The Constitution sets up an independent judiciary as the third branch of government, intended to protect people’s rights and to serve as a check on the power of the other two branches. Our nation’s charter tasks the president and the Senate with the job of selecting and vetting the people who would serve on those courts. President Obama has been doing his duty by nominating qualified women and men to serve as judges at all levels of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court.
But the GOP-controlled Senate is not living up to its constitutional responsibilities. While this has always been harmful to America, it is even more so with Donald Trump the presumed presidential nominee of his party.
Mitch McConnell and his party have slow-walked or outright blocked so many nominees that the number of circuit and district court vacancies has risen from 40 when they took over the Senate to 80 today. (There are also several vacancies for the Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.) In that same time, the number of vacancies formally designated as judicial emergencies has skyrocketed from 12 to 29. The Senate has not been allowed to vote on nominees who were thoroughly vetted and approved months ago by the Judiciary Committee with strong bipartisan support.
Yesterday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin went to the floor to draw attention to the problem. She noted that while the Senate GOP’s blockade of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland has been in the headlines, that has not been the case with the obstruction of lower court nominees.
She focused particularly on Seventh Circuit nominee Donald Schott, who not only has Democrat Baldwin’s support, but also that of his other home-state senator, Republican Ron Johnson. Schott would fill the nation’s longest circuit court vacancy, which has been open for well over six years. Since the Supreme Court takes so few cases, the Seventh Circuit is usually the last word on the meaning of the Constitution and federal laws for millions of people in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, and every day that goes by with that vacancy open hurts everyone in those states. Schott earned strong bipartisan support from the Judiciary Committee, which advanced his nomination to the full Senate four weeks ago. Baldwin noted that Schott also has the support of a bipartisan group of former Wisconsin Bar presidents. Saying that “the people of Wisconsin and our neighbors in Illinois and Indiana deserve a fully functioning appeals court,” Baldwin urged McConnell to finally allow votes on Schott and on all of the judicial nominees who have cleared the Judiciary Committee. Many of them have been waiting for more than half a year for a floor vote, with several having been approved by the Judiciary Committee last year.
But Republicans are fighting to keep vacancies open for as long as possible so that they will be filled by a President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump, who wants to make it easier for the government to punish media sources whose reporting he disagrees with.
Donald Trump, who has said that Latinos cannot serve effectively as unbiased judges.
Donald Trump, who would ban certain people from entering the country based on their religion.
Donald Trump, who has demeaned and humiliated women at every opportunity.
Donald Trump, who has used hate groups’ blatantly anti-Semitic imagery in his campaign.
Donald Trump, who has said he is considering firing all Muslim TSA agents.
With serious discussion among scholars, political figures, and Americans across the political spectrum on whether Trump’s extreme views amount to fascism, we need a strong, effective, and independent federal judiciary more than ever. Yet Senate Republicans are pulling out the stops to allow Donald Trump to move quickly to dramatically transform our judiciary from the Supreme Court on down.
The Senate GOP is abdicating their constitutional and moral responsibility to the American people and to our democracy.