Senate’s McConnell on mission to reshape the courts
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was upbeat the night after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced he was retiring from the Supreme Court.
The Kentucky Republican had already led the Senate in confirming more circuit court judges in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency than in that of any other president in history. Now McConnell had the chance to confirm a second Supreme Court justice, a thrilling prospect for his party.
More than any other accomplishment, including the passage of the GOP’s tax cuts, the remaking of the judiciary is fast becoming the cornerstone of the Republican leader’s legacy. It’s something he’s been working on for a long time.
“Well, I think it’s a little too early to be talking about legacy,” McConnell said with a smile as he left the Senate chamber.
“A year and a half ago, I said it was a top priority,” he said about confirming judges, “and it remains so.”
With McConnell leading the way in the Republicancontrolled Senate, Trump is seeking to put his imprint on the federal judiciary for generations to come. While the latest opening on the Supreme Court is commanding all the attention, with Trump set to announce his pick on Monday night, the nominees to the lower courts are also consequential. More than 40 federal district and circuit court judges have been confirmed to lifetime appointments so far during Trump’s term, and those judges will have enormous sway in shaping legal arguments nationwide.
Nearly 100 other judicial nominees are awaiting Senate confirmation. In all, there are more than 150 vacancies on the courts.
The GOP’s focus on the judiciary has been sharpened by their narrow 51-49 Senate majority, which has made passing legislation difficult. Sixty votes are normally required to advance a bill, while judges can be confirmed with a simple majority.
The newcomers to the bench follow a type. An Associated Press analysis found that roughly twothirds of the judges who have been confirmed under Trump are white men. Of the 42 confirmed nominees, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, none are black. Ten are women, nine of them white. Three of the judges are AsianAmerican men and one is a Hispanic man.
In contrast, during President Barack Obama’s two terms, only 37 percent of judges confirmed were white men. Nearly 42 percent were women — the highest share of female judicial appointments of any president.
“What the administration is seeking is to transform the face of the entire federal judiciary,” said Nan Aron, president of Alliance for Justice, a liberal group that tracks court issues.
“The nominees share one basic characteristic — their hostility to progress that’s been made in women, workers and civil rights as well as health and safety over the past several decades,” she said. “This probably is the most extremist slate of judges we’ve ever seen.”
Conservative judicial advocates say the judicial appointments are correcting the leftward tilt of the bench. They see Trump and McConnell’s revamping of the courts — in the face of Democratic filibusters that stall even popular nominees — as more important than even legislative victories.
Carrie Severino, the chief counsel and policy director at the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, says, “It’s something that’s viewed across the Republican and libertarian base as a huge accomplishment.”
Republicans have often been seen as taking greater interest in the judiciary than Democrats. McConnell works closely with the Federalist Society, which is at the forefront of conservative judicial thinking, and he helped the group draft Trump’s list of 25 potential Supreme Court nominees. He well understands the power of the judicial branch to shape policy and mobilize voters.
McConnell laid the groundwork for this moment with a startling move just hours after Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden death in February 2016. He announced the Senate wouldn’t consider Obama’s nominee because it was a presidential election year.