It’s understandable why everyone is focused on The Greatest Show on Earth, the appearance of James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, June 8, 2017.
But barring some surprise testimony not in Comey’s prepared statement, the hearing will merely confirm “bad” news for Trump already leaked to the press – none of which rises to the level of criminality. And there are some good aspects of the testimony, including that Trump was not personally under investigation and never asserted any type of interference in the Russia probe.
While everyone was focused on Comey’s prepared statement, Trump went about his business filling vacancies in the federal judiciary.
I wrote about this a month ago, Trump begins counter-packing federal courts, Dems can’t stop him thanks to Reid Rule:
As we have pointed out repeatedly, Trump has an unprecedented opportunity to nominate a substantial percentage of the federal judiciary.There are currently over 100 vacancies, and many more are likely to open up, Liberal nightmare: Trump could appoint half federal judiciary. Yet Democrats, so blinded by the light of #TheResistance, appeared oblivious to the approaching Tsunami of Trump lower court nominations.Today the first waves of the Trump judicial nomination tsunami hit the beaches in D.C.
Those ten nominees received mostly rave reviews, as detailed in that prior post.
The second wave of conservative nominees landed on Wednesday, as The Washington Times reports:
President Trump announced a new round of 11 judicial nominations Wednesday, including three nominees for high-profile federal appeals courts.One of the nominees, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison H. Eid, is being tapped by the president to fill a vacancy on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals created when Justice Neil M. Gorsuch was confirmed for the Supreme Court in April.Judge Eid was on Mr. Trump’s list of conservative potential Supreme Court nominees that he presented to voters during the presidential campaign last year. She has served on Colorado’s high court since 2006, and previously was the state’s solicitor general.“These nominations follow the successful nomination and confirmation of associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court, the successful nomination and confirmation of Judge Amul R. Thapar of Kentucky to serve as a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the nomination of numerous candidates to other judgeships,” the White House said in a statement.Mr. Trump also nominated U.S. District Court Judge Ralph R. Erickson of North Dakota to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and said he intends to nominate University of Pennsylvania Law School professor Stephanos Bibas to serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Erickson has served on the district court since 2003.The White House called Mr. Bibas, director of the university’s Supreme Court Clinic, “one of the nation”s leading experts in criminal law and procedure.” He has argued six cases before the Supreme Court, taught at the University of Chicago Law School and served from 1998 to 2000 as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.At least two of the nominees, Judge Eid and Mr. Bibas, are listed as legal “experts” by the conservative Federalist Society, which has advised Mr. Trump on judicial nominations. Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network, called the latest wave of nominees “a fantastic list.”
Conservative law professor Jonathan Adler was practically dancing in the aisles (assuming he was someplace with aisles when he wrote this), President Trump continues to make sterling judicial nominations:
Today, the Trump administration announced another slate of incredibly strong judicial nominees, including three nominees for federal appellate courts….Although one might not have expected this, the Trump administration appears to have a soft spot for academics. Five of the nine circuit court nominees announced thus far are current or former law professors (Eid, Bibas, Joan Larsen, David Stras and Amy Coney Barrett). Much like the Reagan administration, this administration appears to believe that appointing academics is one way to maximize its influence on the federal judiciary. President Ronald Reagan placed quite a few prominent legal academics on the bench, including Antonin Scalia, Frank Easterbrook, Douglas Ginsburg and Stephen Williams, and these nominations certainly had an outsize influence on the courts.
In perhaps the best indication that Trump is keeping his promises as to judicial nominees, The NY Times reports that liberal groups are dismayed:
Liberal groups expressed dismay.“Trump’s nominees thus far have had troubling records that have raised real concerns about their ability to act independently of the executive branch,” said Nan Aron, the president of the Alliance for Justice. “Like the previous nominees, this new slate has the burden to show that they are qualified to lifetime appointments to the federal bench.”
Now Mitch McConnell and the Senate Judiciary Committee need to do their job and get these people quick hearings and up or down votes.
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