# McConnell has filled the last circuit-court vacancy (first time in 40 years) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 25, 2020, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926 "2020-06-25T06:02:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/1 "2020-06-25T06:02:08Z")
For the first time in 40+ years, [there are no longer any circuit-court vacancies.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/mcconnell-reaches-milestone-judges-filling-163700077.html) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/2 "2020-06-25T06:52:21Z")
Is this thread intended to be in The Quarantine Zone? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/3 "2020-06-25T07:44:42Z")
Sorry, totally meant to put in P&E. Mods, please move… ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/4 "2020-06-25T08:26:10Z")
Trumpism will far outlast Donald. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/5 "2020-06-25T17:01:31Z")
With a big enough blue tsunami, there is this wonderful little tool called impeachment. Shouldn’t be very hard to find legal grounds to remove about half these fuckers. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/6 "2020-06-26T11:16:44Z")
So does McConnell have any further use for the Donald? This is a HUGE win for the GOP. I doubt they hardly care if they win the White House this year. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/7 "2020-06-26T13:17:42Z")
The old obstacles to filling all the seats on the federal bench are gone. This is the first sustained period with no filibuster or blue slips. It will probably happen whenever a party holds the White House and the Senate. > [@silenus](#): > > With a big enough blue tsunami, there is this wonderful little tool called impeachment. Shouldn’t be very hard to find legal grounds to remove about half these fuckers. Getting 67 seats would require a _literal_ tsunami that removed entire states from the map. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/8 "2020-06-26T13:21:01Z")
Why stop there? The idea is to make the advantage last for decades, not just a year. McConnell has every incentive to press the advantage and stack the courts with more radical conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/9 "2020-06-26T14:34:17Z")
FYI. [McConnell contacted](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/us/politics/mcconnell-judges-republicans.html) (NYT paywall warning) retirement age conservative judges urging them to retire now so that the Republican-led Senate can ensure that their replacements are also conservative. Even if Trump is soundly defeated, there are dozens of conservative judges all over the federal bench who are going to affect the country for a very long time. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/10 "2020-06-26T15:07:16Z")
Trump has been an awful president, which is hardly disputable. However, he’s also been a remarkable distraction from the horribly corrosive impact of Senator Mitch McConnell, who has single-handled endangered the health of our modern political system more than any public figure I can think of. He has quietly shredded political norms and helped transformed U.S. politics from being a democratic republic into a republic for oligarchs. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/11 "2020-06-26T15:34:00Z")
To asahi’s post: QFT. I don’t hate trump, but I fucking hate McConnell. His destruction has been intentional and systematic. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/12 "2020-06-26T19:41:57Z")
Sadly, it’s really hard to get the left motivated to vote on the basis of judges. A nice shiny object like Medicare for All or a Green New Deal? Sure! We’re all over Twitter. If you can stomach it, watch a mega church sermon, a campaign speech for a state assembly position or read Republican websites. There’s always always always mentions of activist judges. No matter how awful the candidate, they’ll always push that R button strictly on the basis of getting their judges. They don’t play that lesser of two evils bull shit, they want someone who will rubber stamp their judges. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/13 "2020-06-26T20:12:26Z")
Can I ask a dumb question? Assuming it controls both houses of Congress, what’s to prevent the next Administration from adding more seats to the twelve Circuit Courts, or for that matter, dividing existing Circuits in two? (The Eleventh Circuit has only been around since the 1980s.) There might be public resistance to adding more seats to the Supreme Court (IMHO, the Dems should do it anyway if they get the chance) but hardly anyone knows how many judges are on each circuit, and I bet not many more know how many circuits there are. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/14 "2020-06-26T21:06:47Z")
The main thing stopping them is how much political capitol to spend on it. Median voter, ‘Why are they worrying about judges?? What about COVID? What about jobs?’ Democratic left, ‘What about Medicare for all? We need a Green New Deal. How about my student loans?’ All this while the right is fighting every judicial expansion as a Holy War. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/15 "2020-06-26T22:06:48Z")
Political capital? Just do it. Push it through both houses in a few days, then move on to the next thing (voting rights, minimum wage hike, whatever) and the only place it will continue to be a story after that will be Fox News and points further right, and even Fox News will have a hard time explaining to its viewers why they should care. You bring up the Democratic left. They’re quite aware of the all too real possibility that the courts could undermine whatever the Dems succeed in passing. They’d be elated. And anyone still worrying about the median voter in this polarized age needs a one-way ticket back to 1995. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/16 "2020-06-27T03:59:33Z")
To create more circuit judgeships, the Democrats would need 60 seats in the Senate (which they won’t get) or to eliminate the legislative filibuster. Eliminating the filibuster could be done by 50 Senators plus the VP, but there’s no guarantee all the Dems would go along with it (Manchin, Tester, Jones if he survives). Plus the bill itself would be a huge food fight among Democrats over which circuits get how many seats, who will have a say on how they’re filled, etc. All the while Republicans will be throwing every procedural obstacle they can in the way because, for them, this is a life-or-death issue. So, there’s no guarantee of a successful outcome and it certainly couldn’t be done “in a few days”. Frankly, it will probably take a truly odious decision coming out of a circuit court to give an effort like this momentum. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/17 "2020-06-27T07:49:43Z")
All of this is for naught unless we get another seat (or two) on the Supreme Court as we can’t trust Roberts. They will undo everything that these new judges will do. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/18 "2020-06-27T17:23:12Z")
Roberts is a lefty now? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/19 "2020-06-27T17:34:48Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > So does McConnell have any further use for the Donald? > > This is a HUGE win for the GOP. I doubt they hardly care if they win the White House this year. If Trump wins the GOP is going to get to appoint at least 2 more SCOTUS judges. Wouldn’t surprise me if they convince Thomas to retire too. It’d lock up SCOTUS for the next 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926/20 "2020-06-27T18:36:05Z")
The only two things that Biden and Congress should work on are Covid and the economy. It may not be fair but the Dems will be ripped to shreds if they go in and start focusing on expanding the courts. A lot of the new senators that could be elected aren’t exactly ideological firebreathers. And I’m well aware the left will turn on them by February 1 in shock that M4A or a Green New Deal isn’t the focus [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcconnell-has-filled-the-last-circuit-court-vacancy-first-time-in-40-years/912926.md?page=2)