President Donald Trump has the ability to re-nominate three judges for the United States Courts for the Ninth Circuit, at least while the Republicans still have power over the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to a Legal Insurrection article from William Jacobson.
But, for whatever reason, the president has yet to do so. Why?
The Ninth Circuit, which includes the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and district courts among 15 judicial districts, resides along the west coast United States. In his article, Jacobson links to another story from Paul Mirengoff, a former Washington D.C. attorney and commentator at Power Line, who explained the significance of the circuit.
“Remember, this is hands down the most left-wing appeals court in America,” wrote Mirengoff. “It has been instrumental in blocking key Trump administration initiatives.”
Initiatives blocked by the Ninth Circuit include Trump’s attempt to deny asylum to illegal immigrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and his attempt to end the temporary protective status of 300,000 immigrants from Haiti, Sudan, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Law Professor Hugh Hewitt also stated in his radio show Wednesday how important it was for Trump to get nominees accepted into the Ninth Circuit.
“The 9th Circuit is where I live a quarter of the year, and I teach,” said Hewitt, “And it’s the left-wing lunatic asylum of the judiciary. And I don’t mean that they’re lunatics, it’s just the hardest left group.”
On the show with Hewitt was Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga. He told Hewitt he was surprised that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone might consider a deal with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Ca., to compromise on which nominees will take over the vacant seats. This could include dropping one of Trump’s original nominees that he picked back in October of last year, Patrick Bumatay.
“Why do we need to do a deal?” asked Perdue. “This is totally within our purview. We can do this with 51 votes [in the committee], and we’ve shown that we can do that. We stuck together as a Republican caucus in the Senate and delivered results for the President. And he has sent up really good candidates.”
Sen. Perdue promised Hewitt that he would try to get in contact with the president to let him know that he has the ability to ignore Sen. Feinstein’s deal and to re-nominate Bumatay, along with his other two original nominees, Daniel Collins and Ken Lee.
“This is so important that we rebalance these courts, particularly the 9th, as you call out, and the D.C. Circuit as well,” Perdue said.
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