Hell hath no fury like a RINO scorned.
Two petulant Republican senators stand poised to knife Trump in the back with a demented glee that would make Brutus blush.
As if Trump Derangement Syndrome gives them carte blanche to destroy the American republic as we know it, a couple of Republican senators are about to render the country even more helpless in the face of radical Democrats who have only one thing on their deranged minds: Revenge.
Due to sabotage from his own party, President Donald Trump is running out of time to fill federal judicial vacancies before Democrats take control of the Senate in January. With just weeks remaining in the lame-duck session, several GOP senators are threatening to derail judicial nominations over disagreements with the White House about who gets to select candidates for lifetime appointments.
According to Reuters, Senate Republicans have confirmed 57 Trump judicial nominees during his second term, building on the 234 appointments he made during his first administration. Those earlier confirmations included three Supreme Court justices who helped establish the court's current 6-3 conservative majority. But after the Democrats' sweeping midterm victories, the confirmation window is closing, and Republican senators are fighting over a process that could determine the direction of the federal courts for decades.
The immediate dispute involves a handful of nominees in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Traditionally, senators have considerable influence over federal judges selected for vacancies in their home states. District court nominees are especially vulnerable to the Senate's "blue slip" custom, which allows home-state senators to prevent a candidate from advancing by withholding their approval.
The White House has occasionally bypassed Republican senators' preferred candidates, prompting objections from lawmakers who believe the administration is disregarding their role in judicial selection. Oklahoma Sen. Alan Armstrong complained that his state's delegation had submitted several qualified candidates, only for the White House to choose someone else.
"We put up a lot of really qualified candidates that we sent to the White House, and they basically ignored that and just put through their one," Armstrong told Reuters.
The disagreement has already forced Trump to change one nomination. On Tuesday, the administration withdrew U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky's nomination to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals after Arkansas Republican Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton opposed his selection. Trump replaced Rudofsky with Arkansas Supreme Court Justice J. Cody Hiland, whom Boozman had favored.
The Congressional Record confirms the withdrawal, illustrating how much leverage individual senators retain over judicial nominations, even when their party controls the White House and Senate.
But the more serious problem involves two outgoing Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas. Both are leaving office after the midterms, and both have indicated that they are willing to block nominees who lack support from their home-state senators.
Tillis, who has frequently clashed with Trump, argued that the White House needs to show greater respect for the Senate's traditional role. He complained that administration officials sometimes approach senators with a nominee already selected and simply expect them to fall in line.
"That's not how it works here," Tillis said. "They should expect they're going to get this response."
In Texas, Cornyn has declined to commit to supporting T. Elliot Gaiser, Trump's nominee for a federal judgeship in Dallas. Gaiser currently leads the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and was selected without going through the screening process traditionally used by Texas senators. Without Cornyn's blue slip, the nomination cannot advance to its scheduled Judiciary Committee hearing.
Oklahoma presents another problem. Armstrong initially supported Zach West, an attorney in the state attorney general's office who has defended abortion restrictions and religious-school participation in public charter programs. But Armstrong later withdrew his support, and Tillis has joined the opposition, leaving West without enough votes to advance through committee.
The timing could become particularly important because Armstrong is scheduled to leave the Senate on November 30, when Republican Senator-elect Kevin Hern will replace him. Hern could take a different position on West's nomination, potentially changing the political calculations. But Tillis has indicated that he will continue opposing the nomination as long as an Oklahoma senator objects.
"When I've got two Republicans from the state telling me to move on it, I move on it," Tillis said. "If I have one or more asking me not to, then I'm not."
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has identified judicial confirmations as a top priority during the remaining weeks of Republican control. The Senate confirmed its first judicial nominee of the lame-duck session Thursday, but 23 nominees remain pending. Among them is Colorado-based U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico, whose nomination to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled for a vote Monday.
A White House official told Reuters that the administration expects all pending judicial nominees to be confirmed before the end of the year. Whether Republican leadership can deliver on that expectation is becoming a more difficult question.
The political stakes are considerable. Federal judges receive lifetime appointments, and their decisions can shape immigration enforcement, executive authority, election law, religious liberty and federal regulations long after the president who appointed them has left office.
Once Democrats assume control of the Senate, Trump's ability to confirm additional conservative judges will face much greater obstacles. That makes every remaining confirmation opportunity valuable, particularly for appeals court vacancies that can influence federal law across multiple states.
The dispute also exposes an uncomfortable tension between Republican senators determined to preserve their institutional influence and a White House trying to complete its judicial agenda while it still has the votes. Home-state consultation has long been part of the Senate's confirmation process, but the deadline has made those disagreements harder to resolve.
For Trump, the problem is that the Democrats don't have to do anything to stop these particular nominees. A few Republicans are already doing the work for them.
Editor's Note: Unelected federal judges are obstructing President Trump's agenda and ignoring the will of the people.
Help us expose out-of-control judges determined to halt President Trump's mandate for change. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the Conversation
VIP members get the ability to comment on articles.