November 20, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Judicial nominations are poised to be one of the most lasting impacts of Donald Trump’s presidency, and his latest round of appointments has brought the total number of federal appeals courts flipped so far to three.
The U.S. Senate voted 51-41 last week to confirm George Mason University law professor and former White House attorney Steven Menashi to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Courthouse News reported.
Democrats objected that he was “extreme” and “unqualified,” in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s words, and sought to make an issue out of his refusal to answer questions about his work for the Trump administration. Critics also attempted to make an issue out of Menashi’s college writings as editor-in-chief of the Dartmouth Review, in which he discussed the “overwhelming public consensus against infanticide” and reported that the Dartmouth health department was failing to inform students of Plan B’s abortifacient potential.
On Tuesday, the Senate also voted 64-31 to confirm Florida Supreme Court Justice Robert Luck to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, The Washington Times reported, and is slated to confirm Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Lagoa to the same bench later this week.
“There are now three federal appeals courts – the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Circuits – that have more Trump appointees on the bench than judges who were appointed by Democrats,” according to Courthouse News.
“This is the best news for Americans who care about the U.S. Constitution, and who care about the right to life as the most important right guaranteed by our nation’s founders,” Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life said in a statement. “We do not want to see fake rights invented, like the right to kill babies by abortion, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the Constitution of the United States.”
“Unlike the activist judges appointed by Democrat presidents, the more than 150 federal judges that President Trump’s has now placed in our court system, with lifetime appointments, will not try to legislate from the bench,” Pavone continued. “Instead, they will ensure that the laws passed by our elected representatives are upheld. This is the purpose of the judiciary, and something every voter should keep in mind as we head into the 2020 elections.”
Trump’s judicial nominees have overwhelmingly pleased pro-life and conservative groups, including among the so-called #NeverTrump faction of center-right figures who have otherwise opposed the president. But not all of his nominees, which have largely been recommended by the conservative Federalist Society, have been reliable conservatives.
In June, attorney Michael Bogren withdrew his nomination to the Western District of Michigan, following conservative objections to his authorship of a legal brief against a Michigan Christian family that had been barred from the local farmers’ market due to their farm’s refusal to host same-sex “weddings.”
Two other Trump nominees, Illinois Magistrate Judge Mary Rowland and assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Bumatay, belonged to or worked for LGBT legal organizations that have staked out left-wing stances on LGBT and religious liberty issues.