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Trump Appointments Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 08, 2019 19 Comments
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on Sunday after butting heads with President Donald Trump over policy and border control issues. He recently asked her "to close the ports of entry along the border and to stop accepting asylum seekers, which Ms. Nielsen found ineffective and inappropriate." Trump has chosen US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan as acting DHS secretary, but will he have the toughness Trump desires in the role? Some officials told CNN that they don't consider McAleenan "an ideologue or fire breather" when it comes to immigration.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 07, 2019 21 Comments
Much focus the past week has been on the anti-Semitic accusations of dual and disloyalty from Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar, backed by the progressive wing of the party, particularly Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Democrats not only have been unable to deal with it, they connived to water down a planned resolution condemning the recent anti-Semitic outbursts of Omar. This Corbynization of the Democrat Party got all the attention, but but there was other news mostly under the media radar: Republicans in the Senate continued to confirm judicial nominees over Democrat protests, and the pace may pick up.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 07, 2019 18 Comments
There has been a fair amount of conservative frustration that the Trump administration was slow to get off the mark to renominate and start the confirmation process for judicial nominees held over from the last Congress. Particularly as to vacancies on the 9th Circuit, there were fears that the administration was cutting a bad deal with Democrats.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 04, 2019 24 Comments
Neomi Rao is the nominee to fill the vacancy created on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals created when Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court after a vicious campaign against him. Rao's Judiciary Committee hearing is Tuesday, February 5. Senate Democrats and liberal interest groups are trying to attack Rao in order to damage her prospects for a future Supreme Court nomination and to serve as a warning that if she is nominated, they will Bork and Kavanaugh her.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 30, 2019 63 Comments
There was a huge outcry in conservative media over the past couple of days regarding a deal allegedly being worked out with liberal Democrat Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, as to nominees to fill vacancies. We covered the issue in Trump has opportunity to flip the 9th Circuit, so why isn’t he?  Rush Limbaugh covered it today, linking to our post.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 30, 2019 51 Comments
Bringing the federal judiciary back to the center has been one of the great successes of Trump's first two years in office. As mentioned many times before, Trump was presented with an opportunity to realign the federal judiciary for a generation given the large number of Court of Appeals and District Court vacancies when he took office. Judicial nominations, particularly to the Supreme Court, were a core Trump campaign promise and a huge motivator for Republicans in 2016.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 20, 2019 25 Comments
I'm so old, I remember when Republicans were ramming judicial nominations through the Senate, and Democrats were squealing like stuck pigs about it. Then came Jeff Flake's attempt to disrupt the process unless a bill were passed protecting Mueller, and then the congressional term ran out with Democrats refusing to carry over the nominations. That left 13 nominees for appeals courts and 60 nominees for District and other lower courts hung out to dry.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 10, 2019 59 Comments
85-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has suffered multiple health setbacks in recent months. She fell and broke some ribs, and then had cancerous tumors removed from her lungs. Recovery from the lung surgery caused Ginsburg to miss three days of oral arguments this week, the first time she has missed an oral argument since joining the high court:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 25, 2018 23 Comments
As a Catholic woman, I am very familiar with the faith-based, charity activities organized by our parish's Knights of Columbus group. I must have missed the memo saying it was a chauvinist, religious cabal intent on creating a pontifical version of "A Handmaid's Tale". It's a good thing US senators Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) are on top of things.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 07, 2018 8 Comments
President Donald Trump will nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to take over as UN Ambassador to replace Nikki Haley. From The Washington Examiner:
“Heather Nauert will be nominated [for U.S. ambassador]. She's done work with Nikki Haley to replace Nikki at the United Nations. She will be ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before departing for a trip to Kansas City, Mo.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 14, 2018 29 Comments
The Department of Justice has ruled that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker can serve in the position. Whitaker came under criticism after President Donald Trump appointed him when Jeff Sessions stepped down. Whitaker served as Sessions' chief of staff.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 04, 2018 42 Comments
The Senate Judiciary Committee has released its Final Report (pdf.)(full embed at bottom of post) detailing the extensive investigation conducted into allegations of sexual misconduct lodged against Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation proceedings. The report completely clears Kavanaugh. Here is a portion of the Summary (emphasis added):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 29, 2018 30 Comments
You may recall that just after Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, Democrats agreed to confirm 15 federal judicial nominees in exchange for Mitch McConnell putting the Senate in recess so that vulnerable Senate Dems could return home to campaign. #TheResistance was upset. While they can't stop nominees, they demand resistance for resistance sake. But Senate Democrats had other priorities.
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