WASHINGTON, DC – The Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) has launched a six-figure ad campaign thanking President Donald Trump and Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for their historic achievements on appointing federal judges during the first year of the Trump presidency.
President Trump has already made history regarding judicial appointments, setting an all-time first-year record of confirming twelve federal appeals court judges in 2017. He has declared that his impact on the judiciary will likely be one of the most enduring parts of his legacy, noting that some of the judges he is appointing could still be on the bench three decades after his presidency.
Article II of the Constitution specifies that all federal judges at all three levels of the federal judiciary — the Supreme Court, circuit courts of appeals, and districts courts where trials are conducted — are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Once confirmed, they hold their offices for life.
JCN is the foremost advocacy organization in the United States exclusively dedicated to confirming judicial conservatives — originalists and textualists — to the federal bench. No organization has done more in the movement-wide strategy for conservatives in maximizing the number of conservative judges on the bench.
The first ad in the $350,000 week-long campaign focuses on the president.
The words “Trump is rapidly reshaping the judiciary,” flash across the screen, quoting the headline of a November New York Times article. “Since our nation’s founding, no one has gotten circuit court judges confirmed faster,” says a narrator.
The second ad praises McConnell’s work on judges as Senate majority leader. McConnell has kept his caucus together to end judicial filibusters and dedicated the enormous number of hours of Senate floor debate necessary to push past the unprecedented delaying tactics Senate Democrats have employed in failed attempts to block President Trump’s nominees.
“Senator McConnell, he’s kept his promises, leading the Senate to confirm a record number of circuit court judges,” declares the ad. “Brilliant judges who will apply the Constitution just as it is written, and serve on our courts for decades to come.”
“President Trump is keeping his campaign promise to fill the federal bench with brilliant judges who will follow the Constitution,” said JCN Chief Counsel Carrie Severino, “and thanks to the strong leadership of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell they are being confirmed by the Senate.”
A third ad will debut later in the week, praising Grassley’s work as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. Grassley ended abuse of the blue-slip courtesy that Senate Democrats attempted to turn into a one-senator veto of nominees that enjoyed support from a majority of senators.
Prior to President Trump’s election, McConnell and Grassley pulled off what most pundits had considered impossible, preventing President Barack Obama from filling the Supreme Court seat left open by the unexpected February 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to that seat in January 2017. McConnell and Grassley successfully navigated Gorsuch through the Senate to his confirmation to the High Court in April 2017.
Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.
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