Lindsey Graham Urges Judges to Retire so that their Places can be Filled before November by GOP Judges

Michael Pengelly

@MartinPengelly

The Guardian

Lindsey Graham urges judges to retire so that their places can be filled before November election

 

Lindsey Graham, the Republican chair of the Senate judiciary committee, has publicly urged older conservative judges to retire, so their places can be filled before a November election in which the party could lose the White House and its Senate majority.

Graham said the move would help “change the judiciary for several generations”.

Donald Trump made transforming the federal judiciary a key campaign promise in 2016, aiming to appoint more judges than any other president. He has made considerable progress, clinching the confirmations of two supreme court justices and seing a broad transformation of the justice system to conservatism.

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“This is an historic opportunity,” Graham told the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday. “We’ve put over 200 federal judges on the bench … If you can get four more years, I mean, it would change the judiciary for several generations.

“So if you’re a circuit judge in your mid-60s, late 60s, you can take senior status, now would be a good time to do that, if you want to make sure the judiciary is right of center.”

Graham added: “So do it now … I need some time.”

McConnell has made the confirmation of new judges a priority, even during the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts agree it would be possible for judges to be confirmed during a lame duck period, meaning the time between Trump losing the presidency to Joe Biden and Democrats retaking the Senate, in November, and the resumption of business in January.

In the supreme court, Trump has appointed Neil Gorsuch, to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia, and Brett Kavanaugh, to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy.

The court thereby has a 5-4 conservative majority, with the health of 87-year-old liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg watched keenly from both sides of the aisle.

Hewitt asked Graham if he had any knowledge of a supreme court justice planning to retire this year. No, the senator said, but he added that if a vacancy does arise, filling it before the election “would be the goal”.

McConnell famously refused to replace Scalia with Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s nominee, a moderate, the Senate leader citing contested precedent when claiming vacancies should not be filled in an election year.

McConnell has said no such strictures would apply in what could be Trump’s last year in office.

“We changed the rules for the supreme court [to require a simple majority for confirmation],” Graham said.

“So if a vacancy did occur, and I don’t expect one to, I hope everybody has a long, healthy 2020 on the court … you would see an effort by Republicans, I’m sure, to fill the vacancy.”