Trump Nominates SIX MORE Judges, Continues To Reshape Courts

Here's more on the new court nominations from Fox News:

President Trump nominated a slew of judges Friday to posts on California-based federal courts, ramping up efforts to reshape the judiciary after hitting a milestone earlier this month with the confirmation of the 150th federal judge on his watch.

Two nominations are for the influential San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a long-liberal bench with jurisdiction across the American West whose political makeup has shifted with Trump’s aggressive appointment campaign.

Among the nominees is Patrick Bumatay, a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of California whom Trump nominated last year for the same job. But objections from California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, over his lack of judicial experience and other issues, derailed the nomination. Trump later nominated Bumatay, who is openly gay, to a district court seat but his name resurfaced over the summer for a possible comeback bid for the Ninth Circuit amid a new vacancy.

While it is traditional for a nominee's home-state senators to give their approval, it is not required, and Trump lately has bypassed the so-called “blue slip” tradition in order to get conservative judges on the bench.

While Democrats have fumed at the tactics, conservatives cheered Trump this month for seeing the 150th federal judge confirmed.

“This is a historic milestone,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement. “As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will continue to push through highly qualified, conservative judges at all levels of the federal courts.”

Graham and his Republican allies on the committee are likely to be receptive to Trump’s latest picks. Trump also nominated Lawrence VanDyke, a Justice Department official and former Nevada solicitor general, for the Ninth Circuit.

Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, praised his record fighting “the overreach by the Obama Administration and its job-killing EPA.”

Trump on Friday announced four other nominees for California District Court posts.

 

The Epoch Times also said:

Republican President Donald Trump announced the nomination of a fresh slate of judges on Sept. 20 as part of his unprecedented filling of vacancies in courts across the nation that was helped when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) used the nuclear option in April.

Two of the six nominations are for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a California-based court that has long been a liberal-leaning bench.

Trump has nominated eight judges to the court so far, upping the number of Republican-nominated judges to 12, versus 16 nominated by Democrats. President Bill Clinton appointed most of the oldest judges on the court while some appointed by President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush sit on the bench.

Trump nominated Patrick Bumatay, an assistant attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, and Lawrence VanDyke, who currently serves as a deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice and was previously Nevada’s solicitor general.

Bumatay, who is openly gay, was nominated by Trump last year but the nomination was derailed by factors including opposition by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). Neither has commented yet on the re-nomination.

Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the Judicial Crisis Network, praised the nominations, saying Trump “is once again delivering on his promise to put outstanding judges on the bench in nominating Lawrence Van Dyke.”