The Worst of the Worst: The Trump Judges [TEASER]

We're gathered together this evening for a truly momentous occasion.

Hey everyone, this is Leon from Fiasco and Prologue Projects.

On today's subscriber-only episode of 5-4, the hosts discuss former President Donald Trump's appointees to the federal bench.

As you'll hear, federal courts have an enormous impact on the Supreme Court.

Appeals of federal cases shape the Supreme Court's docket.

Seven of the nine justices currently seated on the Supreme Court were federal judges.

And like the Supreme Court, the federal courts are a partisan battleground where conservatives have long had the upper hand.

What I want to do is make a lasting contribution to the country.

And by

appointing and confirming these strict constructionists to the courts who are in their late 40s or early 50s, I believe working in conjunction with the administration, we're making a generational change in our country that will be

repeated over and over and over down through the years.

This is 5-4, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.

Welcome to 5-4, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have caused our liberty to slowly and permanently recede like the Greenland ice sheet.

I am Peter, and I'm here with Michael.

Hey, everybody.

I'm pleased you did the Greenland ice sheet.

I'm taking recommendations, Michael.

Rhiannon, taking the week off, everybody, just FYI.

She's busy representing vulnerable people who are at the mercy of our brutal legal system.

Michael and I will never miss an episode for that reason.

That is our promise to you.

We know what to prioritize, and that's the podcast.

I do all the good I need in my life.

right here on 5.4.

That's right.

Making the world a better place.

One episode at a time.

If one of you listening decides to become a public defender because of hearing us, then it's sort of like I became one, right?

It's like the same basic impact.

Yeah, that's right.

No, seriously, though, Rhiannon went a whole year without missing an episode.

I know a lot of you say that she's your favorite due to sexism against men.

And we've also had some people say that she's their least favorite.

due to sexism against women.

I think that one's probably a little more serious than the sexism against men one.

All right.

Today we are talking about the damage done to the federal courts by former and future President Donald Trump.

We talked a good bit on the pod about his three Supreme Court appointments, and Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

But today we are going to focus on the lower federal courts where Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, alongside the Federalist Society, appointed a parade of right-wing psychos who will shape our law for decades to come.

We'll talk about who they are, what they believe, and what we think Democrats and the left should be doing to counteract it.

Let's do it.

This is our first time really deviating, significantly at least, from our focus on the Supreme Court itself.

But I think it's important that we talk about this for a few reasons.

First, the lower courts are like a pipeline to the Supreme Court, and the next generation of justices will be drawn from their ranks.

Second, the character of the lower courts shapes the cases that the Supreme Court receives, right?

The Supreme Court is often constrained by the approach of the courts below.

And third, most people's experience with the federal courts is with the lower courts.

You know, the Supreme Court takes a few dozen cases every year, and the lower courts take tens and tens of thousands.

So it's important to understand what's going on down there.

Now, before we continue, we should talk a little bit about the structure of federal courts.

I think.

Generally speaking, our federal courts are a three-tiered system.

And this is, you know, this is first day of law school stuff, but I figure not everyone's an expert, right?

The lowest type of federal court is the district court, what you might call the trial court.

And there are a bunch of those.

Above them, if you want to appeal from the district courts, you get to the appellate courts or the circuit courts.

And then if you appeal from them, you get to the Supreme Court.

And those are the three basic layers of the cake of our judicial system.

Beautifully put, Peter.

Thank you.

Just came to me.

So, Donald Trump appointed 226 federal judges during his presidency.

Of those, 54 were appeals court judges.

To put that in perspective, it's about a quarter of all federal judges and a third of the appeals court judges.

If you want to get into demographics, about 24% women, which is low.

I don't know if you, Michael, are aware of the current statistics, but they're about half the population.

I think they do more than that.

Hey, folks.

This

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