Tuesday, March 19, 2024

How Many Federal Judges Are Republicans

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Vote Along Party Lines

How Republicans are packing federal courts with conservative extremists

Wednesdays approval came on a nearly party-line vote of 52-48. Maine Senator Susan Collins was the only Republican to vote against Wilson.;

Wilson will join the 5th Circuit court, which hears cases from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The court is considered one of the most conservative appeals courts in the nation.;

Even with all the outrage and protests happening across America against systemic racism, Senate Republicans still want to confirm anti-civil rights judicial nominee Cory Wilson. For a lifetime seat.

This is so out of touch with what the people are demanding.

Appointments By Circuit Court And Party

Following are the number of federal circuit court judges serving as of September 4, 2021, organized by circuit and the party of the president who appointed them.

  • Below is a display of the number of active judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

  • Democrat appointed: 7
  • Below is a display of the number of active judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

  • Democrat appointed: 1
  • Below is a display of the number of active judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

  • Democrat appointed: 5
  • Below is a display of the number of active judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

  • Democrat appointed: 8
  • Below is a display of the number of active judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

  • Democrat appointed: 5
  • Below is a display of the number of active judges by the party of the appointing president. It does not reflect how a judge may rule on specific cases or their own political preferences.

  • Democrat appointed: 4
  • Democrat appointed: 7
  • Democrat appointed: 16
  • Democrat appointed: 5
  • Circuit Vacancies Filled Faster Than District Vacancies

    The administration and the Senate took more time to propose nominees to fill district court vacancies than court of appeals vacancies, and more time to approve district court nominees than to approve circuit nominees. As in previous administrations, delay in submitting nominees was greater in states with opposite-party senators, but the greater delay in confirming such nominees is a departure from practice under previous administrations.


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    Republican And Democratic Judges Have Turned On Trumpand Not Just When It Comes To The Election

    Steve Friess PoliticsDonald Trump2020 ElectionLawsuitJudges

    With the Trump campaign scoring just one victory so far out of the more than 30 lawsuits it has filed in six states, it wasn’t exactly a surprise when a Philadelphia appeals court last week became the latest to reject a challenge by the president to the results of the election. What was noteworthy was the scathing nature of the decision written by a Trump-appointed judge, who dismissed the case as having “no merit.” Also significant but largely unnoticed as electoral drama consumed the nation: The string of legal losses and dismissals suffered by the campaign is just one of several major defeats the courts have handed Donald Trump this fall on a wide variety of issuesand that, despite the large number of judges the president has appointed while in office, such defeats have been a common occurrence for his administration.

    What’s more, the rulings, in both the election-related suits and the non-election matters, have come from judges across the political spectrumconservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, some of whom were appointed by Trump himself.

    Indeed, in an era when Congress has rarely pushed back against expansions of presidential authority and when no amount of media scrutiny has cowed the president’s persistent efforts to demolish norms, one bedrock institution has stood alone in saying noand saying it repeatedlyto Donald Trump: the courts.


    No Partisan Divide

    “A Mixed Record,” Overall

    Median Days Nomination To Confirmation

    McConnell Has a Request for Veteran Federal Judges: Please ...

    Table 6b, though, reveals a new twist. At least for Obama district nominees submitted by late January 2012, median time to confirmation was about the same regardless of the make-up of the states Senate delegation: 195 days for nominees in states with two Democratic senators, and only slightly longer in states with one or two Republican senators.

    For Trump district nominees, though, a clearer blue-state/red-state difference appears. The Senate moved nominees in states with two Republican senators to confirmation in 217 median days. It took 412 days for nominees in two-Democratic-senator states.

    Table 6b: Median Days from Nomination to District Judge ConfirmationThrough late January, Fourth Year


    ;
    161-273

    Furthermore, it does not appear that the delay in confirming the district nominees from Democratic senator districts was because those nominees were particularly unpopular, at least as measured by Senate votes. Table 7 shows the distribution of negative votes for district nominees based on the make-up of the respective districts Senate delegations.

    Table 7: No votes for Trumps Confirmed District Judges

    No votes

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    Trump Says Barrett One Of ‘nations’ Brilliant Legal Scholars’ In Confirmation Speech

    On Friday, McConnell teed up a new round of votes on judicial nominees. The Senate is slated to vote Monday on Thomas Kirsch, a 46-year-old U.S. attorney, to fill the seat vacated by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whom Republicans confirmed to the Supreme Court the week before the 2020 election.

    The move embodies the McConnell-era Senate often a dead zone for legislative activity, but a well-oiled machine for confirming conservative judges, with Democrats all but powerless to stop it.


