Senate Republicans and President Trump continue to smash records as far as judicial confirmations are concerned, with seven Senate confirmations in just the past week — five of them women.
The flurry of confirmations adds to an extraordinary run for Trump and the Senate. His 12 federal appeals court confirmations were the most ever in the first year of a presidency.
President Obama won three confirmations in his first year, despite the fact that Democrats controlled 60 seats in the Senate for part of that time. George W. Bush won six confirmations.
President Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy are tied for second behind Trump. Each had 11 appeals-court judges confirmed during year one.
The Senate’s confirmation pace has actually accelerated in 2018. According to the Senate Judiciary Committee, 24 circuit court judges have been confirmed so far — the most ever at this stage in a presidency.
Including district court confirmations and the seven judges confirmed last week, the federal bench now has 45 federal judges nominated by the current president. That extraordinary pace of confirmations gives GOP candidates a significant talking point as they head into the November midterms.
The confirmation of five female judges in a single week drew special attention as well, giving Senate Republicans a strong counter-argument to the accusations of gender bias that are occasionally hurled their way from across the aisle.
“The Senate continues to be hard at work to confirm President Trump's highly qualified judicial nominees,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told Newsmax in an exclusive statement Monday. “Just last week, we confirmed seven more nominees, including five women. There should be no disputing that their credentials make them well suited for the federal bench.”
Those five female judges:
- Britt Cagle Grant, of Georgia, confirmed to serve as United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.
- Emily Coody Marks, of Alabama, confirmed to serve as United States District Judge for the Middle District of Alabama.
- Maryellen Noreika, of Delaware, confirmed to serve as United States District Judge for the District of Delaware.
- Jill Aiko Otake, of Hawaii, confirmed to serve as United States District Judge for the District of Hawaii.
- Holly Lou Teeter, of Kansas, confirmed to serve as United States District Judge for the District of Kansas.
Trump’s eye-popping numbers may have been somewhat overshadowed by Senate deliberations over the most consequential judicial seats of all — the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Senate confirmed Justice Neil Gorsuch to sit on the High Court in April 2017. The president unveiled his second SCOTUS nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, on July 9.
Kavanaugh continues to work his way through Senate confirmation, with Democrats using documents requests and paperwork reviews in a bid to delay his confirmation until after the November midterms, when Democrats hope to regain power.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley recently blasted the procedural delays in an effort “to bury us in millions and millions of pages of paper so we cannot have a confirmation vote on Judge Kavanaugh this year.”
In an Instagram quote, Chairman Grassley fired off a blunt challenge to his colleagues on the other side of the aisle: “How much do you need to know to vote no?” he asked pointedly.
GOP leaders want to be sure their unprecedented success in getting Trump’s nominees confirmed is not completely eclipsed by the high-profile battle over the Supreme Court. Most cases, of course, never reach the Supreme Court. That means district and circuit court judges exert an extraordinary influence on the laws that govern the land.
Analysts credit several factors for the GOP’s blistering confirmation pace. Much of the limelight has fallen on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s mastery of legislative legerdemain. McConnell’s willingness to use of the so-called nuclear option to defeat filibusters — a tactic first invoked on a limited basis by his predecessor, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. — has certainly greased the machinery of government. The contributions of the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo have been well documented as well.
A less-recognized but perhaps equally influential factor has been Grassley’s work in the Judiciary Committee trenches, where a nominee must first pass muster. The no-nonsense Grassley has made it clear he will brook no political grandstanding that aims to block qualified nominees from due consideration.
In a Senate speech on July 9 he stated: “Under my watch, the Senate Judiciary Committee will never be a rubber stamp… the process will be fair and will be transparent, as much as I can make it. That has been my approach during my nearly 38 years in the Senate, and all of those 38 years on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I will not change that.”
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