The most important task for Senate Democrats in the waning days of the 118th Congress is to expeditiously fill as many federal court vacancies as possible, the New York Times’ editorial board declared Tuesday.
In a bleak call to action with just weeks to go until the new Republican-led Senate takes shape in January, the Times' editorial board took Democratic senators to task for giving in to a Senate custom of not moving forward on a judicial nomination unless home-state senators agree. They pointed to the implications of Trump stacking the courts with a new round of ultra-conservative judges are enormous.
“The Senate should leave no judgeship unfilled,” the editorial board wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday. “In the coming months and years, virtually all of the most extreme plans that Donald Trump has announced — using the military to deport immigrants, politicizing the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies, refusing to spend money that has been appropriated by Congress, among many others — will be challenged in the federal courts.”
They added that just as in Trump’s first term, many of his extreme plans will likely be struck down “by fair-minded judges and appeals courts if they exceed the president’s powers.”
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Or at least that’s the hope if Senate Democrats are successful in confirming as many judges as possible to the federal bench. Many of Trump’s first-term nominees went on “to limit the ability to vote, upend fundamental reproductive rights and reduce oversight and checks on the power of the executive branch,” the op-ed noted.
At 228, Trump has the distinction of making the most district and circuit court judicial appointments in his four-year term since Jimmy Carter, according to the Times.
“A look at some of their actions shows how important it is for Mr. Biden and the Senate to counterbalance their influence,” the editorial board wrote, which added that President Joe Biden has so far named 218 confirmed judges, and "Democratic officials estimate that, at best, they can confirm about 14 more judges."
The editorial board concluded by telling readers that Democratic senators should hurry to fill the remaining federal judgeships, even if that means “working late nights, Fridays and weekends.”
