Pierce: There Are More Kavanaughs and Scalias Pouring Into the Federal Courts By the Day

[babylonsister]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a23843266/trump-federal-judges-allison-jones-rushing/

There Are More Kavanaughs and Scalias Pouring Into the Federal Courts By the Day
Meet Allison Jones Rushing.
By Charles P. Pierce
Oct 16, 2018


Now that Brett Kavanaugh is safely ensconced on the Supreme Court as a reliable vote for all things 19th Century, nobody's paying that kind of attention to judges anymore. But the long-running project of saddling future generations with the constitutional theorizing of the distant past goes merrily on, with the help, alas, of the Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate. The job of stuffing the federal judiciary with larval Scalias is still being done. The good folks at the Alliance For Justice have the skinny on Allison Jones Rushing, who has been nominated for an empty seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. That court has jurisdiction over Maryland, South Carolina, and pieces of North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

Ms. Jones Rushing, currently employed by Williams and Connolly in Washington, a white-shoe firm at which she specializes in corporate appeals, has all the usual credentials: Duke Law; clerkships for David Sentelle—a sweet fella who overturned Ollie North's Iran-Contra conviction, and who helped foist Ken Starr on us all—and for Neil Gorsuch, and for Clarence Thomas. I trust I don't have to run down the political CVs of the last two, and, anyway, this is quite the trifecta of references. She's also a member of the Federalist Society, as if you hadn't guessed this already.

As the AFJ also points out, she's done a lot of work for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a virulent anti-LGBTQ operation that's been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In that capacity, Ms. Jones Rushing has gone reliably bughouse on the subject of marriage equality. From the AFJ's report:

In 2013, Rushing participated in a panel at Capitol Hill Baptist Church titled “Henry Forum: ‘Enemies of Mankind’: Religion and Morality in the Supreme Court’s Same-Sex Marriage Jurisprudence.” In this discussion, Rushing frequently referenced Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion that the holding in United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744 (2013), departed from “traditional” concepts of marriage and morality. Rushing said that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) “explicitly stated that its purpose was ‘protecting the traditional moral teachings reflected in heterosexual-only marriage laws’” and that “[t]he congressional record indicated that DOMA reflected ‘moral disapproval of homosexuality, and a moral conviction that heterosexuality better comports with traditional (especially Judeo-Christian) morality.’”

Rushing then highlighted the dissenting justices in Windsor who emphasized “the fact that DOMA codified the definition of marriage that had prevailed throughout most of human history and, at the time of DOMA’s enactment, had been adopted by every State in the nation and every nation in the world, was evidence that the law did have a valid basis, or at least explained how lawmakers could enact such a law motivated by something other than hatred.” Additionally, she noted how “[m]ost interestingly, the dissenters observed that the majority could have decided the case on legal principles that would have accused DOMA’s supporters simply of making a legal error, which is an error that one could make in good faith. But instead, the majority chose the [sic] write the opinion in a unique way that calls it bigotry to believe that homosexuality does not comport with Judeo-Christian morality.”

And here's the most frightening thing in the AFJ report.

Allison Jones Rushing is 36 years old.

It never stops.

[Freethinker65]

1. And there is nothing we can do but VOTE in the midterms.

[clementine613]

2. Our Senators recently made a devil's deal with the Rethugs to allow 15 more NAZIs on the bench...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/11/politics/senators-leaders-judge-nominee/index.html

[maxrandb]

6. Please STOP Blaming Democrats

Unless you want to blame those who believed and tried to tell us Hillary was just the same as Donnie Short Fingers and didn't bother to vote.

Dems can't stop this. They can gnash their teeth and stomp their feet, but these judges were getting through.

We assured that fact in November 2016.

This is like putting a puppy in front of a speeding locamotive and then getting pissed at the puppy for not stopping the train!!?

Dems don't have the power to stop this. What do you want them to do? Shoot these Federalist Society pricks when they show up in the hearing room?

No! The only thing we can do is vote these Retrumplican fucktwits out of office and then be as ruthless in weilding power as they've been.

[clementine613]

9. No. If they're going to get on the bench anyway...

... then make the Rethugs put them there. I'm not mad that 15 NAZIs got on the bench (well, I am, but you know what I mean)... I understand that that was inevitable. I'm mad that we made a deal to facilitate it.

Play with the pigs and you'll just get yourself muddy.

[elmac]

10. Its not blaming the Dems, its just telling the truth

we should never hide what goes on in our own party. I was 100% against Dems helping the fascists with this or anything, we should be fighting them at every turn, its not just the right thing to do it will also motivate voters to the polls. Playing nice with fascists doesn't motivate at all.

[budkin]

3. The 2016 election is going to end up being the most damaging event in our lifetimes

Keep winning elections from here on out and we might have a chance.

[maxrandb]

7. 2010 was worse

It was a census year

[Hekate]

4. KnR

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. a procedural war we're losing

The Repugs pull every trick just short of violating the Constitution's letters while we go along to get along, and this is the result. Obama was blocked so McCONnell could stuff the Federal courts.

[maxrandb]

11. Wrong! Obama got an unprecedented amount of judges on the bench

I believe it was in excess of 300.

Several appellate courts have majorities appointed by Democrats. Amazing what we could have achieved had folks come out in 2010 and 2014.

Anyway, it's not the numbers, it's the quality. I'm willing to bet Obama appointed independent judges that respect the law. Donnie Short Fingers is appointing Federalist Society mob lawyers.

Stop them now and we may be able to preserve a lot of Obama's legacy. Fight amongst ourselves and we'll end up with 18th century whack jobs.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

12. from 2015

See:

Senate Republicans Are Blocking Obama’s Judges at a Nearly Unprecedented Rate
The Senate is on pace to approve the fewest judges in more than half a century.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/senate-republicans-block-obama-judge-nominations/

Gridlock has famously prevented Congress from enacting meaningful legislation in recent years, but it’s in another area that congressional inaction is truly setting new records. The Senate has confirmed just nine judges nominated by President Obama so far this year. It’s the slowest pace of confirmations in more than half a century, on track to match the 11 confirmations in 1960.

“It’s still like pulling teeth to move nominations,” says a senior Democratic Senate aide. “They’re being held by a number of different Republican senators for every reason under the sun. None of which have anything to do with the actual qualifications of the nominees.”

[maxrandb]

13. From 2008-2014 Obama got 329 judges confirmed

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_Barack_Obama

And while Donnie Short Fingers has had more confirmed in his first year than Obama did in his first year, if we can stop them now, or in 2020, we may limit the damage.

That's why this midterm is so important

[Ilsa]

8. Regarding Rushing:

I hope all of her children turn out to be gay. She needs a personal lesson in being born in a way that doesn't conform to her rigid thinking.

But I wouldn't wish her as a mommy on the kids.

[VOX]

14. K & R with vigor.