The Senate Judiciary Committee is making a real project out of having sham hearings to confirm unqualified federal judges nominated by the unindicted co-conspirator in the Oval Office. It wasn't enough to force sexual assaulter Brett Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court, so they're carrying on with shoving more controversial nominees through while the Senate is in recess and only a few Republicans are on hand to witness the travesty.
In fact, Chairman Chuck Grassley didn't even both to show up at either of the two hearings held in the past week. Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo chaired last Wednesday's hearing and Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy helmed this week's hearing. No Democrats were able to attend because the hearings were sprung on them. Democrats thought that the deal they made with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the beginning of the month to allow floor votes for 15 judges meant that the Senate was actually recessing, and that these pending hearings would be cancelled. That’s what Democratic leader Chuck Schumer gets for thinking he's ever negotiating with McConnell and Grassley in good faith.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor and expert on judicial nominations, tells the Huffington Post these hearings are “jokes” allowing three of Trump's circuit court nominees and seven of his district court nominees to advance with no scrutiny. "No Democratic senators and two GOP senators and no real questions asked?"
Some of the nominees, however, are no joke. For example, last week Allison Jones Rushing was on tap. She's nominated for the 4th Circuit, taking very little experience relevant to the task. The 36-year-old nominee's most salient experience in gaining a nomination was her internship with the Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "hate group." Rushing worked there mentoring fellows in the Blackstone Legal Fellowship program, which focuses on "fighting for the criminalization of abortion; against the rights of LGBT people; for so-called religious liberty (which often comes in the form of defending clients who wish to discriminate against gay people based on their religious beliefs); and for organized Christian prayer in government or public school settings."
This week the hearing featured 9th Circuit nominee Eric Miller, despite the fact that neither of his home state senators support this nomination. In fact, Grassley has made an obnoxious and sexist point out of harassing Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell for their refusal to provide "blue slips" signing off on the nominee. Miller has been strongly opposed by national and local tribal organizations because of his body of legal work opposing their interests.
This isn't the first time Grassley has steamrolled home-state Democratic senators to push through controversial nominees. Earlier this year, he pushed through Ryan Bounds for the 9th Circuit, over the objections of Oregon Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. Bounds ultimately ended up being withdrawn before his floor vote because a Republican, South Carolina’s Tim Scott, just couldn't stomach Bounds' history of racist comments.
This is a major issue for the ongoing legitimacy of the Senate and of the nation's federal courts. Both have been damaged by these Republicans “undermining all customs of the Senate," Tobias told HuffPost. "Someone needs to halt the downward spiraling selection process." That "someone" can only be Senate Democrats.
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