Senate Republicans' radical gun plan

[struggle4progress]

By MARK JOSEPH STERN
AUG 05, 20195:50 PM

... the Senate operates as “an approval factory” for Donald Trump’s judicial nominees ... Under Trump, the Senate has confirmed two Supreme Court justices, 99 district courts judges, and 43 federal court of appeals judges. Today, nearly 1 in 4 judges on the powerful courts of appeals was nominated by Trump. The president is reshaping the judiciary in the image of the Republican Party’s far-right conservative wing.

... While the House passes gun safety measures, the Senate installs judges who are eager to strike such measures down. Republican lawmakers have taken the long view: They may lose majorities in Congress and state legislatures, but Trump’s judges will sit on the bench for decades to come. Any future firearms restrictions may be invalidated; many existing gun safety laws are in serious jeopardy. The GOP may have no plan to stop mass shootings, but it does have a plan to ensure that Democrats can’t stop them, either.

... In 2017, Gorsuch joined Justice Clarence Thomas in declaring that states may not ban civilians from carrying concealed weapons in public. Their dissent accused the court of treating “the Second Amendment as a disfavored right.” By joining Thomas’ opinion, Gorsuch signaled that he would force every state to allow concealed carry—even though states with looser concealed carry laws have more gun deaths. Gorsuch and Thomas also dissented from the Supreme Court’s refusal to block the Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks, which were used in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

Kavanaugh, too, proved to be a gun extremist during his tenure on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In a 2011 dissent, Kavanaugh declared that D.C.’s ban on assault weapons infringed upon the Second Amendment ...

Trump’s lower-court nominees are now openly lobbying the Supreme Court to strike down more gun laws ...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/senate-republicans-gun-control-judges.html

[BigOleDummy]

1. I .... I...

I am just left here shaking my head. I knew and/or felt that this was the case and wanted to comment but its early and I'm only on my first cup of coffee and all I can do is smh and wonder what is wrong with some people.

[Fyrefox]

2. Proliferation

The Republican "solution" to the problem of gun violence has often been, more guns.

[Scarsdale]

3. Who chooses these judges?

Certainly not Fatman Donnie. McConnell seems to have plenty of time on his hands, since no legislation is being brought up in the senate. Moscow Mitch likely has a whole file of judicial choices who are gop toadies. Many of them are probably of high character just like Kavanagh who was the worst they could find to appoint to the Not-So-Supreme Court. The gop has infected every branch of government.

[sharedvalues]

5. The Heritage Foundation: an arm of the GOP billionaire donors

The GOP billionaires want these judges because they’ll be anti-worker— cutting down suits holding corporations responsible, rolling back regulator you protections, and ruling against workers in healthcare and minimum wage laws.

So that’s why the GOP billionaires fund the Federalist society and Heritage to promote these judges.


By the way it’s important to note that a large number of these Trump judges are idiots. It’s well known in legal circles that since the vast majority of law students are liberals, every mediocre law student can get ahead in their career by moving conservative. So smart lawyers are overwhelmingly liberal. Conservative judges get second pick at clerks, and those mediocre clerks end up becoming conservative judges. The rightwing legal world is filled with soft-minded idiots, propped up by billionaire dollars.

[sharedvalues]

4. We must impeach these judges. "Undo Trump"

These judges were nominated by an illegitimate president who stole the election with GOP voter suppression and a lot of help from the Russians.

They must be impeached. There need be no misconduct by the judges themselves, no crimes are necessary. Impeachment is a political act and it can be done at any time for any reason.

If we talk about Trump judge impeachment enough, we can move public approval to the point we may even get enough senators. And we should also add DC as a state and give PR the option.