duty in the Senate – no rubber stamp for Trump nominee.
Thanks for stopping by.
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