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27 Jan, 9 tweets, 2 min read
NEW: A spate of federal judges are retiring now that Joe Biden will pick their replacements huffpost.com/entry/federal-…
Since last Weds, when Biden was sworn in, at least 7 federal judges have announced retirement plans.

Some barely waited a day after Biden was inaugurated. Or even hours.
Got a coupla letters in here from judges announcing resignations. This one made me laugh.

“It has been my honor to serve." -- Judge Victoria Roberts to Biden, 90 *minutes* after he was sworn in, announcing she was taking senior status. Adios! huffpost.com/entry/federal-…
By my count (and the #s are changing)....

7 federal judges with lifetime appts have announced retirement plans since Inauguration Day.

8 have announced since Biden won the election.
Judges, of course, have their own reasons for retiring when they do. They're eligible. Family matters, perhaps.

But it's safe to say, for the most part, that the timing of these judges' retirements is because they wanted Biden to pick their replacements, not Trump.
“Congratulations on becoming our new president,” Judge William Alsup wrote to Biden a *day after* he was inaugurated. “I feel it is time now for me to ‘go senior.’” huffpost.com/entry/federal-…
Carl Tobias, a judicial nominations expert, said while Supreme Court justices often to try to time their retirements for when the current president is of the same party as the president who nominated them, that's not as common with lower court judges.

But... enter Trump.
Tobias speculated a # of judges couldn't fathom letting Trump pick their replacements, so they hung on for Biden.

"Trump was so nasty to federal judges and so counter to the rule of law that he repelled many federal judges."
It's not just a pile of Democrat-appointed judges retiring post-Trump, either. At the moment, the breakdown is...

2 Obama appointees
5 GWB appointees
8 Clinton appointees

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More from @jbendery

Jennifer Bendery Profile picture
26 Jan
Chuck Schumer plugs the idea of adding more seats to federal courts (district and appeals courts).

On Maddow:
It's a good time to do this.

The Judicial Conference (nonpartisan, oversees U.S. courts) recommended last year that Congress create 5 new judgeships on the 9th circuit + 65 new judgeships on district courts. They need help with caseloads.
Congress hasn't passed a major judgeship bill since 1990.

Since then, case filings in appeals courts grew by 15% by the end of 2018, according to the Judicial Conference. In district courts, case filings had gone up by 39%.
Read 8 tweets
Jennifer Bendery Profile picture
15 Jan
Pelosi holding her first press conference since the House impeached Trump, again. Opens with an MLK quote.

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”
Just noticed Pelosi is wearing this pin, which she wore during Trump's first impeachment.

It's her Mace of the Republic pin, which symbolizes the legislative authority of the House of Representatives.
Every day the House is in session, the sergeant-at-arms carries the ceremonial mace into the chamber and places it to the right of the speaker.

It’s made of three parts, and symbolizes that people are stronger together than they are separately. huffpost.com/entry/nancy-pe…
Read 9 tweets
Jennifer Bendery Profile picture
14 Jan
Days after a Capitol insurrection that left 5 people dead, and as we learn of domestic terrorism threats ahead of inauguration, I still can't wrap my head around House Republicans having a full-blown tantrum about having to walk through a metal detector. huffpost.com/entry/house-re…
What is going on here?

At best, these GOP lawmakers are embarrassingly entitled.

At worst, they’re sneaking guns onto the House floor and don't want to get caught -- and terrifying their colleagues in the meantime.
These are actual quotes from House Republicans reacting to have to walk through a metal detector to get onto the House floor.

“Horse shit!”

“You are creating a problem you do not understand the ramifications of!”

“You can’t stop me, I’m on my way to a vote!"
Read 10 tweets
Jennifer Bendery Profile picture
11 Jan
The 147 Republicans who still voted to overturn the election results after the Capitol insurrection. huffpost.com/entry/republic…
I still can't wrap my head around this.

Hours after Trump incited his supporters to violently storm the Capitol, with plans to kill Nancy Pelosi and others, 147 GOP lawmakers still voted to overturn the election -- citing the same lies about fraud fueling the rioters.
There will be so many investigations into the violence and terror unleashed at the Capitol on Wednesday.

But one of the most egregious attacks on democracy happened in plain sight and requires no investigation. It was these 147 lawmakers' votes. huffpost.com/entry/republic…
Read 4 tweets
Jennifer Bendery Profile picture
10 Jan
The more time we have to process what happened Wednesday, and the more details that come out, the more clear it becomes that this could have been so, so, so much worse.

It could have been a massacre in the Capitol.

With the House Speaker and U.S. Vice President as key targets.
So many horrifying details coming out. From a readout from Rep. Jason Crow's phone call today with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy:

"A greater disaster was narrowly averted."
It's also becoming clear, in case it wasn't obvious, how totally unprepared federal law enforcement was for a Capitol terrorist attack.

"Due to a lack of coordination and preparation, there was not a functioning operations center in the Pentagon to manage the Guard presence..."
Read 4 tweets
Jennifer Bendery Profile picture
10 Jan
🚨Pelosi announces she's beginning the process of impeachment tomorrow morning.
Also of note lower in Pelosi's letter to House Dems: she says their views are "valued" on the 14th Amendment Section 3.

What is that?

That's the portion of the Constitution that prevents lawmakers from having "engaged in insurrection or rebellion." 👀
Here's what this section of the Constitution says.
Read 6 tweets

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