July 31, 2019
Mr. Sam Feist, Washington Bureau Chief
Mr. Mark Preston, Executive Director of Political Programming
Mr. Jake Tapper, Anchor of State of the Union
Ms. Dana Bash, Chief Political Correspondent
Mr. Don Lemon, Anchor of CNN Tonight
CNN
820 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Dear CNN:
Before last night’s Democrat presidential debate hosted by CNN, Demand Justice — a leftwing group led by former aides to President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer — tweeted:
“We hope the CNN moderators correct for a glaring omission from last month’s debates by asking the candidates about their plans for reforming the Supreme Court” (https://twitter.com/WeDemandJustice/status/1156250351382749184?s=20).
Yet, CNN moderators did not ask one question of any of the Democrat presidential hopefuls about their judicial philosophy, the types of judges who they would appoint to the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts, or the unconstitutional or otherwise radical court-packing, term-limits, and even judicial-impeachment schemes peddled by many Democrat presidential candidates.
The Article III Project (A3P), a new group formed to support President Trump’s judicial nominees and appointed judges, agrees with its leftwing counterpart Demand Justice that CNN’s debate moderators made a “glaring omission.” A3P hopes this does not repeat itself tonight.
The complete lack of questions about the federal judiciary also appears to be a head-scratcher for Washington Post Supreme Court reporter Robert Barnes, who tweeted:
“So the one thing everyone agrees on is that Trump has been wildly succes[s]ful at transforming the federal judiciary. Nothing about their plans at the Dem candidate debate tonight” (https://twitter.com/scotusreporter/status/1156393483206299648?s=20).
And A3P agrees with Mr. Barnes. Indeed, it is non-debatable that President Trump has shattered the all-time record for the number of federal circuit judges appointed at this point in any of all 44 prior presidencies. President Trump has appointed 43 new federal circuit judges, so far, with the next closest president (Nixon) at 30 at this same point. After the Senate confirms the next batch of nominees for the district courts teed up for Senate floor votes, hopefully this week, President Trump will have appointed 150 Article III judges — the fastest pace than all but one of his 44 predecessors. And President Trump is only 5 Article III judicial confirmations short of that all-time record.
President Trump is winning the judicial fight — despite unprecedented obstruction and smears by Senate Democrats. Their now-routine filibuster threats have forced senators to take time-wasting procedural votes on nearly every Trump judicial nominee — even those who ultimately end up receiving Senate confirmation with little or no opposition. The Senate Democrats’ “Justice-Kavanaugh-is-a-serial-gang-rapist” smear, based on uncorroborated or even wholly made-up allegations, backfired on them spectacularly and played a critical role in keeping the Senate in Republican hands last election. Indeed, in what should have been a good year for Democrats (they won the House), the Senate Republicans defeated 4 Senate Democrat incumbents who voted against Justice Kavanaugh (Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp, Claire McCaskill, and Bill Nelson) and picked up 2 Senate seats overall. And despite their flowery language about diversity, Senate Democrats have subjected President Trump’s minority and women judicial nominees to even greater scrutiny and opposition than Trump’s white-male judicial nominees. A3P highlights this here: https://article3project.org/women-minority-nominees.
Candidate Donald J. Trump was fully transparent about his judicial philosophy and plans when he ran in 2016. Not only did he tell American voters the types of judges who he would appoint, he actually released a list of potential nominees who he would consider appointing to the Supreme Court. And he kept his word, with the appointments of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, solidifying a 5-4 majority of justices appointed by Republican presidents. CNN’s own exit polling showed that the future of the Supreme Court drove turnout among Trump voters by a 15-point margin over Clinton voters. Now President Trump and Senate Republicans are confirming judges at a record pace, reshaping the federal courts with judges who interpret the law as it is written—rather than simply making it up, as many Democrat-appointed judges would do.
As Democrats lick their wounds over the success of Trump’s judicial strategy, they have also ramped up their assaults on judicial independence by peddling unconstitutional or otherwise radical schemes — fringe ideas that are now becoming litmus tests from leftwing groups. Democrat presidential candidates, including Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke, and Pete Buttigieg, are eyeing “packing” the Supreme Court by increasing the number of seats and filling them with new liberal justices. The Supreme Court has had nine justices for over 150 years, going back to just after the Civil War. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s discredited court-packing scheme is as radical today as it was in 1937. Indeed, the Democrats’ court-packing scheme is so crazy that even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — the lioness of the left — recently threw cold water on it. Other candidates, including Cory “Spartacus” Booker, have called for unconstitutional term limits on Supreme Court justices, and Seth Moulton has even called for the impeachment of Justice Kavanaugh. These are unconstitutional or otherwise radical assaults on judicial independence, and all of the Democrat presidential candidates should explain to the American people where they stand.
Unsurprisingly, the Democrats again avoided these topics at last night’s debate. A3P joins Demand Justice’s call for questioning, and we hope that the CNN moderators do not make the same “glaring omission” tonight.
Sincerely,
Mike Davis, Founder and President
The Article III Project (A3P)
www.Article3Project.org
https://twitter.com/Article3Project