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Trump Appointments Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 10, 2018 8 Comments
Has it really been a year? Yes, on April 10, 2017, Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Remember, Gorsuch only was nominated for the Scalia seat because Merrick Garland, Obama's nominee, was not given a Senate hearing much less vote (it's highly unlikely he would have been confirmed by the Republican Senate even if given a vote). Mitch McConnell recently commented that stymying the Garland nomination was the "most consequential" decision of his career.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 16, 2018 11 Comments
After President Donald Trump nominated CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to takeover as director, stories from a year ago circulated about how she was in charge of a secret CIA prison in Thailand that tortured al-Qaeda suspects. The reports contained claims that she even participated. I even blogged about it, mainly because I was curious how Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and others would vote to confirm her due to her supposed past. After it caught on, ProPublica issued a correction that Haspel did NOT oversee the waterboarding of suspect Abu Zubaydah.

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."
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