McConnell on ‘Washington Watch’ with Tony Perkins
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Tony Perkins on his radio show ‘Washington Watch’ yesterday to discuss confirming the President’s well-qualified nominees and the nomination of Judge Justin Walker to the D.C. Circuit Court. See below for highlights or click here to listen to the full interview.
On Confirming Well-Qualified Judges:
“It's not just how many judges you appoint, but what are they like. And the Trump administration in league with the Senate Republican majority have put young men and women on the courts who believe in the quaint notion that maybe the job of a judge is to follow the law.”
“That's what Justice Scalia retaught, lawyers all across America… who believe in the quaint notion, it shouldn't be quaint at all, that the job of a judge is to follow the law. Justice Scalia used to say you're not a very good judge if occasionally you're not unhappy with the outcome you reach because it's not your independent judgment.”
“So I thought Judge Walker sort of demonstrated his brilliance, and certainly underscored, Tony, why he's going to make a great member of the D.C. Circuit Court.”
On Circuit Court Confirmations:
“It's important for your listeners to know that most litigation never makes it to the Supreme Court. Most complex litigation stops at the circuit court level. The level below that is district courts. They're also important, but their decisions are, of course, appealable to the circuit courts. And very, very few cases make it all the way to the Supreme Court.”
“So that's why I have put in scheduling, which is my responsibility as Majority Leader, we do circuit judges first because they are the most important and the quality, as you pointed out, is just as important as the quantity. And, wonderfully enough, in three and a half years we've had both quantity and quality. And I'm really proud of what we've done. These are lifetime appointments of young men and women who revere the Constitution.”
On Democrats’ Attempts to Pack the Courts:
“I can tell you what the Democrats will do if they get the entire government. The numbers of the judges at all levels has set a statute. The Supreme Court has been nine since 1869, but doesn't have to be nine, it could be fifteen. That is a number the Democratic presidential candidates advocated.”
“They will, if they get the entire government, try to undo what we've done over the last three plus years by expanding the numbers of the Supreme Court, the circuit courts, the district courts, and filling them with people who are quite different from the ones that we've been installing, the 51 that we have been installing here in the last over three years.”
Related Issues: Supreme Court, Judicial Nominations
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