DID HARRY REID’S ‘NUCLEAR OPTION’ HELP THE PARTY OF 'NO' RESHAPE THE COURTS FOR A GENERATION?

By Jonathan E.P. Moore, and Friends of America!

DID HARRY REID’S ‘NUCLEAR OPTION’ HELP THE PARTY OF 'NO' RESHAPE THE COURTS FOR A GENERATION?

Or did the party of 'NO' self-destruct and abandon the old ‘traditional’ Democratic Party to become the new partisan opposition to constitutionalism, and the party of Socialism, Globalism, and Progressive ideologies? You wouldn’t know it by reading the agenda journalist's account of what America want's as they portray the darkness of the deplorables that voted for Trump, but America is not ready for the 3 ‘ism’s,’ and don’t believe they ever will. I don’t care how many unvetted illegal immigrants and refugees Obama unconstitutionally brought into America and  financially support using taxpayer dollars, but I do care about these illegals being encouraged to vote by a sitting President illegally ,and trying to influence the election of 2016, like the Russians supposedly colluded with Trump to do. The silent majority, which is growing daily as President Trump wheels his version of the Obama ‘Pen and Phone,’ to undo what Obama unconstitutionally attempted to do, and you have to know that Obama didn't write and EO or PM that could be interpreted as being patriotic, constitutional, or keeping America safe, and that's a given!

President Trump, because of 'over the hill and gone' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), now has to navigate through a maze of progressive appeals court justices who won’t be following the rule of law or constitution, but the intent and interpretation of the progressive minded last minute appointed justices that will undermine our founding father’s Constitution, the ‘Will’ of the American people, and the future of America. I don't know if you saw this today, but the 'Progressive' 9th district court of appeals, in California, again used the rhetoric of their interpretation and intent argument to block President Trumps withholding funding actions against Sanctuary cities, just like they did when blocking the 90 day ban on incoming immigrants and refugees from the same terrorist countries recognized by ex President Obama!

Every day I witness the Democratic Party moving closer to extinction, and that's because they haven't put forth any new ideas, haven't assisted Republicans in fixing Obama's only signature accomplishment, and could give a shit about what's, after the 8 year reign of terror and attacks on all the good things America stands for in the world, and use to stand for at home, and that's because of the feckless leadership of the progressive team of Pelosi and Schumer continuing on with the Obama doctrine! They could care less about what American’s want, but chooses to keep doubling down on the Socialist transformation of America. These two leaders are more than willing to go down with the ship that is now being steered by the ‘Newly’ elected, or not, DNC co-Captains of Perez and Ellison, who remain to this day basically unknown to their own party constituency because of the ‘Paid to Report’ Media, not fully vetting or exposing their anti-American ideological beliefs to the remaining  American Democrats who never were asked what they wanted. These two very same, but different political hacks, don’t believe America is exceptional, and still believe that they lost the election because of the Russian influence, and not their anti-Constitutional and rule of law platform. 

There are no short cuts, and even though Harry Reid stacked the lower courts with Progressive justices, President Trump got his first constitutionally guided Supreme Court justice seated, just like he promised he would do, and with current revelations of other sitting Supreme Court Justices contemplating retirement, or untimely deaths, looks like there will be at least 1, and possibly 3 more Supreme Court Justices that President Trump will get to appoint and follow the beliefs set forth in our Constitution, just like Neil Gorsuch. While the Progressive left sinks, like the setting sun slowly does over the anti-freedom of speech California, we can take to heart that this constitutional Republic's future for America appears to be safe, and in good hands. 

Barack ‘Insane’ Obama, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Tom Perez, and Keith Ellison might have won the small battles while side stepping the rule of law and constitution through their interpretation and intent of the law, and stacking the lower courts with progressive justices, but President Trump won the ‘War’ with his first Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, and with the ‘Left’ inspired ‘Nuclear Option’ can be sure that the next 2-3 will be, like Neil Gorsuch, Constitutionally inspired, and hold the rule of law, and constitution close to their hearts, and make them part of every rulings!

The mandated agenda of President Trump should be the focus of a bipartisan congress, but with the help of the agenda journalist and their bosses, the ‘Paid to Report’ Media, the truth has been distorted, and when you hear that 92% of the Main Stream Media is anti-Trump news, you know that you’re not getting the real story, the facts, or the information you need to make an informed decision when deciding on the direction that America should take, and then taking that decision and dropping it into the ballot box. Let’s look back at the history of the ‘Nuclear Option’ and how the ‘left’ through Social Media, and a few patriotic cable news networks, showed how the left played their 'Nuclear Option' cards wrong, and how all Americans dodged the biggest Socialist transformation bullet in the history of America!

December 18, 2014, 6:00 AM EST 

President Barack Obama can thank outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for triggering the "nuclear option" in November 2013 and securing him one of the most robust judicial legacies of any modern president.

