Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every
Speaker 1: day we bring you insight and analysis into the most
Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more
Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple podcast, SoundCloud
Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. The Senate has
Speaker 1: confirmed the youngest person nominated by President Trump to be
Speaker 1: a federal Appeals Court judge, the thirty seven year old
Speaker 1: Alison Jones Rushing once worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom,
Speaker 1: a conservative Christian organization that is designated as an anti
Speaker 1: lgbt Q hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Speaker 1: Joining me is Carl Tobias, professor at the University of
Speaker 1: Richmond Law School. Carl She's only practiced law for nine
Speaker 1: years and has been co counsel on only four cases
Speaker 1: that went to verdict or judgment. Is she qualified to
Speaker 1: sit on a circuit court that is just below the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court? Well, that's a good question. There have been
Speaker 1: some other people who similarly situated who have served on
Speaker 1: the appeals courts. She points to her clerking for Justice
Speaker 1: Thomas Justice Corsage on the Tenth Circuit and Judge Sentel
Speaker 1: on the d c Circuit and says that, uh supplements
Speaker 1: her experience. And I think she's filed some fifty briefs
Speaker 1: and appellate courts. Uh, so she has some experience. The
Speaker 1: A b A likes to see twelve years of practice
Speaker 1: experience when it makes its ratings. So what drew her
Speaker 1: to the attention of the Trump administration to make her,
Speaker 1: you know, eligible for one of these key spots. Well,
Speaker 1: I think the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo, the executive
Speaker 1: Vice president, who's the pre eminent advisor to the president
Speaker 1: on these nominations. And so I think that's what put
Speaker 1: her on the radar, and I think that's what um
Speaker 1: allowed her to be confirmed so quickly. She was opposed
Speaker 1: by a coalition of more than two hundred civil rights organizations.
Speaker 1: They called her an ideological extremist who opposed same sex
Speaker 1: marriage and remedies for discriminatory lending practices, among other things.
Speaker 1: Was that addressed in her hearings, Not really, because her
Speaker 1: hearings were held I think after the Senate had recessed
Speaker 1: to go campaign in October. Uh, And so she wasn't
Speaker 1: really wasn't questioned very rigorously, and most of the questions
Speaker 1: actually came from Republicans like Senator Kennedy from Louisiana, and
Speaker 1: he was concerned about her lack of life experience and
Speaker 1: lack of practice experience, and he raised those concerns, but
Speaker 1: he voted for her list at all the Republicans, right,
Speaker 1: so all fifty three Republicans voted for her, while the
Speaker 1: rest of the Senate voted against her. Why are these
Speaker 1: nominations being rushed through when there are only eleven circuit
Speaker 1: court positions out of one six seven that are vacant.
Speaker 1: Why they need to rush Well, the President has campaigned
Speaker 1: on and made good on his campaign promise to uh
Speaker 1: fill the vacancies at the appellate level. They're one level
Speaker 1: blows Supreme court. They're really the supreme courts in the
Speaker 1: regions around the country because the Supreme Court here so
Speaker 1: a few minutes, so few cases, uh, And so they
Speaker 1: have accentuated that to the exclusion of everything else, really
Speaker 1: including legislation. And we do have a hundred twenty nine
Speaker 1: federal district court vacancies is just nearly but that just
Speaker 1: reflects the incredible emphasis on the appeals courts because more
Speaker 1: policies made there. The hot button issues are finally resolved
Speaker 1: there around the country, and so that's being emphasized by
Speaker 1: the White House and the Senate. The Senate confirmation of
Speaker 1: Trump's thirty appeals court judges is more than any other
Speaker 1: president two years into a term, and Mitch McConnell wants
Speaker 1: to continue this rapid pace exactly. And this week we'll
Speaker 1: have three more. There are two more that are going
Speaker 1: to be uh, probably confirmed today and tomorrow for the
Speaker 1: sixth Circuit. That will bring his total to thirty four.
Speaker 1: And they're more in the wings, so um, they are
Speaker 1: moving in. It's conceivable this year there could be no
Speaker 1: vacancies on the appeals courts. When was the last time
Speaker 1: that's happened. I think you have to go back decades actually,
Speaker 1: uh to have that few, which is great for the
Speaker 1: courts in terms of resolving appeals. The questions are, you
Speaker 1: know these people will have life tenure and serve years
Speaker 1: and decades after the president has long left the White House.
Speaker 1: Democrats are taking a particularly hardstance on one of the
Speaker 1: nominee's Chad Readler, based on his recent advocating against the
Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act, and Eric Murphy has argued against marriage equality.
Speaker 1: Is President Trump nominating moderate conservatives or are they more
Speaker 1: radical conservatives? Are they ideologues? Well, I think Democrats, at
Speaker 1: least most of them believe that a number are, and
Speaker 1: there's a fair amount of data to show that in
Speaker 1: terms of their positions on a number of issues at
Speaker 1: least that they've argued as lawyers Republican responses. Of course,
Speaker 1: they're just representing their clients, um. But I think it's
Speaker 1: fair to say that they're very conservative, probably more conservative
Speaker 1: than President Bush's nominees for the appellate bench um. And
Speaker 1: so I think that's what concerns a number of people.
Speaker 1: So would you say that they're less like Chief Justice
Speaker 1: John Roberts, who is more of a moderate, and more
Speaker 1: like Justice Neil Gorsch, Well, I would say they're closer
Speaker 1: to Justice Thomas and a number of the appellate judges
Speaker 1: were his clerks, and probably closer to Justice scalia Um
Speaker 1: in terms of their views. But again they're not completely
Speaker 1: uniform there conservative number of issues, especially the culture war
Speaker 1: issues like abortion, freedom of religion, um, those kinds of questions.
Speaker 1: In any of these cases, have any of the Republicans
Speaker 1: broken ranks and voted against the nominations because they seem
Speaker 1: to be sailing through. They are pretty much. A number
Speaker 1: of them are party line votes. Uh. There were a
Speaker 1: few moderate nominees, such as the person for Hawaii, and
Speaker 1: a number of Republicans voted against him, but that's about
Speaker 1: the only one I can think of. In Senator Kennedy
Speaker 1: was the sole person to asked a single no vote
Speaker 1: on any of President Trump's judicial nominees. So that gives
Speaker 1: you a sense of how few no votes there have
Speaker 1: been on the Republican side. Are we at the point
Speaker 1: yet where there are enough Trump appointees on the federal
Speaker 1: appellate courts to make a difference to tip the balance.
Speaker 1: Well probably not in some yes, if you count Republican
Speaker 1: and Democratic appointee presidents. But what's critical, I think is
Speaker 1: most of them are replacing Republican appointed uh judges, and
Speaker 1: so it's not as much of a difference. So of
Speaker 1: course you're having someone who's in her thirties or forties
Speaker 1: as opposed to someone who's in sixties or seventies, and
Speaker 1: so it's beginning to make a difference and will in
Speaker 1: the long run. All Right, Thanks so much, Carl, As always,
Speaker 1: that's Carl Tobias is a professor at the University of
Speaker 1: Richmond Law School. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: and on bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Grosso.
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