Republicans push to confirm more than 40 judges before midterms

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With the Supreme Court nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh completed, GOP senators are quickly pivoting to filling out the rest of the federal courts, eyeing more than 40 district and circuit judges they want to confirm before the end of the year.

One top priority is filling the seat left vacant on the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals when Justice Kavanaugh was elevated.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Republicans’ point man on the issue, said if the White House can nominate someone this week, lawmakers could have Justice Kavanaugh’s replacement seated by Christmas.

That would be in addition to 38 district judges and three circuit judges already pending on the Senate floor, who Republicans say they should confirm before they leave Washington to campaign for the mid-term elections.

“McConnell ought to keep the Senate in session until we get all 41 of those judges done,” Mr. Grassley told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Wednesday. – READ MORE

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Would Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) be breaking precedent if he allowed a Supreme Court nominee a hearing and a vote in 2020?

“The Senate in the hands of one party and the White House in the hands of another in a presidential election year,” McConnell said during a press conference. “That is what we had in 2016.”

We were also guaranteed a new president in 2016. In 2020, we may keep President Donald Trump.

McConnell had based his Garland decision off a speech from then Sen. Joe Biden in 1992, where he argued that if a Supreme Court seat became vacant, then President George H.W. Bush should not nominate someone until after that year’s election. Bush might have remained president, as he was only in his first term, but Democrats controlled the Senate. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made a similar statement at the end of President George W. Bush’s term, but just as in 1992, no Supreme Court vacancy occurred.- READ MORE

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