8 Presidential Candidates Outline Their Visions For The Courts

Jennifer Bendery
Updated ·2 min read

CONCORD, New Hampshire ― President Donald Trump has fundamentally reshaped what justice will look like for people going before a federal court. He has broken records with the number of lifetime federal judges he’s gotten confirmed, and in three years, he’s nearly surpassed the number of appeals court judges that President Barack Obama put on the courts in eight years.

There’s also a theme to Trump’s judicial picks: They are young, they have extreme views in opposition to women's reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights, and they lack the support of their Democratic home-state senators. Yet they’ve sailed to confirmation thanks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has cemented Trump’s legacy of reshaping the nation’s federal courts for decades. Perhaps most outrageous, eight of Trump's judges earned an embarrassing “not qualified” rating by the American Bar Association but were confirmed anyway by Senate Republican.

If a Democrat defeats Trump in 2020, what characteristics will they look for in their judicial picks? Is it time to add seats to the Supreme Court? How will they get any of their judicial nominees through the Senate if McConnell refuses to move them?

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle and I will be moderating a discussion about these issues with eight of the presidential candidates Saturday morning, beginning at 8:00 a.m., at the Our Rights, Our Courts forum here in Concord.

Watch the live-feed above or click here.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, philanthropist Tom Steyer, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will participate. Each will be interviewed for 30 minutes.

Demand Justice, Center for Reproductive Rights, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and All* Above All Action Fund are sponsoring the event.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.