SCOTUS: Biden's Missed Opportunity to Bring the Country Together
During his campaign, President Biden assured the American people that he would do whatever he could to unite the country. In today's uncertain times, that promise is even more poignant. Biden missed a major opportunity to bring the country together when he made his pick to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. As Republican Senator Lindsey Graham explained, President Biden had the option to replace Justice Breyer with someone from his own shortlist who had the potential to receive true bipartisan support, District Court Judge Michelle Childs:
“Here’s the point: I was willing to get probably double-digit Republican support for somebody that would have been in the liberal camp from my state,” he added, referring to Childs. “So they made a political decision to reject bipartisanship and go another way.”
Read moreWill Biden Use SCOTUS Nomination to Distract from His Disastrous Record at SOTU?
At Tuesday's State of the Union, President Joe Biden will no doubt try to distract from his disastrous presidency by hailing the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court as a "mainstream" pick to the Court. But what really is her judicial philosophy? As Professor Jonathan Turley points out, Judge Brown Jackson has evaded prior questioning about her judicial philosophy:
Liberals want a justice who is willing to expand the meaning of the Constitution without constitutional amendments. President Biden stressed that his nominee must follow a "living constitution" approach, including a broad view of “unenumerated rights.” When asked if she supported such an approach, Childs answered "no." Jackson, in contrast, has been far more obscure and conflicted in her response.
Read moreDick Durbin Has a History of "Abuse and Bigotry" on Judiciary Committee
On Monday, The Washington Post published a puff piece on Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, lauding him for potentially presiding over the confirmation of the first Black female Supreme Court Justice. But as RNLA Executive Director Michael Thielen points out, Durbin has a long history of "abuse and bigotry" against judicial nominees during his time on the Committee, the most recent example being how he grilled Justice Amy Coney Barrett about her Catholic beliefs.
Read moreAnd contrary to WaPo’s claim he “cement[ed] his status as a player” for “racial advancement,” @dickdurbin’s history on the Judiciary Committee is rife with anti-Catholic & anti-Hispanic attacks. He asked Justice Barrett if she was an “orthodox Catholic”3/5 https://t.co/sVjOuwiFrT
— Michael Thielen (@MB_Thielen) February 22, 2022
The Left Has a Truth Problem Especially When it Comes to Judicial Nominees
When Justice Clarence Thomas was going through the confirmation process, Democrats orchestrated false allegations that Thomas had harassed a former employee, Anita Hill, in an effort to derail his nomination to the Supreme Court. The character assassination was led by none other than then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Joe Biden. The remarkable thing is that Biden did not even believe Hill, but he chose to use her testimony anyways. Mark Paoletta, who worked on Justice Thomas' confirmation, recalled one specific instance where then-Senator Biden pressured Hill to change her testimony to fit the Democrats' attacks on Justice Thomas:
Hill, who had been discussing in detail alleged conversations with Thomas and others that happened many years earlier, told Specter she could not remember any such conversations. According to Specter:
Read moreAmericans Think "Most Qualified" Person Should be Nominated to SCOTUS
Another poll has shown that Americans would prefer President Joe Biden pick the "most qualified" person to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court as opposed to strictly sticking with his pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Court:
[J]ust 36 percent of Americans say Biden’s pledge was a "good idea," while the rest say it was either “a bad idea” (32 percent) or “neither good nor bad” (32 percent). And just a third of Americans say they have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that Biden will select "the right kind of person" to replace Breyer on the court (33 percent), or that they themselves expect to support the nominee Biden puts forward (34 percent) — noticeably lower than the 39 percent who said they expected to support "President Trump's Supreme Court nominee" in September 2020, just before he nominated Amy Coney Barrett.
Read moreLiberal Dark Money Bullied Breyer to Retire, Will it Also Choose His Replacement?
Ever since Joe Biden became President, the Left has pressured Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire through a campaign spearheaded by "dark money" groups like Demand Justice:
After President Biden’s election, Demand Justice started bullying Justice Stephen Breyer into retirement. It ran aggressive ads and drove a mobile billboard around the Supreme Court that said: “Breyer, retire. It’s time for a Black woman Supreme Court justice. There’s no time to waste.”
Read moreAmericans React Negatively to Biden Plan to Fill SCOTUS Vacancy
On Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer officially announced his retirement at the White House. At the announcement, President Joe Biden reaffirmed his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the Court:
“I’ve made no decision except one: The person I will nominate will be somebody of extraordinary qualifications, character and integrity,” he said. “And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It is long overdue.”
Read moreSenate Confirms Sung to 9th Circuit as Biden makes More Judicial Nominations
By a 49 to 50 vote, the U.S. Senate confirmed Jennifer Sung to the 9th Circuit on Wednesday. Her nomination drew criticism from Republicans for a letter she signed on to calling U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh an "intellectually and morally bankrupt ideologue" during his confirmation process.
Read moreHearing Exposes Extreme Partisanship of Judicial Nominee
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing for a number of judicial nominees. Among them was Dale Ho, nominated to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. Throughout the hearing, Republican Senators expressed concern over Ho's prior partisan rhetoric, especially on social media.
Read moreNever Forget it Was Biden Who Broke the Senate on Judges
President Trump was extremely successful in having placed 234 Article III Judges, including 3 Supreme Court Justices. His record of working with the Senate to confirm outstanding Judicial nominees stands in strong contrast to the record of then Senators Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Biden was one of 22 senators who voted against [Chief Justice John] Roberts [who will swear him in tomorrow] in 2005. . . .
Roberts is far from the only justice whose confirmation Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris opposed. Biden, who was a senator from Delaware for more than 35 years, also voted not to confirm Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Harris, a California senator, cast votes against the nominations of the three Trump appointees to the high court: Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
It’s the first time in American history that the incoming president and vice president have together voted against a majority of the court.
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