President Trump is making the federal judiciary more right-wing and less qualified. Trump may not be getting much legislation passed; however, he is adversely affecting the course of American history with his appointment of federal judges.
In addition to flagrantly blocking President Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, the Republicans in the Senate blocked all of Obama’s nominees for federal judgeships in 2016. This action meant that in addition to the Supreme Court Justice, Trump could appoint up to 100 federal judges.
First, as expected, he appointed an extreme conservative, Neil Gorsuch, to the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, he has been full-speed ahead nominating federal judges. And again, as expected, his nominees for judgeships are mostly white men and mostly right wing.
Some are not qualified. Brett J. Talley, President Trump’s nominee to be a federal judge in Alabama, was just three years out of law school and had never tried a case. He was unanimously rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association’s judicial rating committee. He is openly partisan and extremely so, denouncing “Hillary Rotten Clinton” and pledging support for the National Rifle Association. Nevertheless, last November the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a party-line vote, approved Talley for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. They did so despite the fact that Talley’s wife works in the White House, a potential conflict of interest he did not disclose in his confirmation process.
Talley’s conflict of interest on top of his inexperience raised serious questions about his nomination. Fortunately, he withdrew from consideration for the judgeship before the full Senate vote.
But that did not stop Trump and his right-wing enablers. In his rush to fill the federal courts with right-wingers, he nominated even worse candidates. For example, Matthew Spencer Petersen was one of Trump’s judicial nominees. Petersen not only had never tried a case in court, but it appears that he may never have been in a courtroom, as he knew almost nothing about the courtroom process. In his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he could not answer some basic questions about courtroom procedure. In embarrassment, Petersen withdrew his nomination.
Perhaps, Trump was trying to appoint someone like himself—ignorant.
Since 1953, the American Bar Association (ABA) has given ratings of nominees to life-term judicial positions. Ten of the 12 presidents in office since that time have consulted with the ABA before submitting judicial nominations. Trump has followed George W. Bush in not consulting the ABA. In the absence of prior consultation, the ABA released ratings of the nominees after their nominations were announced. As of December 15, 2017, the ABA had announced ratings for 57 of President Trump’s 59 nominees; of the 57 nominees who were rated, the ABA rated four not qualified.
Currently, 78 nominations await Senate action. All nominees are very conservative, and most will be confirmed. Thus Trump will affect in a very negative way the future of the federal courts.
