Glad to see this piece by @zengerle. I do want to push back against the characterization of this federal court takeover as the result of "discipline." It has been as much the product of the Republicans' willingness to flout Senate norms, abandon rigorous examination of....1/
...the record of nominees, allow nominees to offer misleading testimony, or omit key info from their questionnaires, truncate hearings, blink as nominees refuse to articulate support for the canon embodied in cases like Brown v. Board, and in the case of Judge Kavanaugh...2/
...shield millions of pages of his record from review by the Committee and shield hundreds of thousands of others from public view by marking them w/a blanket "Committee Confidential" designation - something never done before. It's a kind of "ruthless discipline" to be sure..3/
...but it is more the exercise of raw numerical power. Ruthless discipline need not abandon rules and norms, disrespect collegiality, or lower standards to pass through candidates who in any other time would be deemed unfit. The takeover of the judicial noms process by....4/
...the Federalist Society & Leonard Leo is chillingly and accurately presented in this terrific piece. But they and Trump are only part of the problem. The most chilling and impt part of the article centers on the Republicans in the Senate who are constitutionally empowered...5/
....to review and approve judicial nominees for lifetime service on the federal bench. They have used this power ruthlessly & in some instances, recklessly. And generations to come will live with the consequences of their actions.....6/
