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Trump Appointments Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 13, 2018 35 Comments
President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this morning and nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to take over that role. He also nominated CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to lead the spy agency. If confirmed, Haspel will become the first woman CIA director. However, she may face a rocky road to confirmation due to her role in torture sessions at a secret prison in Thailand.

Posted by Jared Samilow on January 24, 2018 10 Comments
Last Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced 17 Trump judicial nominees, eight of them along an 11–10 partisan split. And yesterday, the White House announced its 10th wave of judicial nominees. In a January 7 post, I examined Trump's probable impact on the thirteen federal appellate courts. In this post, I'll do the same for the 94 United States district courts—the federal trial courts in which all but a handful of cases originate.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 18, 2018 18 Comments
The Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee just voted 12-11, on a straight party line vote, to advance the nomination of Kenneth Marcus to become Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Department of Education, the press office of Chair Lamar Alexander has confirmed. The vote took place after an determined assault on the nomination by anti-Israel activists. In such position, Marcus would lead the DOE Office for Civil Rights, a position which has a huge impact on higher education. It was the Obama-era OCR that imposed the disastrous "Dear Colleague" letter eviscerating due process in campus sexual assault tribunals. The Office also deals with issues of discrimination.

Posted by Jared Samilow on January 07, 2018 17 Comments
Year One of President Trump's much-vaunted "judge story" was far more successful than anyone could have expected. Trump nominated and confirmed more appellate circuit court judges in his first year than any modern president. His judges were, on average, just 50 years old and all of them were well-credentialed conservatives. Several are potential SCOTUS nominees.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 03, 2018 67 Comments
This flame war between Trump and former aide Steve Bannon is something else. An article published in The Guardian Wednesday lifted passages from a new book 'Fire and Fury' by Michael Wolff. Bannon was quoted heavily in the book, calling the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians "treasonous."

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 19, 2017 20 Comments
The Senate Banking Committee has rejected President Donald Trump's nominee Scott Garrett to run the US Export-Import (EX-IM) Bank after two Republicans defected. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Mark Rounds (R-SD) sided with the Democrats, which has the bank that "boosts financing for U.S. exports by large and small companies" without a leader.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 18, 2017 22 Comments
Alex Kozinski was perhaps the most well-known member of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and was its former Chief Judge. It's hard to characterize Judge Kozinski in terms of the political conservative/liberal split. He was nominated by Ronald Reagan, but because he was on the 9th Circuit, popular opinion tends to treat him as a liberal. Libertarian probably is a better descriptor, and he was known as a defender of individual rights:

Posted by Miriam Elman on December 17, 2017 11 Comments
Last week the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee concluded its hearings regarding the confirmation of Kenneth L. Marcus, President Trump’s pick for the position of Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights. We noted in a post back in October, when the White House first announced the nomination, that Marcus is extraordinarily qualified for the job and is an excellent pick for heading the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Trump appoints attorney who combats antisemitism to key civil rights post.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2017 14 Comments
Donald Trump took office with the unprecedented ability to reshape the federal judiciary, with over 100 vacancies as of the Inauguration. Trump had the possibility of nominating in just one term in office nearly half the federal judiciary. Democrats' removal of the judicial filibuster in 2013 (the so-called Nuclear Option) cleared the way for Republicans to fill these vacancies regardless of Democrat objections, assuming Republicans retain control of the Senate in 2018.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 13, 2017 16 Comments
Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett was confirmed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals today. Justice Willett is best known for his Twitter account, where he stays away from politics, and is quite funny. Kemberlee put together a Best of (Future SCOTUS?) Justice Don Willett’s Twitter Feed. As we previously reported, during confirmation hearings, Dems tried to attack some of his tweets, Aging, humorless Dem Senator rips judicial nominee Don Willett over Bacon Marriage tweet.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 13, 2017 18 Comments
Fired? Resigned? Conflicting reports have come out over Omarosa Manigault Newman's departure as director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liasion. The White House said her last day is January 20. From Politico:
"Omarosa Manigault Newman resigned yesterday to pursue other opportunities," the White House said in a statement. "We wish her the best in future endeavors and are grateful for her service."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 17, 2017 21 Comments
I noted yesterday that Chuck Grassley finally appears ready to clear the backlog in Judiciary Committee hearings on Appeals and District court judicial nominees, by preventing withholding of "blue slips" from becoming de facto filibusters, Chuck Grassley rips up “blue slip” stall, Al Franken left groping for alternative delay tactic. It then will be up to Mitch McConnell to get nominees floor votes, and to overcome Democrat stalling tactics to draw out each nominee, even the ones they don't oppose. The goal has to be:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 16, 2017 23 Comments
I recently noted frustration with Democrat delay tactics for judicial nominations, including the withholding of "blue slips" to prevent confirmation proceedings to proceed, Trump judicial confirmations moving along, but not fast enough:
Every single vacant seat should be filled as quickly as possible. Some progress is not good enough. Grassley and McConnell need to clear all roadblocks, and Trump needs to fill the pipeline.
It looks like Grassley finally is getting the message, as Politico reports:
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