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WASHINGTON – Senators, who were preparing for the November elections following a fierce Supreme Court fight, reached an agreement Thursday to leave the Capitol for the election campaign.
The Republicans demanded from the Democrats an arrangement that frees senators on polling day: during a flurry of votes Thursday night, they introduced 15 additional candidates, including three judges to the Court of Appeal , in an accelerated way. In doing so, they added an exclamation point to their victory after being seconded by a second Trump Supreme Court judge, and reinforced the historical imprint of the federal judiciary over the first two years. of its mandate, which could push right some of the most important courts in the country for a generation.
Democrats have agreed to swallow additional appointments to free their vulnerable members of the campaign full-time for the next three weeks. The party defends seats in 10 states that Mr. Trump won in 2016. After a polarizing confirmation battle over Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, many of these senators are facing increased enthusiasm among Republican voters. The Republicans, by comparison, defend a much smaller number of vulnerable seats and chose to keep the Senate in session later than usual during an election year.
At least one Democrat in danger, Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, was already back in his home country campaigning while senators were being elected.
But the deal enraged Liberal groups who tried to galvanize opposition to Trump's candidates. Chris Kang, chief counsel of one of these groups, Demand Justice, accused the Democrats of "showing weakness" by allowing as many candidates to progress.
The Democratic leaders of the Senate defended this decision as a matter of course. They said that even though they had stayed in Washington to slow down the confirmation process, the Republicans would still have been able to process all the judges in early November. With only a simple majority required to confirm the judges, Democrats can not stop any candidate by themselves.
Nevertheless, the achievements of the Conservatives are striking. On Thursday night, Senate Republicans had used a slim majority to confirm 29 judges at the Court of Appointment appointed by Mr. Trump, much more than any other president since the establishment of the regional circuit court system in 1891. They had added 53 additional district court judges to the bench. And after last week's quasi-partisan Supreme Court vote, they got a Conservative majority in court that could last a generation.
It took most of President Barack Obama's first term in a democratic Senate to confirm a similar number of appellate judges. Once the final judges sit, about one in six court of appeal judges will be appointed by Trump.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, chairman of the majority party, left the Senate floor Thursday night without comment, a sign that even Republican leaders were eager to leave the city.
If the Democrats took control of the Senate next month, they could abruptly end the confirmations, like McConnell's when the Republicans gained control of the Senate during the last two years of Obama's presidency. But this prospect remains unlikely and Mr. McConnell has other pending judicial candidates. (Mr. McConnell's refusal to advance Mr. Obama's nominations helped create the large number of vacancies Mr. Trump was able to fill.)
The House, where Republicans are more likely to lose their majority, has long since withdrawn from Washington. Legislators have spent a few days here since late July and after By finalizing a series of government funding bills in late September, Republican leaders released their members and left them at home until election day.
Upon their return in mid-November, both chambers must settle a long-standing dispute over the funding that Mr. Trump is asking for for a wall along the southwestern border and other provisions relating to the security of the border. Democrats and some Republicans have categorically refused to pay for a physical wall, which they say would be costly and inefficient. But the president's allies are ready to fight for it. And Mr. Trump has threatened to veto a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and other areas of government without it.
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