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You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Finding the Next Justice

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Finding the Next Justice

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(Cuz Michelle Obama shopped at J. Crew, according to twitter-chatter, in case you thought Kennedy wasn’t race-baiting enough…)

Reader Interactions

47Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    I hope they consider everyone. //

    *For everyone who wants that, who is “everyone”?

    All attorneys?  All rich white males who attended Yale or Harvard.  Thanks, guys, for helping to bring down the esteemed reputation of those places.

    Only Catholic crazy people, even if they have little relevant experience?

  5. 5.

    Kay

    People are just incredibly rational about money :)

    JW Mason
    @JWMason1
    ·7h
    Here is a poll from mid-2013 with 51% saying inflation was a very big problem and 31% saying it was a moderate problem. That’s almost identical to today’s numbers. Yet at that time, inflation was running well below 2 percent and had been for some time

    Around the world, people express high levels of concern about rising prices, regardless of the actual level of inflation their national economies may be experiencing.

  7. 7.

    Math Guy

    Biden is introducing a different perspective to the court and that is what the Republicans and other establishment voices object to.

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    Senator Kennedy is an ass wipe. But there’s also this, from Wikipedia.

    Kennedy crossed party lines to oppose the appointment of three of Trump’s U.S. District Court judicial nominees who Kennedy believed were not qualified: Jeff Mateer, Brett Talley, and Matthew S. Petersen. The White House withdrew all three nominations. On December 13, 2017, during Petersen’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kennedy asked Petersen about basic legal procedure, whether he knew what the Daubert standard was, and what a motion in limine was. Petersen struggled to answer. Kennedy also voted against the nomination of Gregory G. Katsas to the D.C. Circuit, but Katsas was confirmed.

    BTW. I don’t know if these kinds of questions are useful, or just grandstanding. But I expect to see the senator do this with a Biden nominee.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    @HinTN:

    I wonder what I would say though. “Are you very concerned about rising prices?”

    I might say yes. Maybe they think it’s in a general sense :)

  14. 14.

    sab

    Crack of dawn here. Vt Country Store order just arrived( !?) Couple of aprons, lamps and some excellenr gumdrops. Spouse and I are arguing about who should hide gumdrops because sinfully delicious, and we both have dental fillings.

    I know these guys must be RWNJ because rural Vermont, but please don’t tell me so

    ETA As always with them, expensive but worth it.

  20. 20.

    Kay

    @HinTN:

    I used to get polled a lot when Ohio was a swing state and I had a land line. I would answer the questions. Probably went on too long, really. “Well, I have mixed feelings on that…”

  21. 21.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: The crazy Catholics without experience has worked well for them last few times, so why not? They are the Court, so who cares if people respect them?

  22. 22.

    Anne Laurie

    @SpaceUnit: Why will this court pick need a sherpa? I don’t recall other nominees having handlers, but maybe I just didn’t notice.

    Nope, it’s standard practice.  From the NYTimes article:

    …Because meet-and-greets in Washington have the potential for combustion, past guides have told nominees to more or less adopt a speak-when-spoken-to role. Tom C. Korologos, a former Republican lobbyist and ambassador, has been involved in over 300 Senate confirmation processes, including those of Justices William H. Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia, and the nominee Robert H. Bork. In an interview, Mr. Korologos read from a detailed sheaf of notes that he had gathered over the years — a veritable dos and don’ts list for potential nominees…

    The final nomination team, Mr. Korologos said, will most likely engage in another strangely named process: so-called murder boards, where nominees and the nominee selection committee meet — in the past it has been at the White House or at a private home — and think of the nastiest possible questions that might come up in a hearing. Then they fling them at the nominee. Mr. Jones’s most recent sherpa predecessors included Jon Kyl, who served three terms as a Republican senator from Arizona and guided Brett M. Kavanaugh through one of the more bitter Senate confirmation processes in recent history…

    Steve Schmidt, the Republican strategist who served as the chief White House strategist behind the nominations of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Capitol Hill, said in an interview that the person in charge of shepherding nominees has historically had a dual responsibility: stroking the egos of senators, unruffling feathers and keeping the nominee calm…

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    Hmm.  IIRC, Katsas is actually qualified and not a hack.  Something else was going on there.

