Friday, November 24, 2017

So many judges

I'll say this for Republicans.  They tend not to waste power when they have it.
In a paper that deserves credit for its transparency (it features a section titled “Undoing President Barack Obama’s Judicial Legacy”), Calabresi proposes to pack the federal courts with a “minimum” of 260 — and possibly as many as 447 — newly created judicial positions. Under this plan, the 228-year-old federal judiciary would increase — in a single year — by 30 to 50 percent.

Never mind that Republicans saw no urgency in filling judicial vacancies while Obama was president. Never mind that they ignored pleas from conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to fill positions in courts facing “judicial emergencies.” Now, conservatives want a 30 to 50 percent increase in the number of federal judgeships. And they have a clear idea of who should fill this massive number of new posts: “President Trump and the Republican Senate will need to fill all of these new judgeships in 2018, before the next session of Congress.”
People like to point out that Trump has "no major legislative achievement" to show for his first year in office.  That's fine. But there are more ways that one to do a lot of damage when you have what is still technically a unified government. You don't necessarily have to pass a law in order to kill Obamacare, for example.  The worst damage is probably being done at the E.P.A. The next worst will be whatever the sum of these financial deregualtions eventually looks like. There are others.  Net Neutrality is another major disaster.  Close to home, we're going to suffer if they kill NFIP. And if they succeed in completely transforming the judiciary, they will ensure that the damage will last.

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