In a stunning display of sheer ignorance, CNN commentator Symone Sanders told her fellow members on the fake news network CNN panel that President Trump is essentially in the midst of a “hostile takeover of the courts” because of the number of judges he has appointed to the vacancies in the federal courts.
It’s interesting to note, that the left is unwilling to blame Barack Obama for leaving so many vacancies on the courts for President Trump to fill.
President Trump mockingly thanked his predecessor former President Obama for leaving so many judicial posts vacant despite a Republican-controlled Senate slowing down confirmations during the last two years of the Obama administration.
“When I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren’t appointed,” Trump said during a speech in Ohio on Thursday. “I don’t know why Obama left that. It was like a big, beautiful present to all of us. Why the hell did he leave that?”
“Maybe he got complacent,” Trump added.
“It was like the gift from heaven. We were left judges,” Trump said. “They are the ones that judge all your disputes. They judge on what’s fair on the environment and what’s not fair. Where they’re going to take your farms and factories away and where they’re not.”
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In an August 3 article, The Fresno Bee outlined the danger of Congress leaving so many vacancies in our courts.
Today the system is in danger of collapsing, starting with the judiciary. There are 677 federal district court judgeships, overseen by 11 federal Courts of Appeals, with the Supreme Court on top. As of July 19, there were 129 vacancies in the district courts, with 76 nominees pending. Over half of the vacancies are judicial emergencies due to the number of cases per judge and the need for more judges.
The district courts are the workhorses of the system. Federal criminal trials occur here; trials of major noncriminal cases, such as civil rights violations, water disputes, and antitrust, occur here. These courts cannot function without an adequate number of judges and funding. Faith in the system requires that legislators and the executive put partisanship aside and exercise their constitutional responsibility to make sure the courts are there and open. Imagine the crisis were the courts to order that 18 Senators of the 100-member Senate not be seated or 75 of the 435-member House of Representatives not be seated.
As a glaring example affecting Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Fresno and Bakersfield, among others, on June 19, 2018, the judges of the District Courts for the Eastern District of California by letter notified senators and congressional representatives of the “current crisis and an upcoming exacerbation of that crisis that will have…catastrophic consequences if left unaddressed.” This huge district covers 55 percent of the land mass of California and serves a population of more than 8 million. It currently has six district judges and three senior district judges. Each district judge handles an average caseload of 900, more than double the nationwide average. Two of the six will retire in the next 19 months; one of the three senior judges will also retire. One senior judge is 80 years old and the other is no longer taking criminal cases and maintains a 50 percent civil case load.
Symone Sanders, former press secretary for socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (VT), is not only unwilling to hold Obama accountable for leaving so many vacancies for President Trump to fill, she’s now calling Trump’s constitutional responsibility to fill the vacancies, a “hostile takeover of the courts”.
WFB – Senate leaders struck a deal on Tuesday to quickly confirm seven more federal district court judges, meaning President Donald Trump has now had 60 judges put on the bench. That includes Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Sanders, who served as press secretary for the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), said it amounted to a hostile takeover and was “very underreported.”
“This has been very underreported, but folks do not understand that a hostile takeover of the courts by folks who are not even approved by the American Bar Association is happening,” she said. “There are judges on the list right now that are not approved by the American Bar Association, and Donald Trump’s lasting legacy, among other things. will be that he was able to reshape the courts for a generation, and that is something Grassley and McConnell are very tied to, and I think they don’t want to see their ally in this effort go.”
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