    This was interesting…

    On November 28, 2017, by a party line vote except for John Neely Kennedy R-LA and Joe Manchin D-WV, with Bob Corker and John McCain absent, the Senate voted to confirm Katsas by a vote of 50–48. He received his judicial commission on December 8, 2017.

  25. 25.

    sab

    @sab: Also one of the lamps was interesting. Giant page size (8″”x11″) magnifying glass with LED lights, so dad in nursing home can read without remembering where his magnifying glass is (dementia plus cataracts.) Plus lights. Will report back how it works. Seems amazing at first view.

  26. 26.

    SpaceUnit

    @Anne Laurie:

    Thanks.  I learned something new today.

    I figured the nominee would just show up in the Senate, take their seat, and try not to roll their eyes as the republicans do their Beavis and Butthead impressions.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    @Brachiator:

    “Now then, Judge Black Lady, please explain in concise terms the offside rule in soccer.”

    followed by

    “How many chukkers in a game of polo and how long is each chukker?”

  28. 28.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator:

    I don’t know if these kinds of questions are useful, or just grandstanding.

    My impression is that these are the kinds of questions that you should be able to answer if you were awake through law school.  Asking them is a theatrical way of showing just how incompetent someone is.  If a judicial nominee really has trouble answering them, they deserve to be publicly roasted.

  29. 29.

    Jinchi

    How is the nomination process going to work in this case? Breyer plans to fill out the remainder of the term (ending in July).
    Are they going to have the nomination and vote for his successor months before that happens?​

  31. 31.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jinchi: How is the nomination process going to work in this case? Breyer plans to fill out the remainder of the term (ending in July).

    The plan — why Breyer announced his retirement in advance — is to have a nominee fully vetted (an exacting process, except in GOP years) and ready to be voted in as soon as the current SCOTUS term ends.

  32. 32.

    trollhattan

    @Roger Moore:

    And here I sit, unable to remember my bank account password. That, I remember. Why? I’ve never seen polo in person.

    Somebody needs to tell us how to organize the file drawers in our brains. Socks, I’ve got handled.

  34. 34.

    trollhattan

    From the “No, we’re not kidding about this” files, consequences.

    February 2, 2022 at 5:17 pm EST By Taegan Goddard

    The U.S. Army said Wednesday that it would immediately begin removing soldiers who have refused the coronavirus vaccine, the Washington Post reports.

  37. 37.

    sab

    @sab: Jeez just woke from nap. And I am 12 hours off. Thought I was early tomorrow when I am late the day before. Same time, but pm not am, and one day earlier. So no dawn delivery, just late evenimg the night before.

    ETA 8 pm is hardly even night yet, except very dark already.

  38. 38.

    Brachiator

    @trollhattan:

    “Now then, Judge Black Lady, please explain in concise terms the offside rule in soccer.”

    Ha! OT BTW, I saw a story that Trinity Rodman just signed a fat contract for whichever soccer team she plays for.

    “How many chukkers in a game of polo and how long is each chukker?”

    Ha, again!

    The only thing I know about polo is a scene from the movie Pretty Woman.

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    A deep-red state that’s home to some of Donald Trump’s most vocal conservative critics will welcome members of the Republican National Committee this week for a meeting in which party officials are expected to solidify the former president’s status as the GOP standard-bearer ahead of the midterm elections.
    [snip]
    In closed-door meetings this week, RNC members are expected to discuss a proposal to force candidates seeking the party’s nomination to pledge not to participate in debates run by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has played a defining role in presidential contests for the last 30 years. The item, rooted in Trump’s longstanding criticisms of the commission, is expected to be voted on by the full membership this summer.

    RNC members are also expected to resume a debate over whether to retain Iowa and New Hampshire as the first two states to vote, or change the order, as Democrats are mulling. Committee members may also take up a resolution about expelling GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney from the party for joining the Jan. 6 House committee. Source

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