You can bet that Republicans will attack every single one of them, because the last thing they want is a judiciary that isn’t composed of white men. If you thought it was bad for Haaland and Gupta, just wait.
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Who cares? Let them attack. Democrats should ignore the attacks and simply press forward by confirming all of them. Actually, if they do go after them Dems should have a field day bringing up all the judges the GOP confirmed under Trump who didn’t even have experience in a courtroom.
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The reason the other side was able to appoint so many judges is that they did not allow Obama to
fill vacancies. I detest these people.
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McConnell set up a system to confirm judges so expect Schumer to follow that to a T. The real issue is we need to hold the Senate in 2022 or Mitch will be back to his old tricks of holding up all judges until Drumpf comes back (in his dreams/nightmares)
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I have some desires for the Supreme Court:
- Someone with an academic background that is not Harvard or Yale. There are more than two top-20 law schools in the US.
- Someone who is not from east of the Appalachians. We have added a couple of states since 1789.
- Someone who is not a lawyer, but instead a scholar in a related area. History would be a good choice. Being an appellate judge is being someone who says what the law means. I don’t think being a lawyer necessarily enhances that ability.
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For trial courts, I’d want someone with an extensive legal background. That is, a lawyer.
For appellate courts, an extensive legal background isn’t so necessary. You certainly want a lot of judges with a legal background/prior judicial experience. But having people with a different perspective would be valuable, too. I think I’d look hard at people with legal experience who left the law to do something else.
Among the people with legal backgrounds you’d want a range of experiences, too. There’s too much focus on prosecutors in the recent past. IP lawyers, matrimonial lawyers…they ought to get a shot at trial courts and appellate benches, too.
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Breyer grew up in California and Barrett is from Louisiana – but I take your point.
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Yes, I’d say that historians, political scientists, economists – even philosophers and maybe even experienced activists – ought to be considered. On the Supreme Court, the Justices’ clerks do the bulk of the legal research, anyway.
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Associate Justice Cesar Chavez would have had a nice ring to it, as would Associate Justice Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s way past too late for both of them, but how about Associate Justice Stacey Abrams?
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Slightly OT, but an apropos typo…
On the campaign trial, Biden…
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I’d want to include at least one Supreme Court Justice with state trial court bench experience. I think O’Conner was the last one.
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Great: now we need Breyer to resign (can’t believe he’s waited this long TBH) and for Thomas to croak. And maybe Roberts resigns just because.