Trump team convinced court review will lead to victory for 2020

The White House is eager to appoint as many judges as possible before 2020 to give President Donald Trump another topic of discussion that he can rally around when he re-election.

Trump's team believes that stacking the justice system with conservative judges is galvanizing the foundation, demonstrating its ability to deliver on a campaign promise of 2016, and helping win crucial states for 2020 like Colorado, Florida and Carolina. North. And Trump himself is convinced that judicial appointments are at the heart of his legacy and his political agenda, as he has asked for young judges to sit for decades, according to a former administrative advisor, a close adviser to the House. white.s and those who know the judicial projects of the administration.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Has made every effort to accelerate the pace by amending the rules of procedure to limit debate time and lower the voting threshold. The judges of the Supreme Court must clearly be approved. Over the past six weeks, the Senate has confirmed the appointment of 15 judges, helped by a recent adjustment limiting the debate.

"Clearly, this will be one of the most enduring legacies of the Trump administration and the next 25 to 30 years," said Republican Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I think it will remain a priority, especially when our Democratic colleagues do not seem too interested in legislation, especially in the House."

"President Trump fully understands why this is a transactional element needed to get grassroots support," said a White House advisor.

The Senate has already confirmed the appointment of more than 100 federal judicial candidates, including two Supreme Court justices and 40 Circuit Court judges. Outside Conservative groups and donors, we want the pace to move as quickly as possible.

This is a troubling situation for leftist strategists who say that the Trump administration and Senate leaders have broken the tradition of selecting judges and confirming their appointment.

"I do not know how they can still speed things up," said Daniel Goldberg, legal director of the Alliance for Justice on the Left. "Mitch McConnell has already eroded almost all the rules and standards in order to expel Trump's far-right judges with as little transparency and vetting as possible."

In addition to youth, Trump and his team are looking for potential judges who have Ivy League credentials or transplants with judges or high-level judges, according to a former administration official. The president also often talks about the importance of judges "not being weak," said one familiar with the White House judge selection process.

Although Trump himself is not personally involved in the selection of lower court judges, he has been heavily invested in the Supreme Court's choices of administration, according to former officials of the US Supreme Court. administration and people familiar with the White House process. Trump personally interviewed and selected judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

"The death of Justice Scalia has allowed him to think more systematically about the role of the courts and the importance of these issues for the Conservatives," said the person familiar with the White House process. "He saw how people responded to the problem and considered it an important way to build a strong political coalition."

The confirmation process of Kavanaugh, although penalized by the allegation of sexual assault, showed the White House how the conservative base rallied to its judicial choices. The struggle brought together groups with deep pockets, including the Federalist Society, the Prosperity-backed Americans for Koch, the Judicial Crisis Network, Concerned Women for America, and Susan B. Anthony List, among others.

"Americans are fed up with a federal government that does not listen to their concerns and a judiciary that has too often ignored the will of the people expressed by their elected representatives," Tim said. Murtaugh, director of communications for the Trump campaign. "By appointing judges who interpret – and not make laws", he gives the floor to citizens frustrated by judges who imposed their political opinions on the population. "

In 2016, 56 percent of Trump voters cited the issue of Supreme Court appointments as the single most important factor in supporting his candidacy, while only 41 percent of the voters of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton felt that it would be a good thing. was the most important question. In contrast, 49% of Democratic voters said it was an important but not decisive factor, according to election day.

Efforts to expedite applications have been harmonized with McConnell, giving priority to the confirmation of nominees of members of the judicial and executive bodies. Senate Democrats criticized the Senate for saying that it had turned the Senate into a "legislative cemetery." But with a divided Congress, the chances of passing an important bill in this session are slim.

The speed of court confirmations has increased since McConnell sparked the "nuclear option," a decision that limits debate time on most nominees to Trump. The change of debate time applies to lower district court judges but does not apply to Supreme Court or circuit court judges, when appeals are formed.

While Senators spend most of their days confirming judges, McConnell's advisors said they were not on a specific deadline and were simply trying to get as many judges as possible to be confirmed. end of the 116th Congress.

Carrie Severino, Chief Counsel and Policy Director of the Conservative Judicial Crisis Network, said that although the rule changes have helped confirm the confirmations, Democrats are still trying to slow the process of selecting candidates.

"It's a good idea to do it by January, because things are filling up during a presidential year," said Severino. "But even if it was the first year of your presidency, it is necessary to change position. We have 150 vacancies in the federal courts. This is a significant number.

The only other recent presidents to have confirmed more judges than Trump at this time in the third year of the presidency were Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, according to one court tracker maintained by the Heritage Foundation, which follows the appointments and confirmations of judges to President Ronald Reagan.

Until now, the administration has focused more on circuit court judges than on district court judges, as appeal courts cover larger areas of the country.

"Given the few cases that the Supreme Court is seized of, the court of appeal takes a ton of important decisions in which it is the last word," said Rorie Solberg, a professor of political science at the university. Oregon State University, whose research focused on judicial policy.

Trump's critics say the president's team touches a large number of overly partisan candidates who are spending too quickly in the Senate. Progressives complain that the Senate held nomination hearings last October during a congressional suspension prior to the mid-term elections, while senators were not in Washington, DC.

Republican leaders have also urged judges on the objections of senators from the state in which they will serve, breaking with the long tradition of the Senate, according to Goldberg.

While it is true that McConnell has modified and modified the rules of the Senate, every action he has taken is irreproachable, according to Solberg – and remains within the reach of future leaders.

"McConnell uses tools that have not been used before, but they have always been available. He is just willing to override standards enough because their short-term gain is worth it, "Solberg said.

"When the Democrats take power, they will apply the same rules and apply all the standards violated by the Republicans," she added. "Nobody will be able to recover that."