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Republicans Remind Themselves Of The Good Trump Does Them
While you and me were focused on Trump’s racist Tweet and the furious battle that ensued, Senate Republicans cleared the 43rd judge to a U.S. Circuit Court during this Presidency
The approval of Trump’s nominee, Peter Phipps, to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals last week nearly completes Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s breakneck (and landmark) project of filling as many federal judgeships as possible with young, ultra-Conservative judges by 2020, just in case Trump loses next time around. And even if he doesn’t, since they’re all lifetime appointments, they’ll very likely outlast Trump anyway in terms of influence on American society.
Circuit courts are crucially important, because these regionally based federal courts are usually the last stop for a case before it gets to the Supreme Court. Which means if the Supreme Court refuses to hear a certain case (which it does with far more cases than it actually hears), the Circuit Court involved has the final say. (That’s why when you hear Trump discrediting certain circuit courts by saying they get all their rulings overturned by the Supreme Court it’s a bunch of baloney: of course a high number of cases that reach the Supreme Court involve overturning a circuit court ruling, otherwise the Supreme Court wouldn’t bother hearing them.)
The newest Circuit Court Judge, Peter Phipps, is hardly the most controversial. But he tips that court to a Conservative majority. Which is worth noting even though we wish (and still hope) Chief Justice John Roberts is right when he said:
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges….What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
And it’s worth noting that the 46-year old Phipps replaces an Obama appointee, Thomas Vanaskie, who retired at the age of 65 prior to Obama leaving office. But if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasn’t going to…
