Once again, we take to our pages to report good judicial news. Your President has done something impressive. He just added the 9th Circuit Court to his growing list of wins.
Just a month ago, we were reporting on the flipping of the 2nd Circuit, which followed the 3rd. The 11th flipped last month, as well. And now the 9th is no longer the liberal-dominated bastion it once was.
Today the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lawrence VanDyke to serve on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. President Trump nominated VanDyke in September.
Lawrence VanDyke graduated from Harvard Law School with high honors. Prior to his nomination to the 9th Circuit, VanDyke served as deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice. He has extensive experience serving as solicitor general in both Montana and Nevada, as well as in private practice.
While the House has been doing very little the Senate has been busy confirming judges. A lot of judges. But there is still more work to do. There are still vacancies to fill and impending retirements. Not ever liberal judge is Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Some of them, not nearly enough, actually want to retire before they drop dead at the bench.
As for the ninth, there are 13 Republican-appointed judges out of 29 total. The party of the nominating president is no guarantee of fidelity to anything, but anything is better than a mountain of Hillary appointed judges. A point worth sharing with the so-called Republican never-Trumper lot. I know a lot of them are living constitution dweebs just like the Dems, but not all of them. A few still think the highest law in the land means something, and courts should not be legislating from the bench.
Whatever they may think of Donald Trump, he’s undoing decades of damage to America’s judiciary. And while we should not have to rely on them for anything – especially what words we all understand mean or do not politics is a war of incremental moves. Mr. Trump has made many in the area of judicial nominees. A trend I’d like to continue for at least another five years.
