WASHINGTON — Welp. Democrats received clobbered on Election Day.
Subsequent yr, Donald Trump can be within the White Home, Republicans will management the Senate and it’s trying like Republicans will management the Home, too.
That leaves Democrats with a really tight window — the end-of-year lame duck session — to squeeze out each final drop of their energy whereas Joe Biden continues to be within the White Home and their get together nonetheless, if barely, controls the Senate. The obvious factor they will do is give attention to confirming extra of Biden’s judges, as these are lifetime posts and these individuals can be making selections that have an effect on tens of millions for many years after Trump or Biden is round.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is already agitating for her get together to get transferring on this when the Senate comes again into session subsequent week.
“Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer must use every minute of the end-of-year legislative session to confirm federal judges and key regulators — none of whom can be removed by the next President,” Warren wrote in a Thursday opinion piece.
Progressive judicial advocacy teams, equally, are urgent Schumer to step on the gasoline and make sure as a lot of Biden’s judges as attainable. If which means utilizing the lame duck to maintain the Senate in session on Fridays, when it’s normally out, or on the weekends, so be it.
“Given the outcome of the election, the reality is that we now have a rapidly closing window to confirm well-qualified, fair-minded judges who will protect our rights and serve as one of the last guardrails in upholding our nation’s laws and the Constitution,” Maggie Jo Buchanan, managing director of Demand Justice, mentioned in a Thursday assertion.
“As Vice President Harris said yesterday, ‘This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is the time to roll up our sleeves,’” she mentioned. “Even one judge can make a difference.”
One other group, Individuals For the American Method, launched a brand new platform known as Resist Venture 2025 for mobilizing activists in opposition to Trump’s efforts to undermine democracy. Its first precedence is to arrange round resisting the Trump administration’s efforts to revamp the courts.
“Confirm all Biden judicial nominees now,” reads the primary bullet level within the group’s assertion asserting the brand new initiative.
Seventeen of Biden’s pending judicial nominees are presently ready for a vote on the Senate ground and eight are ready to be reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Three extra are ready for a committee listening to.
Schumer and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ailing.), who’s chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate majority whip, will determine how Democrats proceed. HuffPost reached out to each to get a way of how aggressive they’ll be with transferring Biden’s ultimate batch of judges.
“We have two teed up for next week,” is all that Schumer’s spokesperson, Alex Nguyen, mentioned.
“Sen. Durbin aims to confirm every possible judicial nominee before the end of this Congress — plain and simple,” mentioned Durbin spokesperson Emily Hampsten. “We will continue to hold nominations hearings and markups to move nominees through the Committee. He doesn’t set the floor schedule, but will be pushing, as he has been for the past four years, to prioritize time for judges.”
Their feedback could not convey the urgency that teams like Demand Justice are searching for. A part of the explanation could also be as a result of Democrats face the identical challenges in confirming judges that they’ve confronted for months: a razor-thin majority and opposition to a few of Biden’s controversial nominees from Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Manchin, who’s retiring from the Senate this yr, declared in March that he wouldn’t vote for any of Biden’s judicial picks in the event that they didn’t have the help of no less than one Republican. That created an enormous headache for Schumer in a Senate that presently includes 47 Democrats, 49 Republicans and 4 Independents who usually align with Democrats.
However the West Virginia senator, who completely loves media consideration, could have made his declaration only for that function. In September, he bucked his personal rule and voted to advance considered one of Biden’s courtroom picks, Kevin Ritz, regardless of him not having any Republican help.
A Manchin spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Friday on whether or not he’s ready to vote for any of Biden’s judicial nominees within the lame duck until no less than one GOP senator is backing them.
Some Republicans aren’t keen to cooperate in any respect. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is already making an attempt to waive off extra average members in his caucus from voting for any of Biden’s remaining judicial nominees.
“Don’t confirm Biden’s judges,” Lee mentioned Thursday on social media. “It’s Trump’s turn now. No lame-duck favors for Biden.”
Democracy In The Stability
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There’s solely a handful of GOP senators who’ve persistently voted to substantiate no less than a few of Biden’s courtroom picks. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is considered one of them. He’s usually the one Republican voting to advance a few of Biden’s nominees out of the committee.
Graham’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon whether or not he plans to help judicial nominees within the lame duck that he supported previous to the November election.
Biden is winding down his presidency with 213 confirmed lifetime federal judges below his belt. That’s 5 fewer than Trump had by this level in his first time period. So as to match Trump’s ultimate variety of confirmed judges, Biden would want to substantiate 21 extra earlier than the yr is up. It’s attainable he can do it, however unlikely.
