Barack Obama may lose his Obamacare legacy when Congress repeals and replaces it but he has left the nation a far bigger and more damaging legacy. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) gloated in 2014 one of the most profound changes this Congress made was filling the bench" with Obamas appointments of federal judges. He went on: This will affect America for a generation long after the internecine battles on legislative issues are forgotten."
Obama is proud of his record. I am not to brag but I have transformed the federal courts from a diversity standpoint with a record thats been unmatched" he said. That is mostly true. A scholar of judicial appointments Sheldon Goldman observed that The majority of Obamas appointments are women and nonwhite males." Though only 43 percent of his appointments were women the former president appointed 11 openly gay judges more than 10 times as many than any other president. (President Clinton appointed lesbian Deborah Batts as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1994.)
Why does this matter? Everyone focuses on the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court hears fewer than 100 cases a year. The lower federal courts handle about 135000 per year. The vast majority of cases decided by the lower courts become law in their respective circuits. A liberal bench there means a huge number of liberal decisions affecting almost every aspect of American life.
Read the rest of the article at The Stream
Barack Obama may lose his Obamacare legacy when Congress repeals and replaces it but he has left the nation a far bigger and more damaging legacy. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) gloated in 2014 one of the most profound changes this Congress made was filling the bench" with Obamas appointments of federal judges. He went on: This will affect America for a generation long after the internecine battles on legislative issues are forgotten."
Obama is proud of his record. I am not to brag but I have transformed the federal courts from a diversity standpoint with a record thats been unmatched" he said. That is mostly true. A scholar of judicial appointments Sheldon Goldman observed that The majority of Obamas appointments are women and nonwhite males." Though only 43 percent of his appointments were women the former president appointed 11 openly gay judges more than 10 times as many than any other president. (President Clinton appointed lesbian Deborah Batts as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1994.)
Why does this matter? Everyone focuses on the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court hears fewer than 100 cases a year. The lower federal courts handle about 135000 per year. The vast majority of cases decided by the lower courts become law in their respective circuits. A liberal bench there means a huge number of liberal decisions affecting almost every aspect of American life.
Read the rest of the article at The Stream