    Democratic leaders say the GOP is using the courts to advance an activist right-wing agenda.

    Senate Republicans know their agenda is so radical and unpopular that they can only achieve it in courts, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

    Us Judiciary Shaped By Trump Thwarts His Election Challenges

    5 Min Read

    – U.S. President Donald Trumps reshaping of the federal judiciary has done little to help him win lawsuits challenging the election outcome, with Trump appointees rebuffing him and the U.S. Supreme Court showing little interest in getting involved.

    An appeals court judge appointed by Trump, a Republican, on Friday ruled against his campaigns effort to overturn President-elect Joe Bidens win in Pennsylvania based on unsupported allegations of voter fraud.


    Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy, Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote on behalf of a unanimous U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals panel. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.

    Two judges appointed by President George W. Bush, also a Republican, signed onto Bibas decision.

    Bibas is one of 53 judges Trump has appointed to the federal appeals courts since 2016. By comparison, President Barack Obama appointed 55 in eight years. Trump has appointed roughly a quarter of all trial-level federal judges.

    The Trump administration has been so efficient at confirming judges, but its a real mistake to think that just because you appointed someone they will rule in your favor in an election case, said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

    Ultimately, Trumps biggest problem is his arguments are so shaky that it is hard to find a sympathetic judge, Levinson said.


    Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Grant McCool

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    Democrats Can Thank Themselves For Paving The Way Towards This Milestone

    Democrats changed rules to eliminate the 60-vote threshold , unintentionally clearing the way for the onslaught of conservative judges following the election of Mr. Trump. The day of the 2013 showdown, Mr. McConnell warned Democrats they would regret the move someday soon. Watching Judge Walker step one rung below the Supreme Court, many Democrats probably now concede that Mr. McConnell was right.

    Sen. Chuck Schumer lamented Tuesday the Democrats move to diminish the number of senators needed to confirm Cabinet picks from 60 votes to 51, because the new rule now hurts his party.

    • SEN. MICHAEL BENNET :n 2013, out of desperation, I came to this floor and voted to change the rules I have said on this floor before that that is the worst vote I have taken as a Senator I share some of the responsibility for where we find ourselves today. The majority leader said at that time: Youre going to come to regret this decision. And I will say this about him: He was right.
    • SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR :I wouldve liked to see 60 votes, no matter what the judge is. I dont think we shouldve made that change, when we look back at it.

    Judicial Appointment History For United States Federal Courts

    How Trump is winning the race to reshape the nation’s courts

    The appointment of federal judges for United States federal courts has come to be viewed as a political process in the last several decades. The tables below provide the composition of all Article III courts which include the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals at the end of each four year presidential term, as well as the current compositions of the District Courts and the Court of International Trade, categorizing the judges by the presidential term during which they were first appointed to their seats.


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    Appointments And Percentage Of Seats Filled

    Trumps and his supporters claim of a record number of judicial appointments is largely true. Table 1 displays his numbers against those of predecessors back to the Kennedy-Johnson administration, as of late January of the fourth year of each presidencys first term. Trump has appointed more court of appeals judges than any predecessor, although Carter comes close, and more judges overall than anyone but Carter, although Clinton comes close.

    In how he compares himself to his predecessors, however, Trump doesnt stop with raw numbers. He also claims that percentage-wise, I blow everybody away except one person . . . George Washington. Translation: Ive filled a greater percentage of statutory judgeships than all my predecessors except the one who filled all the judgeships created by the first Congress. Not so: Table 1 shows that at this point, the 21% of statutory judgeships he has filled ranks behind Kennedy-Johnson and Nixon, Carter, and Clinton.

    Table 1: Judicial Appointments, Late January, Fourth Year of First Term*

    Court of Appeals
    45% 1%

    When Trump took office, Republican-appointed circuit judges occupied 40% of the 179 statutory judgeships. Today they occupy 54%.


    How Republicans Have Packed The Courts For Years

    Jackie CalmesTimesDissent: The Radicalization of the Republican Party and Its Capture of the Court

    While Republicans lately have been attacking Democrats for plotting to pack the federal courts with like-minded judges, their party has been doing it for years.

    Through bare-knuckle tactics in the Senate, an animated base of voters and an institutionalized and well-funded pipeline for judges, Republicans have stocked the federal bench at all levels with conservatives who share the rights support for whacking at the wall between church and state and at the powers of federal regulatory agencies, banning abortion and expanding gun rights.

    Republicans ruthless success in the judicial wars is most evident on the highest court in the land. As the Supreme Court with its new 6-3 conservative majority ends its term this month, the question for court-watchers isnt whether it will rule in a conservative way. Its how far-reaching will those rulings be.

