Graham urges older judges to retire so GOP can fill openings

[Edge-]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/art...n-15301626.php

Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is publicly urging federal judges in their mid-60s or older to step aside so President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans can fill the vacancies with conservative jurists.

Graham’s comments, in an interview Thursday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, come as Republicans fret they may lose the Senate majority in the November elections amid the economic shutdown resulting from the coronavirus and Trump’s stumbles in addressing the crisis.

Democrats have increasing hopes of gaining the minimum three seats they’ll need to capture a Senate majority, while Republicans who once banked on a robust economy and rising Trump approval ratings are showing signs of nervousness.

“This is an historic opportunity,” Graham said. “We’ve put (nearly) 200 federal judges on the bench. ... If you can get four more years, I mean, it would change the judiciary for several generations. So if you’re a circuit judge in your mid-60s, late 60s, you can take senior status. Now would be a good time to do that, if you want to make sure the judiciary is right of center.”

Graham's committee is set to vote next week on Judge Justin Walker, a 37-year-old protege of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who has been nominated to the nation’s second-most powerful court. If confirmed, Walker would take an appeals court seat being vacated by Judge Thomas Griffith, who intends to retire in September. The Judiciary Committee also is considering 49-year-old Cory Wilson, a Mississippi judge who has been nominated to a seat on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Asked by Hewitt if he can assure veteran judges that their successor “will indeed be confirmed before the election,” Graham said, "Well, if you wait, you know, (until) November the 1st, no. So do it now.''

Hewitt replied: “Do it now. Loud and clear.”

The interview with Graham was not the first time the issue of Republicans seeking judicial retirements has been raised publicly. Earlier this month, Chief Justice John Roberts turned down a request from the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to allow an ethics inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Griffith's retirement.

A legal adviser to Roberts said the request from Judge Sri Srinivasan, the circuit’s chief judge, did not meet the standards for transferring the inquiry to another judicial circuit to pursue.

Demand Justice, a progressive advocacy group, filed a complaint in March asking the appeals court to determine whether McConnell or any other lawmaker had inappropriately played a role in Griffith's decision to retire. The vacancy creates an election-year slot on the influential appeals court, where four of the nine current Supreme Court justices served, including Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh.

Griffith issued a statement earlier this month saying no political pressure was put on him to leave the bench.

The Republican party is actively and openly trying to kill the very notion of an independent, non-partisan judiciary. They're not even pretending at this point, they're bragging about and using their efforts to pack the courts with conservative activist judges a tent-pole of many of their campaigns for petes sake.

Sure, we can argue over how Democrats or Republicans have always generally appointed judges who may lean in their ideological favor, but it's never, ever been so aggressively blatant. And unlike the Democrats, the Republicans have multiple organizations specifically designed to train and groom activist conservative judges like the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society. There is no Democratic analog, especially none remotely as well funded or supported.

This should not be allowed to stand, and no party should be supporting such a blatant power grab and attempt to undermine our core governmental institutions. Because eventually the shoe is on the other foot, and what has been ratfucked can be even more deeply ratfucked if the other party so desires. It's a bottomless hole where nobody comes out a winner, and the country suffers for it.

[Belize]

Maybe Graham can step aside so we can replace him too.

[Lenonis]

Sure, we can argue over how Democrats or Republicans have always generally appointed judges who may lean in their ideological favor, but it's never, ever been so aggressively blatant.

Look, I don't want to both sides this but there were a lot of Democrats that wanted RBG to retire before Obama left office. I think the days of a non-partisan judiciary ended long before Trump. But yes, to your point, we've reached a new low in how blatant a power grab this is and yet another way that McConnell is a horrible human being.

[beanman12345]

I hope Graham and Bitch McConnell loses this election so bad. Please let them lose!

[Edge-]

Look, I don't want to both sides this but there were a lot of Democrats that wanted RBG to retire before Obama left office. I think the days of a non-partisan judiciary ended long before Trump. But yes, to your point, we've reached a new low in how blatant a power grab this is and yet another way that McConnell is a horrible human being.

