The White House had three of its judicial nominees withdraw this month—and it wasn’t because they wanted to spend more time with their families.
Two were bloggers whose inflammatory and discriminatory posts caught up with them. The third was humiliated on national television when he couldn’t answer basic questions about the law and had to concede that he had no trial experience, generally a prerequisite for a lifetime appointment on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
How these three unqualified men got as far as they did says something about the arrogance of the narrow Republican majority in the senate, and leader Mitch McConnell’s ruthlessness in rapidly reshaping the judiciary along ideological lines.
Holding a Supreme Court seat open for a year, denying President Obama his rightful choice, was just the beginning. Democrat Chris Coons, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, calls it “the Rocket Docket.”
The Republican senate last month confirmed four circuit court judges in one week—one more than President Obama got in his entire first year when Democrats controlled the Senate.
In all, Trump has confirmed a record 19 federal judges so far, including 12 circuit court judges.