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Why the Gabbard-Hirono Feud Matters for the Federal Courts
There has been much press in the past week over U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard’s op-ed in The Hill, which criticized fellow Democrats for having “weaponized religion for their own selfish gain.” Gabbard called out members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for specific questions and statements they had directed to Catholic judicial nominees over the past two years, including Senator Diane Feinstein’s comment to then-Seventh Circuit nominee Amy Coney Barrett that “the dogma lives loudly within you” and the aggressive questioning of district court nominee Brian Buescher by Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris over his membership in the Knights of Columbus. These statements and questions, Gabbard argued, amounted to religious bigotry against Catholics.
The Supreme Court Declines to Resolve Yet Another Lower Court Conflict
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is unhappy again – not with a substantive ruling by the court, but with a decision by the majority to decline to hear a particular case.
Moving Forward: Supreme Court Appointments After Kavanaugh
In the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s passing in early 2016, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate declined to give its advice on President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the high court, much less its consent. That move, along with the Republican-led elimination of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, has led to a confirmation process that is, as the many days of hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh demonstrated, essentially pointless. Even the nominee himself was indignant that some senators on the judiciary committee expressed interested in actually investigating his character and fitness for a post on the high court.
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