Leader proud of changing judiciary

WASHINGTON — Barely a day after Republicans celebrated the passage of a tax overhaul, the Senate’s majority leader made clear that he thinks the GOP-controlled Congress’ crowning achievement will instead be the transformation of the federal bench through the appointment of conservative judges.

“We’re in the personnel business,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday at a breakfast sponsored by Axios, pointing to the “unique opportunity” Republicans have “to move America right of center” and have “a huge impact on the court system in this country for a generation.”

McConnell touted what he sees as the achievements congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump have achieved in transforming the bench, starting with “the most circuit judges that have ever been confirmed in the first year of a president since the circuit court system was set up.” Most of those judges, McConnell added, “are relatively young” — meaning their influence in the lifetime appointments will be felt for decades to come.

McConnell also eyed the possibility of another Supreme Court vacancy as he pointed, with pride, to the April confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as the newest justice.

McConnell’s predictions about the GOP’s judicial legacy confirm the fears of several Democrats and liberal groups, who have charged that the Republican Party is using the Trump presidency to stack the courts with conservative ideologues who are unqualified for the appointments.

After stating that the goal of the judicial appointments was “to move America right of center” with conservative judges, McConnell added that by “conservative” he was “not talking about political conservatives, so much as what is the role of a judge.”

However, three of the picks to fill empty seats in the federal district court either dropped out or had their nominations pulled last week amid questions about experience or endorsing discrimination.