With a different goal in mind. The goal wasn't to pack the Supreme Court with liberals, but to preserve the existing balance in the event that she should be unable to carry out her duties through Trump's term.

Remember, this was after McConnell was proudly bragging refusing to even talk with Garland, much less bring his nomination up for a vote. This was not something out of the blue, and was very much a reaction to the behavior of Republicans at the time. It was a reactive, not proactive, hope.

[Elegiac]

No no, you are misrepresenting his arguments. Graham said he wanted older judges to retire so they can make way for younger, more virile men to fill those openings.

Like when he said the DOJ should bend over for the President, what he was saying is that he thinks bending over is just the most naturally masculine thing to do.

[Edge-]

Graham said he wanted older judges to retire so they can make way for younger, more virile men to fill those openings.

Get me a mint julip, because I'm feeling the vapors.

[Elegiac]

Get me a mint julip, because I'm feeling the vapors.

Miss Lindsey clearly needs to head to the sea for a spell to take the waters, honestly.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Remember when Republicans were crying that the courts should be non partisan as a reason for refusing Obama's appointments? Pepperidge farm remembers.

But yeah, Republicans are hypocrites, news at 11.

[Lenonis]

With a different goal in mind. The goal wasn't to pack the Supreme Court with liberals, but to preserve the existing balance in the event that she should be unable to carry out her duties through Trump's term.

I guess I just assumed that the turtle was talking to conservative justices because who the hell else would do this?

EDIT -- I see this as a "welp Trump can't keep his mouth shut and is going to babble himself out of the White House so we need to get the conservative wing of the courts as young as possible to last through Biden's term."

[Milchshake]

So all the people promising to withhold their votes because "muh purity"... are really Lindsey Graham fans?

[Gestopft]

So all the people promising to withhold their votes because "muh purity"... are really Lindsey Graham fans?

I think anyone who actually wants to see M4A within their lifetimes needs to start with the assumption that every time McTurtle confirms a judge, it adds a few more months until it's possible.

Yeah Biden sucks. But he's not going to preemptively block decades of progress. People have to think more than four years ahead.

[Easo]

So someone, who is 64, wants that. Maybe he should start with himself as an example, eh? xD

[Elegiac]

So someone, who is 64, wants that. Maybe he should start with himself as an example, eh? xD

Look, he just wants some younger men to fill these openings, okay! Don't ask so many questions.

[Gestopft]

Look, he just wants some younger men to fill these openings, okay! Don't ask so many questions.

Next time I'm in SC, I'ma start bringing that up with people.

[Powerogue]

I don't know how much more blatant it can get than literally making the call of "just leave so that we can corrupt what's supposed to be the branch of government that holds us accountable by packing it with judges that do what we want."

It's one of those things that had been nudged in that direction for ages but never just spoken outright. It's like they don't care anymore about hiding this.

[Hobb]

Sounds like the GOP is beginning to hear the incoming roar of a blue tidal wave.

[cubby]

I don't know how much more blatant it can get than literally making the call of "just leave so that we can corrupt what's supposed to be the branch of government that holds us accountable by packing it with judges that do what we want."

It's one of those things that had been nudged in that direction for ages but never just spoken outright. It's like they don't care anymore about hiding this.

To me that signals that if the Democrats win the White House (or rather it's not stolen from them) and flip the Senate, the entire apparatus has to go nuclear.

Statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C.
Expand the SCOTUS.
National abortion bill.

All the goodies the Democrats would like to see and more, just stuffed down the GOP's throat.

[Wikko]

Never really understood why you have the government/politicians appoint judges. The judicial system should be completely separate from the government

[Lenonis]

All the goodies the Democrats would like to see and more, just stuffed down the GOP's throat.

I think the political backlash from that would be intense. This approach would do no good if you hand the power back over and everything gets undone and worse.

I think statehood for Puerto Rico and DC would likely not get backlash but the other two...yikes. Hold onto your seats. (Or not in the next election...)