Today, Ed Whelan posted the four big questions in judicial confirmations for 2020 and answers to the four big questions he posed at the beginning of 2019. The first big question is whether a new Supreme Court vacancy will arise.

Although one did not in 2019, he notes that a nominee for a vacancy that arise this year would likely be confirmed "notwithstanding the ruckus the Left will raise." Looking ahead to 2020, he also asks:

We continue our Top 10 Blog posts for 2019.  Numbers 6-10 are here.  

5. February 7: SENATE JUDICIARY ADVANCES AG NOMINEE BARR AND 44 JUDICIAL NOMINEES

Senate Judiciary Dems playing an awkward game of praising Bill Barr's character and competence while saying why they're voting against him, which boils down to Pres. Trump, with some background of unitary executive theory.

While House Democrats have spent 2019 focused on attacking the President and a slipshod impeachment, President Trump and the United States Senate have focused on remaking the judiciary.  As the Washington Post reports:

Trump nominees make up 1 in 4 U.S. circuit court judges. Two of his picks sit on the Supreme Court. And this past week, as the House voted to impeach the president, the Republican-led Senate confirmed an additional 13 district court judges.

The 13 circuit courts are the second most powerful in the nation, serving as a last stop for appeals on lower court rulings, unless the case is taken up by the Supreme Court. So far, Trump has appointed 50 judges to circuit court benches. Comparatively, by this point in President Obama’s first term, he had confirmed 25. At the end of his eight years, he had appointed 55 circuit judges.

It is becoming apparent that the impeachment was done with no respect for the rule of law or even the political process.  On the first point, RNLA Vice President for Communications Audrey Perry Martin writes:

While an impeachment proceeding is not a court of law, these fundamental concepts of due process and fairness need to be respected for Americans to have any confidence in the integrity of the proceeding.

In their rush to impeach President Trump, House Democrats turned back the clock and embraced the non-existent due process protections of medieval courts.

As House Democrats irresponsibly hurdle toward impeachment tomorrow, the Senate led by Mitch McConnell is going to do it's duty.  In remarks today, Senator McConnell explained what the House has done and why this impeachment is problematic both now and for the future.  

It appears that the most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history is about to wind down after just 12 weeks and that its slapdash work product will be dumped on the Senate.

‘I’ll have much more to say to our colleagues and to the American people if and when the House does move ahead. But as we speak today, House Democrats still have the opportunity to do the right thing for the country and avoid setting this toxic new precedent.

‘The House can still turn back from the cliff and not deploy this constitutional remedy of last resort to deliver a pre-determined partisan outcome.

Yesterday, President Trump celebrated the 158th judge nominated by him confirmed by the Senate. Here are some statistics:

Since Republican Commissioner Matthew Petersen resigned in August, the Federal Election Commission has only had three commissioners and lacked the four commissioners necessary for it to approve agency actions.  Never missing an opportunity to make a political point while ignoring the facts, the left has continued criticizing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the lack of a quorum at the FEC (for example).  

This is one of the worst lies of the left. This is 100% the Democrats' fault and a part of their war on free speech and democracy. 

Yesterday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a resolution condemning the House Democrats' failure to follow standard procedures and precedents in their "impeachment inquiry" against President Trump.  The resolution called for the House to accord the President basic, constitutional due process protections.  As of today, there are fifty co-sponsors for the resolution.  

This morning, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been a steadfast defender of First Amendment rights, spoke on the Senate floor about the SHIELD Act under consideration by the House today.  He called it "the latest installment in Speaker Pelosi’s campaign to expand government’s control over Americans’ political speech."  

Speaker Pelosi's current crusade against Americans' political speech rights began with H.R. 1, and the SHIELD Act contains portions of H.R. 1, the Honest Ads, and other dangerous provisions.  The RNLA sent a letter to the House opposing it.

As Nancy Pelosi pushes House Democrats toward impeachment, we thought we would gather some reactions and responses from all sides of the spectrum that you may have missed.  But first off, we have to commend the President who has called for the release of the transcripts of his conversation with Ukraine President Zelensky and Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans who “hotlined” and voted unanimously to pass a resolution to provide the whistleblower complaint to Congress. 

Trump is releasing the transcript.

McConnell moving the complaint to Senate intel.

You want transparency & the facts? You got it.

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) September 24, 2019