In six years, he has appointed a whopping 307 judges, who will shape the law for decades after he leaves office. The final 12 district judges were confirmed in the closing night of the Senate session on Tuesday, Reid's final move before Democrats surrender control of the chamber.

"The Obama Administration and the United States Senate have given Americans the best possible holiday present: the gift of justice," said Nan Aron, the president of the progressive law and policy group Alliance For Justice.

A total of 132 judges were confirmed in the 113th Congress — the most since the 1970s.

Perhaps most significant is his appointment of 53 judges on federal circuit courts, which have the last word on most matters of law. When Obama took office, just one of 13 appeals courts had a majority of Democratic-appointed judges on the active bench. Today, nine of 13 appeals courts have a majority of Democratic appointees.

"There has been an extraordinary onslaught of confirmations in the last year," said Russell Wheeler, an expert on federal courts at the Brookings Institution.

Obama has named the first-ever Native American woman and Indian-American federal judge. He has placed more female and Hispanic judges than any previous president, and more Asian-American and openly gay judges than all other presidents combined.

"Before Obama, 59 percent of the active judges were white males. Now it's down to 51 percent. That's quite a change in 6 years," Wheeler said. "You probably want to have a judiciary that looks like the people it's serving, and if they're all white males then you don't have that."

Until November 2013, Obama lagged behind his predecessors in confirming judges, facing unusual delays by the Senate Republican minority. Then Reid and 51 Democrats triggered the "nuclear option" to scrap the 60-vote threshold for all nominations other than the Supreme Court, advancing some stalled nominations and kicking the process into overdrive. Since then, Obama has outpaced his two predecessors in confirming appellate court judges.

In the last year, Democrats have confirmed 14 of Obama's circuit court nominees, half with fewer than 60 votes. The most salient impact of the "nuclear option" was to add three judges to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, widely described as the second most powerful federal court, and a feeder to the Supreme Court. Senate Republicans had refused to fill the three vacancies. The nuclear option also freed Obama to appoint some more liberal judges, including Nina Pillard to the D.C. Circuit, who drew comparisons to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — and faced GOP opposition — for her work on gender equality.

Research by political scientists Robert Carp and Kenneth Manning finds that Obama's judges are "somewhat more liberal than the Clinton judges but slightly less liberal than the Carter and Johnson jurists," based on an analysis of rulings from 1932 to 2013 by judges appointed by each of the Democratic presidents.

"We've noticed patterns of voting with respect to certain kinds of legislation that gets upheld," Randy Barnett, a respected conservative legal scholar at Georgetown University, said recently. "There are certain executive branch practices that get upheld that would not have before."

For Democrats, the downside of the filibuster rule change is that Republicans have, in protest, slowed down confirmations of even judicial nominees they support, forcing procedural votes when the nominations could otherwise have breezed through.

The bad news for Obama is that the coming Republican majority can veto any judicial nominee during his final two years. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) hinted at revenge if Reid opted to go nuclear, and conservative legal advocates suggest that Republicans would rather have vacancies than bring up judges whom they dislike.

"I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle: you'll regret this," McConnell said in November 2013. "And you may regret it a lot sooner than you think."

Retiring Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), a staunch opponent of the "nuclear option" and one of just three Democrats who voted against it, said he sees a silver lining to the confirmation of many judges who had been blocked.

"I think there could be [an upside] in that area — that more judges that have been confirmed than otherwise would, short-term," Levin told TPM. "Yeah."

The White House said it was "grateful to the Senate for its action."

"A fully functioning judiciary is critical to the administration of justice," White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said, "and a judiciary that better resembles our nation instills even greater confidence in our justice system."

Correction: this article previously stated that Obama appointee the country's first black lesbian federal judge in Staci Michelle Yandle. That milestone was achieved by Bill Clinton with his appointee Deborah Batts.

Reid, Democrats trigger ‘nuclear’ option; eliminate most filibusters on nominees

Senate Democrats took the dramatic step Thursday of eliminating filibusters for most nominations by presidents, a power play they said was necessary to fix a broken system but one that Republicans said will only rupture it further.

Democrats used a rare parliamentary move to change the rules so that federal judicial nominees and executive-office appointments can advance to confirmation votes by a simple majority of senators, rather than the 60-vote supermajority that has been the standard for nearly four decades.

The immediate rationale for the move was to allow the confirmation of three picks by President Obama to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — the most recent examples of what Democrats have long considered unreasonably partisan obstruction by Republicans.

In the long term, the rule change represents a substantial power shift in a chamber that for more than two centuries has prided itself on affording more rights to the minority party than any other legislative body in the world. Now, a president whose party holds the majority in the Senate is virtually assured of having his nominees approved, with far less opportunity for political obstruction.

The main combatants Thursday were the chamber’s two chiefs, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who have clashed for several years over Republican filibusters of Obama’s agenda and nominees.

