The Ninth Circuit has been known as a bastion of liberal activism for years.
It was perhaps the best example of everything that President Donald Trump was elected to try to correct, with a return to what the Court is actually supposed to be doing, adhering to the Constitution and not to political activism.
One of the places where Trump has been most effective, with the aid of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has been in getting judges approved, including those in the Circuit Courts of Appeal, where Trump has made 51 appointments.
There have been few places where those appointments appear to have had more effect than in the change that has swept the Ninth Circuit, which covers California and eight other states.
Trump has taken the San Francisco-based Circuit that was dominated by Democratic appointees and substantially changed it.
He’s now appointed 10 judges to the Circuit, more than 1/3 of the active judges there.
According to Ninth Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith Jr., Trump has “effectively flipped the Circuit.”
Now “flipped” might be somewhat premature because there still isn’t a majority of Republican appointees on the Court. Democratic appointees still outnumber the Republican appointees, 16-13 as Hot Air notes.
But it’s safe to say that Trump’s remade it with such a huge influence in new judges devoted to the Constitution and will have a continuing influence in transforming it.
That’s making some nervous, according to the LA Times, calling it a “shock wave.” If they’re upset with it, sounds good.
To assess the early impact of these appointments, The Times interviewed several judges on the 9th Circuit. Some either declined to discuss their colleagues or inner deliberations or refused to be quoted by name, saying they were not authorized to speak about what goes on behind the scenes.To be sure, some of the new appointees to the 9th Circuit have quickly won the respect of their colleagues. But the rapid influx of so many judges — most without judicial experience — has put strains upon the court and stirred criticism among judges appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents.
Hot Air notes the criticisms are mostly silly, an attempt to paint the new judges as deficient when they’re not.
The complaints in the article over Trump’s ten appointments are, by contrast, overblown. They’re divisive! They don’t follow the rules! They didn’t have judicial experience! Closer to the end, however, other voices remind readers that both Obama and Clinton appointed non-judges to the Ninth Circuit and that everyone has a learning curve when taking an appellate post.This “shock wave” is just a nonsense comment, an attempt to paint these appointments as some sort of unprecedented makeover just seven years after Reid and Obama did the same damned thing on the other coast.
But it does serve again to show the importance of why Trump was elected. Can you imagine the difference between a Trump court and a Bernie Sanders influenced court?
Trump has kept his promises on the judiciary and will help do even more in a second term. Sanders, Bloomberg, and other Democratic candidates would only set back any positive movement that has been accomplished.