Mitch McConnell picks up pace on Trump’s judges, moves to confirm four next week

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday he plans for the Senate to vote on four of President Trump’s circuit court judges next week, speeding up the pace on judicial confirmations.

His efforts come after he expressed frustration with Democrats this week for attempting to filibuster all but one of Mr. Trump’s judges by delaying their confirmation votes and wasting debate time on the floor.

“This pointless obstruction is designed simply to waste time, not change an outcome — and it won’t,” the Kentucky Republican said.

“By confirming these nominees we can take a big step toward restoring our nation’s courts to their proper role: interpreting and applying the law based on what it actually says, not what a judge wishes it might say. It’s quite a departure from the last administration’s philosophy when it came to selecting judicial nominees.”

Mr. McConnell plans to confirm Amy Barrett, Mr. Trump’s nominee for the 7th Circuit, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen for the 6th Circuit, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid for the 10th Circuit and Stephanos Bibas for the 3rd Circuit next week.

Nan Aron, president of the progressive Alliance for Justice, said the rush to confirm the circuit court judges is the “Trump-GOP court takeover strategy in all its glory.”

“If Trump’s court-packing is allowed to run its course, the America we know today will be a very different place in the future as rights and freedoms we have come to rely on are stripped away,” she said.

“Mitch McConnell is abetting all of this because of his dark-money masters on the right, who threatened to take out attack ads unless he gave them the judges they want. The whole thing stinks.”

Ms. Aron was referencing recent news reports that the conservative Judicial Crisis Network had planned to run ads in D.C., pressuring Mr. McConnell to move more swiftly on Mr. Trump’s judicial picks by changing the Senate rules to avoid delay by Democrats.