    The courts bent was perhaps most evident in its decision last month to review a Mississippi law generally barring abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, after two lower courts ruled the statute plainly violated Supreme Court precedents that the Constitution protects a womans right to have an abortion until a fetus is viable. The case will be decided in the courts next term that starts in October.


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    Court Of Appeals Judges

    Court of Appeals judges, also known as circuit judges, sit in one of the 12 regional circuits across the United States, or the Federal Circuit. They usually sit in a panel of three judges and determine whether or not the law was applied correctly in the district court, also known as trial court, as well as appeals from decisions of federal administrative agencies and some original proceedings filed directly with the courts of appeals.

    Learn more about the court of appeals from the following resources:

    What About The District Courts

    US federal judge sides with House Republicans over section ...

    The federal district courts, with their 673 statutorily authorized judgeships, are in many ways the backbone of the federal judicial system. Full-blown trials are now rare, but district judges decide motions to dispose of cases without trial, and oversee the pretrial processes in which cases get resolved.

    Filling district vacancies is the priority of many lawyers and those whom they representcommercial interests, law enforcement officials, criminal defendants, civil rights advocates and others. The Trump administration and its Senate allies, however, have given top priority to filling appellate vacancies, perhaps on the somewhat shaky view that the appellate courts make law that binds all judges in the respective circuits.

    Trump inherited large numbers of circuit and district vacancies, thanks in large part to Senate Republicans unprecedentedly miniscule number of confirmations in the final two years of the Obama presidency. Table 5 shows vacancies during presidencies from Reagan to Trumpthose in January of the first year and those in January of the fourth yearand the percentage increase or decrease.

    Table 5: Vacancies on Inauguration Day and in early January, Fourth;Year, First Term

    Court of appeals vacancies in January: District Court vacancies in January:
    First year
    18 -40%

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    Just Last Week The Senate Confirmed Judge Justin Walker To The Dc Circuit Court Of Appeals

    On Thursday, the Senate confirmed the 52nd federal appeals court judge of the Trump era to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit commonly known as the second most important court in the land The outcome was particularly sweet for Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, since the courts newest member is 38-year-old Justin Walker, a native of Mr. McConnells hometown, Louisville, whom the senator first met when Mr. Walker interviewed him for a high school research paper. Mr. McConnell personally lobbied President Trump to choose Judge Walker, a former intern in his office, for the powerful job.

    Walkers nomination also underscores the influence of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the conservative transformation of the federal judiciary under Trump

    From Fringe To Mainstream

    Mr. Trump has staked his presidency on upending conventions, and his approach to the judiciary breaks sharply with that of past presidents.

    He unapologetically views judges as agents of the presidents who appointed them , for instance, for ruling against the Trump administration in an immigration case. He frequently attributes his popularity among Republicans to his judicial appointments. And he has not been shy about politicizing the process.

    95% Approval Rating in the Republican Party, he wrote . Thank you! 191 Federal Judges , and two Supreme Court Justices, approved. Best Economy & Employment Numbers EVER. Thank you to our great New, Smart and Nimble REPUBLICAN PARTY. Join now, its where people want to be!

    In his State of the Union address in February, he bragged about his judicial appointments, promising, We have many in the pipeline. A week later, the Senate approved his 51st nominee to the appeals bench; 41 others now await votes for the lower courts.

    While federal judges of all stripes take an oath of impartiality and reject the notion that they do a presidents bidding Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. recently described an independent judiciary as a key source of national unity and stability the examination by The Times shows that the Trump administration has filled the appellate courts with formidable allies who fought for a range of issues important to Republicans.

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    How Trumps Judges Will Change America

    In an age of legislative dysfunction, whoever controls the courts controls the country. In the past decade or so or more precisely, since Republicans took over the House in 2011 Congress has been barely functional. You can count on one hand, and possibly on just a few fingers,the major legislation it has enacted.

    Judges, by contrast, have become the most consequential policymakers in the nation. They have gutted Americas campaign finance law and dismantled much of the Voting Rights Act. They have allowed states to deny health coverage to millions of Americans. Theyve held that religion can be wielded as a sword to cut away the rights of others. Theyve drastically watered down the federal ban on sexual harassment. And that barely scratches the surface.

    The judiciary is where policy is made in the United States. And that policy is likely to be made by Republican judges for the foreseeable future.

    And thats not all.In the coming months, the courts are poisedto gut abortion rights, eviscerate gun control, and neuterlandmark environmental laws. Federal judges have already stripped workers of their ability to assert many of their rights against their employers, and this process is likely to accelerate in the near future. Many of our voting rights lie in tatters, due to conservative judicial appointments, and this process is likely to accelerate as well.

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