A Republican Senator Is Finally Standing Up to Trump's Awful Judicial Nominees

[babylonsister]

Nov. 29 2017 5:24 PM
A Republican Senator Is Finally Standing Up to Trump's Awful Judicial Nominees
By Mark Joseph Stern


President Donald Trump has the opportunity to reshape the federal judiciary by nominating more than 100 judges to lifetime appointments on the bench. With the help of the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, Trump has mostly chosen hardline conservatives with respectable resumes who are objectively qualified if ideologically extreme. Several of his selections, however, are plainly unfit for the job, with disturbing fringe views and volatile temperaments. Republicans easily confirmed one such nominee in July over the unanimous opposition of Democrats. But it now appears that at least one GOP senator, John Kennedy of Louisiana, is drawing a line in the sand over Trump’s most egregious picks.

Kennedy spent Tuesday and Wednesday establishing his discontent with several aspiring judges whom Trump has sent to the Senate for approval. First, on Tuesday, he voted against Gregory Katsas’ confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Remarkably, that made Kennedy the first Republican Senator to vote against one of Trump’s judicial nominees.

Kennedy, who is a lawyer, explained that he opposed Katsas due to a “conflict of interest” that “a first-year law student would see”: In his current role as deputy White House counsel, Katsas worked on contentious executive orders, and helped to craft the president’s response to special counsel Robert Mueller.

“He is counsel to the president to the United States,” Kennedy said. “He’s going to walk across the street and sit on the court that is going to hear cases involving the president and we’re all as Americans supposed to believe that he alone will judge when he has a conflict or not.”

The senator then declared that he would vote against Brett Talley, whom Trump has nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. Kennedy noted that Talley is married to the White House counsel's chief of staff, a fact he failed to disclose to the Senate. He also pointed out that the 36-year-old Talley has little legal experience.

“And he’s never tried a lawsuit in his natural life,” Kennedy complained. “And he’s gonna be on the federal bench? Give me a break. A break. It is embarrassing. And I think the president of the United States is getting some very, very bad advice.” He added that he’d vote against Talley “in a heartbeat—twice, if I can.” If two more Republican senators were to vote against Talley, his nomination would fail—presuming every Democrat votes against him, which appears likely.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/11/29/republican_senator_john_kennedy_is_rejecting_trump_s_outrageous_judicial.html?utm_content=inf_933_2641_2&wpsrc=socialedge&tse_id=INF_69b14fa0d65d11e7b926579f881108d6

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. Good news

Maybe not enough but still a welcome development.

[hatrack]

2. And I'll bet you money that there are enough GOPuke votes already lined up to hire this clown . . .

And Kennedy gets to do the "Voice of Reason/Sensible Republican routine, while President Shitstain gets his Hillary-Hatin' buttboy all set up with a lifetime appointment.