Time to step back on judge appointments

In an effort to help you and others to understand the consequences of changing the rules and or packing the court; words have meaning. Senator Harry Reed of Nevada had trouble packing the court system with left leaning federal judges. Time was lost; it took 60 votes plus to approve a federal judge to a life term. Reed changed the rule, simply done, with huge consequences. Now the party in power needs only 51 votes to confirm a federal judge. This allows for far right, not center, appointments to the Supreme Court. The last Supreme Judge, on the right, is a centrist, the Chief Justice with 60 + votes.

The right would claim the last two Democratic picks and approval were far left and would not pass the test of before Harry Reed’s change of rules. So now the left finds themselves in the minority on the bench and all they can say is we need more jurors to offset the far right’s majority. When the right comes into power in the fall, the new judges will all be far right.

Best to vote to change the rules back to 60-plus and roll the dice. I believe this problem will even out and return to judges in the middle and not far right or far left; but in the middle.

— Chuck Jasper, Corning