On Day 1 of #ACS2019, newly elected lawmakers talked about how their backgrounds as lawyers help them be better policymakers. Moderated by journalist Kimberly Adkins, this panel featured a discussion with progressive lawyers in the freshman congressional class elected in 2018. They discussed the power of diversity and representation, and their commitment to upholding the rule of law.
SPEAKERS
Kimberly Atkins, Senior News Correspondent, WBUR, and Contributor, MSNBC, Moderator
Hon. Colin Allred, 32nd Congressional District of Texas
Hon. Sharice Davids, 3rd Congressional District of Kansas
Hon. Jennifer Wexton, 10th Congressional District of Virginia
View more videos from the ACS 2019 National Convention.
A new Washington Post exposé, building on research supported by ACS, documents how $250 million in dark money has allowed the far right to engage in an ongoing, multiyear effort to accomplish through the courts what they failed to do legislatively.
See ACS's resources to learn how the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo orchestrates these millions to get judges confirmed. In Trump, Leo saw someone to help accomplish his “long-held” goal: “A federal court system dominated by conservative judges who believe the Constitution must be interpreted literally.”
On May 8, 2019, ACS hosted a discussion about Supreme Court capture, featuring keynote remarks by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, author of the recently published ACS Issue Brief A Right-Wing Rout: What the “Roberts Five” Decisions Tell Us About the Integrity of Today’s Supreme Court.
In the era of Chief Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed justices have delivered landmark victories for corporate and right-wing interests in dozens of cases, like Citizens United v. FEC, Shelby County v. Holder, and Janus v. AFSCME. Have the conservative justices on the Court been effectively “captured” by these corporate and right-wing interests? If so, what role has the nominations process played and what can be done to reverse this trend and ensure the Court serves only the interest of impartiality, objectivity, and the rule of law?
Update 4/3/2019: The Senate majority passed a major rule change that will speed up the process of confirming President Trump's judge picks for the lower courts.
President Trump and the Senate majority are reshaping the federal courts by nominating extremely conservative judges and confirming them at a breakneck speed. The 115th Congress saw record-breaking movement on judicial nominations, and we're seeing more of the same in the 116th Congress. As of mid-March, 20 percent of judges currently sitting on the circuit courts have been nominated by President Trump. ACS President Caroline Fredrickson explains the urgent need to defend our constitutional values and protect the judiciary from conservative takeover.
Learn more about how the federal judiciary is changing under President Trump:
