June, 24 2020, 12:00am EDT
As Senate Confirms 200th Trump Judge, Demand justice Calls for Expansion of Circuit and District Courts Under Biden
WASHINGTON
Following the confirmation of the 200th judge nominated by Donald Trump, Demand Justice announced it is calling for the next Democratic president to dramatically expand the number of circuit and district judgeships and to fill the new judgeships with a diverse set of candidates to undo the damage Trump has done to the diversity of the courts.
Demand Justice Chief Counsel Christopher Kang said:
"President Obama picked the most diverse judicial nominees in history, but Mitch McConnell blocked them with the fewest confirmations in generations, so he could leave more than 100 vacancies for Donald Trump to fill. Trump has done so overwhelmingly with young, white men who have done enormous damage to our courts' diversity and legitimacy.
"Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans alike have failed for decades to add the judges we need to keep up with the number of cases being filed. If he is elected, Joe Biden needs to make repairing the damage done to our courts by decades of neglect and Trump's bad picks a top priority. Expanding the number of district and circuit court seats will make our courts more efficient and effective, and it will give Biden an opportunity to appoint a diverse group of judges to counterbalance Donald Trump's overwhelmingly white and male picks. It should be a top priority for the White House and Congressional leadership."
Though Congress routinely increased the number of judges to keep up with population and number of cases filed throughout the 20th Century, the number has not been significantly increased since 1990. The Judicial Conference, the national policy-making body for the federal courts, headed by Chief Justice John Roberts, has recommended creating a significant number of new judgeships to help address the significant increase in the number of cases now being filed.
Trump has nominated more than one-fifth of all federal judges, and he has selected the least diverse set of judges of any president since George H. W. Bush, including zero African American circuit judges and only one Hispanic circuit judge.
Demand Justice is a progressive movement fighting to restore the ideological balance and legitimacy of the federal courts by advocating for court reform and vigorously opposing extreme nominees.
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Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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