This week is perhaps the high-water mark of the GOP’s judicial confirmation operation, an aggressive effort to pack the federal bench with young conservative jurists. Four confirmations to federal appeals courts are expected by Friday, while the Senate Judiciary Committee convenes to clear or vet yet more appointees.
The confirmation bonanza resulted from a concerted push from conservative groups, including The Heritage Foundation and the Judicial Confirmation Network, to quicken the pace of confirmations, fearing Senate Republicans would squander the opportunity to confirm federal judges as the GOP struggles to navigate the mire of its own internal divisions.
Among this week’s confirmations was Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen, confirmed Wednesday afternoon to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Cincinnati-based federal appeals court. Like many other Trump nominees, Larsen is a well-credentialed, Federalist Society-aligned jurist who is likely to serve for decades on the federal bench.
Larsen’s confirmation was the second of the week. Notre Dame Law School Professor Amy Coney Barrett, who clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, was confirmed Tuesday to the 7th Circuit, the Chicago-based federal appeals court. Few Democrats backed her confirmation, which devolved into an ugly fight over the Constitution’s ban on religious tests, after members of the Judiciary Committee aggressively questioned Barrett about how her Catholicism would bear on the discharge of her judicial duties. Barrett has produced scholarship concerning the ethical obligations of Catholic practitioners, and spoken about practicing her faith in a professional context in related public statements.
Two more confirmations are expected to follow by week’s end. The Senate closed debate Wednesday on Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid’s nomination to the 10th Circuit, the Denver-based appeals court. A vote on her nomination is expected Thursday, while University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Stephanos Bibas’s nomination to the 3rd Circuit, the Philadelphia-based appeals court, will likely come late Friday.
Larsen and Eid appeared on President Trump’s list of possible Supreme Court nominees during the 2016 presidential election. Court-watchers regard both as...Read More HERE
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