Schumer Bashed for ‘Cutting Deals’ to Move Trump Judicial Picks

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is not exactly the poster child of accommodation when it comes to Republican judicial appointments, but he nonetheless found himself under attack Wednesday by a left-wing group.

Schumer (pictured above) has made a career of fighting Republican presidents on the courts, and has used every tool available to block or slow nominees. When former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed the filibuster rule to remove the 60-vote hurdle for lower court nominations, Schumer opposed it because he did not want to give up that option for future fights.

Yet, MoveOn.org blasted Schumer Wednesday for agreeing to allow votes on 11 lower court nominees so senators can salvage what is left of the August recess before hearings start next week on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“And yet, a week before hearings begin, dozens of Senate Democrats have yet to publicly oppose Kavanaugh,” the group’s executive director, Anna Galland, said in a statement. “Not only has Schumer lagged in unifying his caucus in opposition, he’s cutting deals with Mitch McConnell to fast-track Trump’s judicial appointees, helping Trump shape a right-wing judiciary for a generation.”

At issue was an agreement between Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to allow Senate votes on lawyers nominated to be district judges.

Thomas Jipping, deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation, said the criticism of Schumer is ironic.

“It’s a little weird to hear Chuck Schumer criticized for letting judicial nominations move too quickly,” he told LifeZette.

Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network, said the reaction of the Left is telling.

“It really is a race to the bottom on hyperbole and crazy talk … They’re acting as if what was for all of history normal business is some sort of concession,” she said.

Related: Dems Delay Trump’s Judicial Nominees by Running Out the Clock

Thanks to Reid, there is little Democrats can do to stop judicial nominees as long as Senate Republicans stick together. But they have employed unprecedented tactics in slowing down nominations.

That includes using parliamentary rules to slow down confirmation hearings, using senatorial prerogatives to hold up individual nominees, and insisting on a full 30 hours of debate on each nomination — even in cases where there is no significant opposition to the nominees.

Those tactics are what prompted McConnell to cancel the August recess in the first place.

The stall maneuvers have worked, Jipping said. Despite a swift pace in nominating judges and diligent work by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate has confirmed the lowest share of judges as a percentage of the overall judiciary in history.

“They’ve produced already a record-low confirmation rate,” he said.

Jipping added that there are 130 vacancies, “twice as many as Democrats used to say was a vacancy crisis.”

He noted that the judiciary has labeled 71 of those vacancies “judicial emergencies” based on the caseload in those courtrooms. The oldest of those vacancies dates to 2005.

Related: No More Recess, McConnell Tells Obstructionist Dems

For much of American history, judicial nominations below the Supreme Court level were considered noncontroversial. The vast majority of nominees sailed through with little scrutiny. Under Trump, the partisan warfare that has infected nomination battles for appeals courts has extended to the district court level.

Jipping said that from 1789 to George W. Bush’s presidency, all but about 4 percent of some 3,000 judges were confirmed with a voice vote. The percentage of nominees requiring a roll call vote jumped to about 60 percent under Bush and is running at about 80 percent under Trump, he said.

Yet, some on the Left believe Schumer is not doing enough to serve the resistance against Trump. MoveOn.org’s Galland noted in her statement that 10,000 progressives recently showed up at protest rally to oppose Kavanaugh.

“We don’t need Democrats’ cutting deals to help Trump and the Republican agenda,” she stated. “We need them — and Schumer — fighting with the rest of us to protect our rights, our democracy and our lives.”