Judicial nomination withdrawn

Where does Trump find these people? Don’t they vet them or don’t they even care what they have said?

I will vote NO on Ryan Bounds for a lifetime appointment to the 9th Circuit. Some backstory: breaking with a 100-year-old Senate practice, Republicans moved his nomination forward over the objections of both Senators who represent the state that Bounds will be appointed to.

— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) July 18, 2018

Facing opposition from some GOP Senators, the judicial nomination for Ryan Bounds was just withdrawn.

Here’s a May WaPo story about some of his writings while a college student that led to some of the the opposition. https://t.co/W02rM8EjsN

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 19, 2018

McConnell withdraws nomination nomination of Ryan Bounds to be United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit after concerns about racially insensitive writings from his past, GOP senators say — amounting to a significant loss for the White House.

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 19, 2018

IMPORTANT: Republicans are taking another step to destroy the judicial nominations process as we know it by confirming Ryan Bounds without approval from home-state senators @RonWyden & @SenJeffMerkley. The Congressional Research Service says this has never happened. #CourtsMatter

— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) July 18, 2018

Tim Scott, in his quiet disapproval of Ryan Bounds today, has done more to check the President than Jeff Flake or Bob Corker have done with all of their speeches and soundbites.

— Sam Rubinstein (@Sam_Rubinstein) July 19, 2018

Federal judge appointments by party/Trump appointment

As of July 12, Trump has successfully appointed 43 judges, including one Supreme Court justice (Neil Gorsuch), 22 appeals court judges and 20 district judges. https://t.co/yjIaUwI3Bs pic.twitter.com/NmlIzT0qAK

— Pew Research Fact Tank (@FactTank) July 17, 2018

Nearly six-in-ten current federal judges were appointed by Democratic presidents and 42% were appointed by Republicans. But these shares differ considerably by the level of court in question. https://t.co/yjIaUwI3Bs pic.twitter.com/x52bjAb3Bj

— Pew Research Fact Tank (@FactTank) July 16, 2018

Donald Trump has appointed more appeals court judges – the powerful jurists who sit just below the Supreme Court level – than all of his recent predecessors at the same stage in their presidencies. https://t.co/yjIaUwI3Bs pic.twitter.com/9qOuRoOWKL

— Pew Research Fact Tank (@FactTank) July 17, 2018

Trump’s picks for judges are 92% white

No comment needed. I don’t see how anyone can think Trump is not a bigot.

As we focus on other things Trump’s 87 picks to be federal judges are 92% white with just one black and one Hispanic nominee. He is making America white again in broad daylight! https://t.co/NScRysx3WG via @usatoday

— Mr. Reynolds (@melreynoldsU) July 2, 2018

Via Bloomberg, Trump judges confirmed to the federal bench so far are 88% white, 76% male, 0% black. Under Obama: 64% male, 60% white, 20% black pic.twitter.com/p4kQUdyGhd

— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) June 11, 2018

Update on Trump judicial picks 10/2/18:

How Trump compares to his predecessors in the racial and ethnic diversity of the federal judges he has appointed to date. New analysis on @FactTank: https://t.co/16BUH2XLxC pic.twitter.com/6DFs2BFnKP

— John Gramlich (@johngramlich) October 2, 2018

Seven of the 67 federal judges Trump has appointed, or 10%, are racial or ethnic minorities – the lowest such percentage of any president of either party since George H.W. Bush, whose appointed judges were also 10% nonwhite. https://t.co/PVyGx05DtK pic.twitter.com/RoWRtMIXgR

— Pew Research Fact Tank (@FactTank) October 2, 2018

The Trump-Justin Kennedy-Deutsche Bank connection

Donald Trump made Anthony Kennedy an offer he couldn't refuse https://t.co/0sHF6qefE4"I'll pardon your son if you retire this term. " #TrumpCorruption Invades Supremes. #JusticeKennedy #JustinKennedy

— Johnny Heldt (@JohnnyHeldt) June 29, 2018

Trump to Kennedy: "That's very nice … coming from you. And say hello to your boy. Special guy."
Kennedy to Trump: "Your kids have been very nice to him."
Trump to Kennedy: "They love him, and they love him in New York. He's a great guy." https://t.co/6sCmeuyvRM pic.twitter.com/yBZw8OODKp

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 29, 2018

oh look — Justice Kennedy’s son was Trump’s money lender when others wouldn’t touch him — https://t.co/D9sKtnNOmp pic.twitter.com/FxEVrai6lD

— Philip Gourevitch (@PGourevitch) June 29, 2018

Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin, spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank, rising to become head of real estate capital markets, and he worked closely with Trump when he was a real estate developer. During Kennedy’s tenure, Deutsche Bank became Trump’s most important lender. https://t.co/24JvMtETE5

— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) June 29, 2018

Nothing to be done, but this is troubling and will need to be accounted for when the history of this dark time is written: https://t.co/dMhD3oiGf7

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 29, 2018

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s son worked closely with Donald Trump at Deutsche Bank, which loaned Trump over $1 billion when other banks were reluctant to do so. Late last year, Trump’s administration waived punishments for Deutsche Bank.https://t.co/qPz4gNjy00

— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) June 29, 2018

The suspicious business relationship between Trump and Justice Kennedy’s son https://t.co/CuKLqorVhV pic.twitter.com/te6VBZ7qW1

