Can Republicans Fill 25 Federal Judgeships Before January?
According to the administrative office of the U.S. Courts, this Congress has confirmed 57 federal judges. Before the end of the lame duck session, however, Trump wants 25 more.
He also wants Congress to act on dozens of other open positions in his government for which nominations are pending.
It’s a big ask to a Congress that already has a very busy schedule.
In theory, if Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), maintains a break-neck pace, the nominees for judgeships will be able to make it through. But the Republican push to act on Trump’s orders could well define the lame duck Congress, spilling over into other legislative fights, as Trump looks to remake the judiciary to the greatest extent possible, and to staff up his administration amid what looks to be in the beginning of an exodus, with top, Senate-confirmed officials leaving their roles.
Trump has, over his two terms, appointed more than 300 judges, as Politico recently tallied — a sweeping reenvisioning of the federal judiciary engineered in large part by outgoing senator and former Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). As a case makes its way toward the Supreme Court, it’s increasingly common for a Trump-appointed judge to have a chance to weigh in on it. In Trump’s second term, these nominees have gotten particularly extreme.
The judiciary was not an issue at the forefront of the midterms, but will be shaped by whopping Democratic Senate wins last week. The prospect of 6 years of a Democratic senator from a state like Kansas, or, possibly, Mississippi makes it much harder to see how Republicans will have the votes they need for a similar judicial blitz in the near future, or, for that matter, the unimpeded opportunity to confirm a replacement for whichever Supreme Court justice next retires.
This window is closing for Trump and congressional Republicans. That urgency incentivizes Democrats to make the process as slow as possible.
A MAHA Activist Goes Scorched Earth, Claiming Corruption in Trump’s Inner Circle
- You may have already heard a good deal about this fight between Calley Means, a sort of hard-to-define MAHA influencer and businessman who became a Trump administration aide and top ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and a number of other people in Trump’s orbit, who, after quitting in October, Means accused of corruption.
- Specifically, during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast last Friday, Means accused former chief of staff Susie Wiles and former deputy chief of staff James Blair — until recently powerful figures in the White House — of subverting the MAHA agenda so they could maintain good relationships with, and collect midterm donations from, the sugar lobby, the vape lobby and the kratom lobby.
- Both have denied the accusations, and Blair has threatened to sue Means for defamation. The feuding has continued in television appearances and on social media through the weekend into yesterday.
- There are a few aspects of this story I find interesting, including the role played by Means, a businessman who made his career helping people get tax breaks on odd items for which they could argue they had a medical need — a New York Times profile of the company was headlined “A Kennedy Aide’s Start-Up Can Get You a Tax Break on a $9,000 Sauna.” That Means was shocked — shocked! — to find corruption atop a federal agency, especially one in the Trump administration, is surprising, to say the least. Blair and company dismiss Means as a disgruntled former employee.
- Regardless, his allegations of corruption do echo an issue that voters across the political spectrum said was their top in a midterm that saw support for Republicans among nearly all demographics — including the young men who listen to the Joe Rogan show — collapse. “We’re looking at this very case,” Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Sunday.
- There’s also a murder-suicide element of this feud that we’re seeing across right-wing crashouts in the wake of the midterm. Activists formerly in Trump’s good graces are willing to burn it all down to settle scores, with their opponents giving as good as they get. I suspect we’ll see more of that in the weeks ahead. No one in this story still has a White House job.
- Lastly, its interesting to see how Means angles his critique to continue to maintain influence. He praises Stephen Miller, Wiles’ replacement, as someone who gets what MAHA is about. And he insists Trump was not fully aware that any of this was happening and was simply mislead by his advisors. “I think he had severe poor advice from people, I think, who treated him like a baby in many respects,” Means told Face the Nation. A real “good czar, bad boyars” dynamic.
Tabs
- It’s time for Zuckerberg to take off the gold necklace. The Washington Post reports that in Silicon Valley, “a group of left-leaning donors and advisers are quietly coalescing on a vision to wrest control of the agenda from the Trump-aligned industry leaders.”
- Haley Stevens apparently spent her first day back on the hill in the Republican cloakroom, according to the Washington Sun.
Woman of the Hour
It’s Rep. Lauren Boebert, perhaps most famous for getting kicked out of a regional staging of the Beetlejuice musical. TPM relies on the Associated Press for race projections, and they have not yet made a call. But it’s looking like the writing is on the wall. CNN says Boebert has lost her race for reelection.
Are We at War?
The war is “effectively over,” Trump asserted yesterday.
Programming Note
We’ll be off tomorrow for Veterans Day.
What are the Ds options to slow/halt the judicial blitz?
This should happen.
I’m sure others realized this long before me, but the right wing plan to corrupt the Supreme Court was kind of brilliant. Yes, it took years to lay the foundation, but rich people have that kind of time. But think about it: You only need to get 5 or 6 of your people there, and they have lifetime appointments so no pesky elections to worry about, and you essentially own one of the coequal branches of government for potentially decades. And on the plus side, all the work laying the foundation can continue to pay off for years to come; whenever a right wing Pres has an opportunity, there’s a cadre of minions jumping at the chance to be the next SCOTUS servant to the ultra-conservative, ultra-wealthy crowd.
All of which is why SCOTUS reform is such a pressing concern.
It would be useful to understand the procedural games and lame-duck Senate dynamics that Democrats can use to avoid confirming any Trump judges and other appointees at all. Republicans are going to want to pick their battles, given that the electorate has told them in no uncertain terms they don’t want this Congress making their decisions for them. Is there a limit to what the lame-duck majority can brute-force through in the lame-duck? Is there a way to challenge McConnell’s vote, which may or may not be his decision, but is almost certainly being executed by someone else? Will some Republicans break ranks and refuse the pressure to railroad some Trump priorities while they still have the majority, which ones, and where might the lines be drawn?
Congress has a month to pass a bill to fund the government and many Republicans will be occupied looking for work (only so many right-wing welfare positions available), so I don’t know how eager they’ll be to jam through judges nominated by the guy responsible for the midterm annihilation.