Mitch McConnell Slams 15 Judicial Confirmations Through In Less Than Two Hours and Progressives Aren't Happy

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed twelve federal district judges and three circuit court judges (2d, 3d, and 9th Circuits) in very short order. The announcements read like a religious litany:

Confirmed by Voice Vote: Exec. Cal. #947 Lance Walker to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Maine

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed by Voice Vote: Exec. Cal. #945 James Hanlon to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Indiana

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed by Voice Vote: Exec. Cal. #906 Chad Kenney to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed Voice Vote: Exec. Cal. #905 Susan Brnovich to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Arizona

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed by Voice Vote: Exec. Cal. #895 Peter Phipps to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed by Voice Vote: Exec. Cal. #907 Jeremy Kernodle to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed, 65-30: Exec. Cal. #894 Thomas Kleeh to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of West Virginia

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed, 52-43: Exec. Cal. #638 Eli Richardson to be U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed, 51-44: Exec. Cal. #634 Mark Saalfield Norris, Sr. to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Tennessee

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed, 54-41: Exec. Cal. #629 Michael Juneau to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed, 55-40: Exec. Cal. #628 Liles Burke to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed, 54-41: Exec. Cal. #627 William M. Ray II to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed, 79-16: Exec. Cal. #1082 Richard Sullivan to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed, 51-44: Exec. Cal. #1081 Ryan Nelson to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

Confirmed, 50-45: Exec. Cal. #1007 David Porter to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) October 11, 2018

According to Politico, the votes were agreed to because vulnerable Democrats wanted to head home to campaign:

Senate Democrats accepted an offer Thursday from Senate Republicans to confirm 15 lifetime federal judges in exchange for the ability to go into recess through the midterms, allowing endangered Democrats to campaign.

The calculation by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his caucus was simple: That Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would be able to confirm roughly 15 judges if he kept the Senate in session for the next few weeks anyway. So Democrats OK’d an offer to confirm three Circuit Court judges and 12 Circuit Court judges as the price to pay to go home for election season.

And Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley took a victory lap:

The Senate has confirmed President Trump’s judicial nominees at a historic pace – 84 total, including Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, 29 circuit judges, and 53 district court judges.

— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) October 11, 2018

Glad to report that so far this Congress the Senate has confirmed 84 federal judges (2 SCOTUS+29 circuit+53 district judges) incl. 16 just this past wk & I expect we will confirm all remaining judges on floor + any more judges the judic cmte processes this yr b4 end of Congress

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 12, 2018

Nearly one out of every six circuit court of appeals judges has been appointed by @POTUS and confirmed by this Republican Senate

— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) October 11, 2018

The Democrats are taking a flogging from their base over not fighting. From Politico:

Vanita Gupta, who leads the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, called it “appalling” for the Senate to confirm those nominees without debate. And Demand Justice, a group started to fight Trump’s court picks that spent considerable amounts during the Kavanaugh fight, called the deal “totally unnecessary.”

“It is a bitter pill to swallow so soon after the Kavanaugh fight that so many progressive activists poured their hearts and souls into. This period will be long remembered not just for the historic number of judges Trump has been able to confirm, but also because of how passive Democrats were in response,” said Demand Justice chief counsel Chris Kang. “The progressive grass-roots have awoken to the crisis of Trump’s takeover of the courts, and are not going to tolerate this kind of weakness for much longer.”

The Huffington Post:

“Trading this many lifetime positions away for a couple days back home in the dead of August is a metaphor for how myopic the Democrats’ approach has been at this dark moment in history,” said Brian Fallon, who, awkwardly, was previously Schumer’s chief spokesperson. He is now the executive director of Demand Justice, a progressive judicial advocacy group.

“An entire branch of government is being lost for generations, and Senate Democrats are willfully blind to it,” Fallon said. “In the coming months and years, these same Democrats will issue outraged statements about the rulings issued by the very judges that they could not be bothered to try to slow down. It is pathetic.”

But Schumer had a stark choice: keep his troops in town and fight and allow all the judges to be confirmed or make a deal to allow all the judges to be confirmed and go home to campaign.

The big takeaway from this is that Schumer isn’t acting like he’s measuring the drapes for the Majority Leader’s office. This kind of cave dispirits the base and depresses turnout. He’s acting much more like a guy who is desperate to keep a 51-49 Senate.

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