Outgoing Senate Republican leader and suspected turtle Mitch McConnell had the nerve to accuse two federal judges of playing politics after the judges reneged on their retirements following Donald Trump’s victory this year.
“They rolled the dice that a Democrat could replace them, and now that he won’t, they’re changing their plans to keep a Republican from doing it,” McConnell said Monday in a speech on the Senate floor.
He warned that the judges would face ethics complaints if they remain on the bench.
“If these circuit judges unretire because they don’t like who won the election, I can only assume they will face significant ethics complaints based on Canons 2 and 5 of the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges, followed by serial recusal demands from the Department of Justice. And they’ll have earned it,” McConnell said in a huff.
McConnell was referring to U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn of North Carolina and U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio both announced they would remain on the bench in active service, preventing Trump from choosing their replacements. Already, Republicans were blocking President Joe Biden from choosing their replacements by utilizing the blue slip process, in which senators from the home state of the nominee can block their confirmation by objecting to their nomination.
It takes a lot of nerve for McConnell, of all people, to make this complaint.
Yes, that McConnell, who stole a Supreme Court seat and multiple federal judgeships from President Barack Obama—which McConnell has called his greatest accomplishment in his long tenure of norm-breaking in the Senate.
McConnell refused to even hold a hearing for Merrick Garland, the judge Obama nominated to replace Antonin Scalia, who died suddenly. McConnell’s excuse was that the vacancy occurred less than a year from the next presidential election, and that voters should get to have a voice in choosing whom they wanted to replace Scalia on the high court.
But in 2020, McConnell brazenly refused to adhere to that same rule when Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court little more than a month before that year’s election. The Senate confirmed Barrett only eight days before the election.
With those two seats, Republicans achieved their decades-long goal of overturning Roe v. Wade, which paved the way for GOP-led legislatures to pass draconian abortion bans that have now led multiple women in multiple states across the country to die from lack of access to care.
What’s more, it’s not unprecedented for judges to change the terms of their retirement.
The Hill reported that at least three judges appointed by Republican presidents rescinded their own retirements.
According to the Hill:
A Democratic aide pointed out that at least three Republican-appointed judges rescinded their decisions to retire over the past 16 years.
Judge Rudolph Randa of the Wisconsin Eastern District rescinded his senior status letter in 2008 after Obama won that year’s election.
Judge Michael Kanne of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rescinded his senior status letter in 2018 after Trump didn’t pick his preferred successor.
And Judge Karen Caldwell of the Kentucky Eastern District rescinded her senior status in 2023 after her failed attempt to pick her successor.
Ultimately, McConnell is the last person who should be making comments about playing politics with the judiciary branch. He wrote the book on it.
Republished with permission from Daily Kos. h/t Digby.
