Tag: Trump judges

Some Harvard Law School students are avoiding applying to clerkships with Trump-appointed judges

Used to be that the promise of earning a sterling line on a resume and connections to stars of the legal profession was enough to lure Harvard law students to federal clerkships.

But recently, when Harvard Law School was urging its students to apply to work for one of President Trump’s newly appointed judges, it felt the need to offer further incentives: “Next to Lake Tahoe and great skiing!” the job alert read.

But that apparently wasn’t enough. Two days later, in mid-December, the law school again nudged its students to apply for clerkships with federal judges, noting that some judges, including two Trump appointees, had received no Harvard applications — calling them “wasted opportunities.” Continue reading.

A third of Trump’s court nominees have anti-LGBTQ history, report finds

“The damage that is being done to our federal judiciary may be this administration’s most lasting and dangerous legacy.”

A third of the more than 50 circuit court judges nominated by President Donald Trump since he took office nearly three years ago have a “demonstrated history of anti-LGBTQ bias,” according to a new report by LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal, which asserts that the justice system is “now indisputably in a state of crisis.”

“The damage that is being done to our federal judiciary may be this administration’s most lasting and dangerous legacy,” Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal, said in a statement shared with NBC News.

Lambda Legal has opposed 19 of the Trump administration’s 53 nominees to the country’s 12 circuit courts (50 of whom have since been confirmed) because of their anti-LGBTQ record. Among those that Lambda has opposed are Steven Menashi, Lawrence VanDyke and Allison Jones Rushing, all of whom were confirmed this year to lifetime appointments.

Continue reading

Trump’s Judges: White, Male, and Unprepared to Be Questioned

The following article by Eleanor Clift was posted on the Daily Beast website December 29, 2017:

Republicans are racing to fill as many lifetime appointments as they can with as little scrutiny as possible ahead of next year’s elections.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SARAH ROGERS/THE DAILY BEAST

The White House had three of its judicial nominees withdraw this month—and it wasn’t because they wanted to spend more time with their families.

Two were bloggers whose inflammatory and discriminatory posts caught up with them. The third was humiliated on national television when he couldn’t answer basic questions about the law and had to concede that he had no trial experience, generally a prerequisite for a lifetime appointment on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Continue reading “Trump’s Judges: White, Male, and Unprepared to Be Questioned”