Albuquerque Journal

With Supreme Court seat filled, GOP looks to lower courts

Party looks to fill about 120 vacancies

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WASHINGTON — Republican­s have put President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee on the bench, and they’re now in a position to fill dozens more federal judgeships - and reshape some of the nation’s highest courts.

Democrats have few ways to stop them.

The Republican­s’ opportunit­y comes with the GOP in control of Congress and the White House, about 120 vacancies in federal district and appeals courts to be filled and after years of partisan fights over judicial nomination­s.

Frustrated by Republican obstructio­n in 2013, then-majority Democrats changed Senate rules so judicial nomination­s for those trial and appeals courts are filibuster-proof, meaning it takes only 51 votes, a simple majority in the 100-member Senate, for confirmati­on.

Today, Senate Republican­s hold 52 seats.

The Democratic rules change did not apply to Supreme Court nomination­s. But Senate Republican­s are now in the majority, and they changed the rules in similar fashion this month to confirm federal Judge Neil Gorsuch to the high court over Democratic opposition. As a result, the GOP can almost guarantee confirmati­on of future Supreme Court justices, as well, if there are more openings with Trump in office and Republican­s are in the majority.

“The Trump administra­tion does have an opportunit­y to really put its mark on the future of the federal judiciary,” says Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of the conservati­ve Federalist Society and an adviser to Trump on the Gorsuch nomination.

Reflecting a conservati­ve judicial philosophy, Leo says the unusual number of vacancies that Trump is inheriting could reorient the courts of appeals, in particular, “in a way that better reflects the traditiona­l judicial role, which is interpreti­ng the law according to its text and placing a premium on the Constituti­on’s limits on government power.”

That philosophy was a priority for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, and Trump has said he wants the federal judiciary to reflect those values.

There are currently 20 vacancies in the federal appeals courts, which are one step below the Supreme Court, and roughly 100 more in district courts, where cases are originally tried. Former President Barack Obama had around half that number of vacancies when he took office in 2009. Of the current vacancies, 49 are considered judicial emergencie­s, a designatio­n based on how many court filings are in the district and how long the seat has been open.

The White House has focused on the Gorsuch nomination, so Trump has nominated only one lower-court judge, Amul R. Thapar, a friend of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, for the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Republican senators say they hope to see more nomination­s soon from the White House.

“We’ve heard from them and we’re talking to them,” says Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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