BIDEN has begun to staff his commission to review the structure of the courts. It’ll be co-chaired by Bob Bauer and Cristina Rodriguez, per a source familiar with @POTUS plans, who promises a “wide range of expert views” from across the spectrum. nbcnews.com/politics/polit…
Biden and Senate Democrats are quickly coalescing around a desire for more public defenders and fewer prosecutors or corporate lawyers on the bench. They have dozens of vacancies to fill—mostly in district courts—after Trump & McConnell raced to fill many. nbcnews.com/politics/polit…
What Dem leaders think:
-They want every vacancy filled by ‘22
-Priority: fill districts
-Chatter on expanding lower courts
-Blue slips? Keep McConnell precedent for circuits, TBD districts
-Preparations being made in case of SCOTUS opening this year
This comes after White House counsel Dana Remus told senators to get it together and recruit judicial nominees quickly. She’s setting a 45-day deadline post-vacancy to send recs on nominees “who represent Americans in every walk of life.”
Dem aide says this letter lit “a fire.”
Much as the Reid precedent boomeranged, some of Mitch McConnell’s actions under Trump will now help Democrats — i.e. nuking the SCOTUS filibuster, cutting debate time for lower court judges, killing the blue slip rule for circuit judges. nbcnews.com/politics/polit…
“The prospect that we won’t always have a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in the Senate should motivate us to move with real dispatch this time,” says Judiciary Dem @SenWhitehouse, who wants every vacancy filled by the end of 2022.
As Democrats prepare to make judicial appointments, @SenWhitehouse is urging his colleagues to ignore “Republican procedural caterwauling” after the tactics Mitch McConnell used to tilt the courts to the right. nbcnews.com/politics/polit…
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There's some hesitation among Dems about pivoting to a party-line effort so soon. But that's increasingly where this is headed. Little appetite to cut down Biden's plan to add a "bipartisan" label to it.
Republicans say this defies Biden's "unity" pitch.
How far apart are the two parties on Covid relief? Miles. Democrats want Biden's $1.9T plan. Among Republicans, even the most moderate say that's far too big and want to limit this to vaccine distribution and reopening schools.
Scooplet here: Progressive group @accountable_us calls on @SenSchumer to NUKE the filibuster to pass a Senate organizing resolution if McConnell doesn't relent.
Democrats already run the Senate floor. But without an organizing resolution, Republicans still control the committees — an unusual power for a minority party. As a result, Biden's legislative agenda can't get off the ground. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
The is a common progressive response to the “aren’t you worried what happens when Republicans take power?” question. A decade ago this consensus wasn’t there. Now many will say they’ve considered it and decided the tradeoff is worth it.
Progressive fear about ending the filibuster under Obama was an all-GOP gov’t would carve up the safety net, privatize Medicare and make Ryan budget law. Turns out that stuff wasn’t attempted or failed and/or backfired politically. Rightly or wrongly, movement’s attitude changed.
What might a future all-GOP gov’t do without a filibuster? A 20-week abortion ban would’ve passed under Trump. Border wall money would’ve passed. Gun rights could be expanded. Beyond that, tax cuts can bypass the 60-vote rule and much deregulation can be done by executive action.
NEW: Biden makes an urgent plea for unity to tackle the country’s problems. But Republicans have a different vision of unity: one where he doesn’t do things that upset their voters. And their voters want the party to oppose him.
Former Obama adviser @danpfeiffer: “There will be a tendency among many press and pundits to condense Biden's promise to heal the soul of the nation into nothing more than appeasing congressional Republicans. Team Biden will need to push back” nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
NEWS: Executive actions Biden plans to issue today
-Rejoin Paris accord
-Fortify DACA
-Undo Muslim ban
-Stop border wall
-Order unified Covid response
-Eviction/foreclosure freeze —> 3/31
-Extend student loan pause —> 9/30
-Rescind Trump’s 1776 commish
-Undo Trump EO on Census
There is a lot more in the executive actions Biden's team says he'll issue on Day One, including a 100-day masking challenge, LGBT protections and reversing or reviewing a broad range of Trump actions/regs across departments (too many to name).
These are just Biden's day one executive actions. Incoming press secretary @jrpsaki says there are more to come, "including revoking the ban on military service by transgender Americans, and reversing the Mexico City policy."