Senate Democrats have sounded the alarm over President Trump capturing the courts as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to confirm judges.
According to Fox News:
Senate Democrats released a 50-plus page report Wednesday sounding alarm bells over the rate at which Senate Republicans and President Trump have confirmed federal judges during the president’s first term as Republicans are working on shepherding along even more lifetime-appointed federal judges.
The account calls GOP-appointed judges “politicians in robes,” rails against the Chief Justice John Roberts’ Supreme Court, slams the conservative and libertarian lawyers’ group the Federalist Society and says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is “betraying the vision of our founders.”
Over the last 3 years instead of focusing on legislation to help Americans:
Sen. McConnell & Pres. Trump have dedicated almost every ounce of energy to packing the courts with right-wing ideologues who they know will do their bidding#CapturedCourtshttps://t.co/XRfnuAGBch
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 27, 2020
The report was widely promoted by high-profile Senate Democrats on Wednesday, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and several others, as Democrats grapple with the breakneck clip of Trump’s and McConnell’s judicial confirmation efforts.
“Instead of passing legislation to help the American people, Mitch McConnell has chosen to bury those bills in his legislative graveyard,” the report’s executive summary reads. “This report looks behind the curtain of the GOP’s long campaign of judicial capture, into the fundamental threat it poses to the rule of law and American democracy.”
More than 400 bills are waiting on Mitch McConnell’s desk, everything from coronavirus response to climate change to prescription drug prices. But instead of bringing these up for votes, he’s focused on advancing his judicial nominees. #CapturedCourts
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) May 27, 2020
Thanks to GOP court packing
—voters have to wait in line for hours to vote
—our democracy’s overrun by corporate interests
—communities can’t act to prevent gun violence
—health care access is under attack
More from @SenSchumer @senstabenow & @SenWhitehouse on our #CapturedCourts https://t.co/SwsxKoCYPW— Demand Justice (@WeDemandJustice) May 27, 2020
Demand justice is also a dark money group, for context.