Reid said the chamber “must evolve” beyond parliamentary roadblocks. “The American people believe the Senate is broken, and I believe the American people are right,” he said, adding: “It’s time to get the Senate working again.”

McConnell linked the rule change to the methods used to approve Obama’s health-care law solely with Democratic votes. The normally reserved GOP leader paced at his desk during his speech, often turning his back to Democrats to address only his fellow Republicans.

“It’s a sad day in the history of the Senate,” McConnell told reporters, calling the move a Democratic “power grab.”

The clash ended with a vote nearly as partisan as the times — 52 to 48, with all but three Democrats backing the move and every Republican opposing it.

The vote was the culmination of more than 25 years of feuding over nominations, beginning with President Ronald Reagan’s choices for the Supreme Court and including Obama’s picks for obscure federal regulatory agencies. Each side in Thursday’s debate cited its own statistics to state its case.

Democrats said the attempted filibusters of Chuck Hagel during his confirmation hearing to become defense secretary, a first for any nominee to lead the Pentagon — as well as a blockade of picks to head the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — exceeded anything Democrats did when they were in the minority. In addition, Democrats charged that Republicans didn’t even have substantive objections to the D.C. Circuit nominees they filibustered.

After the vote, Obama told reporters at the White House that Republicans had turned nomination fights into a “reckless and relentless tool” to grind the gears of government to a halt and noted that “neither party has been blameless for these tactics.” However, he said, “today’s pattern of obstruction. . . just isn’t normal; it’s not what our founders envisioned.”

Republicans countered that they had confirmed 99 percent of Obama’s judicial selections. McConnell accused Democrats of eyeing the D.C. Circuit in an effort to stack the court, which reviews many cases related to federal laws and regulations, to tilt its balance in a liberal direction.

What made the day so historic for senators, former senators and the small collection of parliamentary experts in Washington was the simple majority vote used to execute the changes — a tactic so extreme it is known as the “nuclear option.”

Previous majorities had threatened to upend filibuster rules in this manner, but relying on a simple majority vote had been used only for relatively minor procedural changes to how amendments were handled, never to eliminate the super­majority requirement altogether. Before Thursday, the standard precedent was that major rule changes needed a two-thirds majority. The change was so significant that Reid and his leadership team held a victory party with liberal activists afterward in a room just off the Senate floor.

Republicans said the way Democrats upended the rules will result in fallout for years. “It’s another raw exercise of political power to permit the majority to do anything it wants whenever it wants to do it,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), the GOP’s parliamentary expert, told reporters.

Republicans vowed to reciprocate if they reclaim the majority!

“Democrats won’t be in power in perpetuity,” said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), a 27-year member. “This is a mistake — a big one for the long run. Maybe not for the short run. Short-term gains, but I think it changes the Senate tremendously in a bad way.”

After the vote, Reid told reporters that his views on the issue had evolved — from eight years ago, when Republicans held the majority and he led the fight to protect the filibuster. He acknowledged that he wouldn’t mind seeing the supermajority requirement abolished for everything but that there were not enough votes in his caucus to support such a move.

Reid first faced pressure on this issue from junior Democrats four years ago, particularly Sen. Jeff Merkley, a former speaker of the Oregon state House, who became the point person for growing the anti-filibuster movement. But Reid repeatedly rejected their effort as too radical.

Even if Republicans want to do away with the filibuster someday, Reid said, Thursday’s move was worth it because the current climate had become too hostile to get anything significant done. Reid said he faced a choice: “Continue like we are or have democracy?”

The rule change does not apply to Supreme Court nominations or to legislation, but if we don't have the 60 votes needed to pass Obamacare, which we don't, we will use it, and protect it for the sake of Obama's signature legislation, and the only feckless accomplishment of this important, first Black President of the United States, and his nonexistent legacy!

Individual senators will still be able to seize the floor for marathon speeches opposing nominees, as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) did in a nearly 13-hour session in March against the nomination of John Brennan as CIA director. But once such speeches end, the majority will be able to confirm nominees without needing bipartisan support.

With the Senate majority very much up for grabs in midterm elections next year, Democrats placed a big bet on maintaining control of the chamber. GOP leaders have suggested that, if given the Senate majority back, they might further strip filibuster rules so they could dismantle Obama’s landmark domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, on a simple majority vote.

In his remarks, McConnell finally turned to Democrats and said that a majority of them had never served in the minority and then lectured the longtime members who knew what it was like to be on the other side. ~~ By Paul Kane November 21, 2013, a Friend of America!

"The solution to America's problem is at the ballot box,” and if America is going to move forward and reinstate all the guidelines set forth in our constitution by our founding fathers, and reestablish the rule of law that ex president Obama bypassed, then we need the 2018 midterms to deliver the Senate to the outsider non-politician, who is trying to live up to his promises, despite the obstructionist party of 'NO,' and make America great again!     

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