September 2018.

     In September 2018, I was in the United Kingdom for several weeks and grabbed The Guardian at a newsagent every morning.  My stay fell between the initial phase of the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and the later part involving Christine Blasey Ford.  The Guardian published an unsigned opinion about the irregularities of the process, which were legion.  The Guardian was on point on the overarching story but didn’t address the underlying dynamic in the lower federal courts, so I sent a note.  It was essentially a replay of the details in an earlier letter to The Richmond Times-Dispatch regarding appointments to the US district and appellate courts.  The Guardian passed on it.

Here’s The Guardian’s editorial:

“It Has Required Multiple Wrongs to Move the Supreme Court Right,” The Guardian, 10 September 2018, journal 2 (www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/09/the-guardian-view-on-the-us-supreme-court-the-wrongs-required-to-move-right).

Here’s the unpublished letter:

     The “rottenness” driving the GOP’s confirmation of judges to the American bench runs far deeper than President Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court.  The selfsame Senate Judiciary Committee that questioned Brett Kavanaugh last week did all in its power to slow walk and withhold confirmation from President Obama’s nominees to federal district and appellate courts prior to the 2016 election.  The scuttling of Merrick Garland’s appointment was merely the high-profile apotheosis of a broader dereliction of senatorial responsibility.  As Mr. Obama left office, a trove of judicial vacancies fell into Mr. Trump’s lap.  Mr. Trump and a suddenly energized Republican Senate have filled these positions at light speed.  Some of Mr. Trump’s nominees are woefully unqualified.  Others are ideologues.  Many manage to be both.  Few have been denied confirmation.

     The federal bench is now poised to roll back hard-won individual rights and to remove sensible restraints from corporate interests for a generation.  Mr. Kavanaugh is merely the final piece of the puzzle.  The Guardian notes correctly that Americans should reject the GOP in November.  To hobble the GOP’s assault of the judiciary, the Democrats must win the Senate, a taller hurdle to clear than gaining control of the House.  A favorable outcome is by no means assured.

     The GOP perhaps realizes that it controls a minority government whose days may be numbered and consequently is determined to ram through whatever it can while it can, damage to the American constitutional system be damned.  Such cynicism is a marvel.