Politicians are notorious for flip-flopping, typically in whichever direction is most politically expedient for them. Judges generally are not.
Yet, two federal judges have done an about-face on their plans to retire — and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is none too pleased about it.
The Senate GOP leader on Monday slammed decisions by two federal judges to reverse their announced retirements after Republican former President Trump won re-election in November.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized the pair of “partisan Democrat district judges” after they announced plans to “unretire” after “the American people voted to fire Democrats last month.”
“Looking to history, only two judges have ever unretired after a presidential election. One Democrat in 2004 and one Republican in 2009. But now, in just a matter of weeks, Democrats have already met that all-time record. It’s hard to conclude that this is anything other than open partisanship,” McConnell said in remarks delivered on the Senate floor.
The judges in question are Ohio U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley and North Carolina U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn, both of whom had previously announced plans to take senior status (thus creating two vacancies) but then reversed course after Donald Trump won the presidency on November 5.
McConnell said their decisions to rescind their retirements after Trump won points to “a political finger on the scale.” He urged the incoming Trump administration to “explore all available recusal options with these judges.”
But it’s two other federal judges at the circuit court (appellate) level that could really throw a wrench into plans if they take a page from the same playbook as Cogburn and Marbley.
As streiff reported in November, a deal has previously been struck between Senate Republicans and Democrats that will allow President-elect Trump to name four circuit-level judges upon taking office.
Trump Gets Four Circuit Court Judges in Major Deal With Senate Democrats
In what could be seen as a historic moment in modern American political history, Senate Democrats have gifted Donald Trump four circuit court seats in exchange for expediting 11 district court vacancies. The deal was brought about by Senate Republicans stalling confirmation hearings so effectively that the Democrat leadership cried, “Uncle.”
“The reality was we had a serious question as to whether we had the votes on the floor for these four nominees and balancing the opportunity for record number of district court judges against that possibility,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) told the Washington Examiner.
McConnell made it clear that there had better not be any “takebacks” regarding those circuit judge positions.
He also warned two sitting circuit court judges, who have announced retirements and have vacancies currently pending before the senate, against making similar decisions to “unretire.”
“Never before has a circuit judge unretired after a presidential election. It’s literally unprecedented. And to create such a precedent would fly in the face of a rare bipartisan compromise on the disposition of these vacancies,” McConnell said.
If that were to happen and the carefully crafted deal blown up, one can only imagine the fireworks coming off the Senate floor. My instinct is that the circuit-level judges will not play the same games as the district court judges, particularly given the election (and Trump victory) was already two weeks in the rearview mirror when the deal was reached. But if they do — grab the proverbial popcorn.
