When Senate Democrats negotiated that deal to allow 15 more Trump judicial nominees to be confirmed, before the Senate recessed for the midterms, they should have negotiated a complete recess. Because as it turns out, Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley are moving ahead on some controversial circuit court nominations whether or not Democrats can be at the hearings.
The nominees include positions on the 9th Circuit, a court that has reliably blocked Trump's worst efforts, including the Muslim ban. One, Eric Miller, is opposed by home-state senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and was not included in the recommendations of the state's bipartisan judicial-selection committee. Miller, who clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, has a history of litigating cases against Native Nations. That could put his confirmation in trouble with Alaska's Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Aside from that, though, is the fact that Grassley has moved ahead on these hearings without any consultation from the Democrats on the committee. They fired back with a letter when he announced the hearings, writing that the "Committee has never before held nominations hearings while the Senate is in recess before an election. The handful of nominations hearings that have been held during a recess have been with the minority's consent, which is not the case here—in fact, we were not even consulted. They continue and point out that "three of us on the Democratic side represent the Ninth Circuit, and are unable to return to Washington for a day due to commitments in our states."
Grassley wrote back saying that ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein (who along with fellow California Sen. Kamala Harris hasn't been consulted by the administration about any judges) had "specifically agreed not to object to these hearing dates when I rescheduled them at your request." Except that she agreed to those dates before the agreement was made to confirm judges and allow a recess before October 29. Because Democrats believed that when McConnell said "recess," he meant it. He lied. It's what he does.
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