Late last week, to little acclaim or media fanfare, President Trump announced another round of new federal judicial nominees. Among them is Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, whose wit, humor and constitutionalist principles have made him a ‘fan favorite’ among online conservatives. Trump has now selected the 51-year-old Willett to serve on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, along with a slew of others:
No words.
I am honored & humbled by @POTUS‘s nomination to the 5th Circuit.
Thank you, Mr. President—also Senators @JohnCornyn & @TedCruz. pic.twitter.com/499LFNdjbC
— Justice Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) September 29, 2017
It’s no secret to political observers that the “unified” Republican government hasn’t accomplished much of anything over the first eight months of the Trump administration, despite achieving a fair amount of deregulation and passing some important legislation. Obamacare repeal and replace was a giant failure, and the fate of the newly-rolled out, high-stakes tax reform push is uncertain (it strikes me as a good start, though legitimate questions about important details must be addressed). One of the few areas in which Trump has consistently notched unmitigated conservative victories while keeping a crucial campaign pledge is on judicial appointments. The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal took a moment yesterday to showcase and applaud the administration’s important progress on this front:
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This editorial doesn’t even mention biggest victory of all: Justice Gorsuch. But the editors’ point about critical lower court vacancies being filled by conservatives is well-taken (especially considering the possible SCOTUS implications), and they call on Senate Republicans to take maximum advantage of today’s power dynamics to confirm as many of Trump’s picks as possible: “With confirmation politics increasingly polarized, Mr. Trump and Republicans are wise to move quickly to take advantage of this moment of Senate and White House control,” they write. “If Democrats take the Senate in 2018, Chuck Schumer will try to block the confirmation of any conservative nominee.” That’s exactly right. The GOP has been using Harry Reid’s standard to move on a number of judicial selections, with an eye toward reversing President Obama’s profound leftward shift of the federal judiciary. Despite the president tapping new judges at a break-neck pace, only a small fraction of those nominees have been confirmed. The Daily Signal explains why, noting the number of appellate selections that are still awaiting a hearing and vote:
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Mitch McConnell says he’s considering changing the rules in light of Democrats’ use of ‘blue slip’ tradition to obstruct the process, but Chuck Schumer’s caucus is warning against it, calling the potential move “hypocritical, as Republicans staunchly defended the blue slip process while Obama was in office.” The question for the GOP is whether to engage in the sort of unilateral escalation for which Democrats have become known in these battles over recent decades. Marginal progress has been made on this front already, with conservative groups pressuring Senate Democrats who are holding up nominees over ideological disagreements…
