Senate Republicans confirmed the 36th circuit court judge under President Trump — a rapid clip of confirmations that may slow in the coming months simply because the GOP will have filled all the existing vacancies on the powerful federal appeals courts.
The scenario is a dramatic turnaround from the situation that Trump inherited in January 2017, when he came into office with 17 circuit court vacancies as well as an open Supreme Court seat that McConnell had kept vacant for more than a year by refusing to allow a vote on President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland.
Infuriated over being out of the process, some Democratic senators are vowing payback if they take back control of the Senate next year by not automatically deferring to Republican home-state senators on judicial candidates. Sen. Joni Ernst , who disclosed earlier this year that she had been sexually assaulted in college, raised concerns about columns Rao wrote about date rape while an undergraduate student at Yale University. The nominee apologized for her college writings in a letter to the Judiciary Committee.
Thomas had also spoken privately to GOP senators including Hawley and Sen. Tim Scott to boost Rao and to assure Republicans of her conservative legal philosophy.There is little that McConnell prioritizes more in the Senate than confirming judges. In the first two years of Trump’s presidency, the GOP-led Senate successfully installed two justices to the Supreme Court, as well as 30 circuit court judges and 53 judges to the lower-level district courts.
Senate Republicans now plan to quickly pivot to filling the 129 vacancies in the lower-level district courts. Those confirmation fights have generally drawn less controversy than those at the appellate level, but the GOP-led Senate is preparing to take unilateral action to change the chamber’s rules to allow for speedier confirmation of district judges and other non-Cabinet level presidential nominees.
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