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) June 29, 2018

Trump’s relationship with Justice Kennedy sounds shady in this new report. https://t.co/XNq1pLyiDc pic.twitter.com/8oDamLzZj8

— The New Republic (@newrepublic) June 29, 2018

Less here than meets the eye, probably, but the Anthony Kennedy I thought I knew wouldn’t have let so smelly a situation develop. Historians will have a field day unearthing the details of this messy situation. . . https://t.co/mCm8vIptiX

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 29, 2018

Republicans have had the majority on the Supreme Court for 46 years

Talk about the countermajoritarian difficulty: There has been a Republican majority on the Supreme Court for 46 years. A Democrat has held the White House for 20 of those years, and won the popular vote for presidencies with terms spanning 25+ years. https://t.co/lYroLTJL73

— Robert Gordon (@robertmgordon) June 27, 2018

This has slightly different dates but the basic fact of long-term Republican control remains.

Reminder: the last time the US Supreme Court had a majority of justices appointed by Democratic presidents was just before the resignation of Abe Fortas on May 14, 1969, over 49 years ago. https://t.co/MYKeYFAng0

— L. David Baron (@davidbaron) June 27, 2018

Some Republicans would have voted against ANY Clinton Supreme Court nominee

Don’t forget this when considering Trump’s pick to replace Kennedy.

Hey remember when Republican Senators thought Clinton was going to win, so they promised to shrink the Supreme Court? The GOP plays for keeps. If we want to win, we gotta fight as hard to entrench people power as they fight to entrench plutocrat power. https://t.co/eUPUtvBBBf
— Ezra Levin (@ezralevin) February 9, 2019

This is absolutely true.

McCain: https://t.co/drd5Zvecj8

Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch: https://t.co/qd1teGbEP9

And conservative pundits were beating this drum too: https://t.co/99fHGM4ki5 https://t.co/iVDnG1EfeY
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) June 27, 2018

and don’t forget this either

McConnell blocked Garland during an election year https://t.co/hit54RvhAC
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 27, 2018

Well, I guess this technically is not court packing –> If Clinton Wins, Republicans Suggest Shrinking Size of Supreme Court https://t.co/tgCnFXLJbw
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) October 10, 2020

Black defendants get longer sentences from Republican appointed judges

This article discusses a study based on over one half a million defendants. The Republican appointed judges also give shorter sentences to women.

The study states: “The racial gap by political affiliation is three months, approximately 65 percent of the baseline racial sentence gap,” the authors wrote. “We also find that Republican-appointed judges give female defendants two months less in prison than similar male defendants compared to Democratic-appointed judges, 17 percent of the baseline gender sentence gap.”

This problem will only get worse as Trump has filled many judicial vacancies.

Even the guy who hired Cambridge Analytica recognizes the importance of the judicial branch. Time for Democrats to, as well.https://t.co/5Zpe0vRQ6g

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) June 5, 2018

This article includes this quote: ““Trump’s judicial nominees in particular are demonstrating what we see as a breathtaking hostility toward equal rights,” said Todd Cox, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.”

Trump’s extremist judicial picks are supported by Republicans in the Senate

These picks are not qualified.

Then-nominee Anthony Kennedy – “I think #BrownvBoard was right when it was decided, and I think it would have been right if it had been decided 80 years ago or 80 before.”
Why won’t Trump nominees Wendy Vitter & Andrew Oldham say the same? pic.twitter.com/7zt2P6Is0X

— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) May 17, 2018

On this anniversary of #BrownvBoard, a reminder that, at her confirmation hearing, judicial nominee Wendy Vitter refused to say whether the landmark ruling was correctly decided. This is disqualifying, and her nomination must be withdrawn. #Brownat64 https://t.co/v60oGDe03C

— Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) May 17, 2018

We can’t let this fly under the radar: the Trump administration is systemically appointing extreme judges to the federal bench. Today, over my objections the Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of Wendy Vitter, someone who refused to endorse the Brown v. Board decision.

— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) May 24, 2018

On this anniversary of #BrownvBoard, a reminder that, at her confirmation hearing, judicial nominee Wendy Vitter refused to say whether the landmark ruling was correctly decided. This is disqualifying, and her nomination must be withdrawn. #Brownat64 https://t.co/v60oGDe03C

— Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) May 17, 2018

NAACP press release

It includes “The refusal of Wendy Vitter and Andrew Oldham to endorse the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education is a judicial dog-whistle and should be disqualifying.”

Overview on Trump’s judicial appointments

Trump WH definitely more focused on appeals court judges than Obama WH was, but primary difference is GOP could filibuster Obama's nominees (& Leahy enforced the blue-slip rule), while Dem senators can't filibuster Trump's nominees (& Grassley tossed the blue-slip rule). @jbouie https://t.co/wxIPLtobIM

— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) July 21, 2018

An opinion from one of Trump’s extremist judges

“More than just an ideologically radical opinion, Judge Ho’s dissent from the full United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decision not to rehear Zimmerman v. City of Austin is a monument to conservative political rhetoric and right-wing historical myths. “

Trump is a racist and some of his picks are too

A Trump judicial nominee refused to say if the landmark civil rights Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education was correct. This 1954 decision overturned the segregation of schools. Sad!