Top 10 News Items on the Supreme Court Vacancy Going Into July 4th

10.  President Trump will announce his decision on the evening of Monday, July 9th.

9.  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will follow the “Kennedy Rule” and oppose any nominee. Senator Ted Kennedy gave an infamous speech condemning Judge Robert Bork as soon as he was announced.  The partisan attack helped lead to Bork’s defeat.  Kennedy gave a similar speech when Justice David Souter was nominated.  Justice Souter turned out to be a vote for the liberal wing of the court.  The Kennedy rule many Senate Democrats have lived by states regardless of the person’s record, if he is nominated by a Republican, he must be portrayed as an extremist that would bring back segregation, back-alley abortions, etc.

8.  CNN will report fake news.  CNN’s legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin has already lost it as Ari Fleischer points out:

If you want to see what it looks like when someone has lost their mind, here it is... https://t.co/TyeCPn9MPQ

— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) July 1, 2018

7.  The Left’s attacks are not limited to unhinged insanity.  They also include Religious bigotry.

Dragging Amy Barrett for her Christian faith is 1) unconstitutional if used as a religious test for office; 2) ignorant; and 3) often malicious and bigoted. She lives a life very similar to the lives of millions of her fellow citizens: https://t.co/p1Vu8Z3fvo

— David French (@DavidAFrench) July 2, 2018

6.  And unbounded hypocrisy:

I didn’t realize that the minority leader was such a fan of Citizens United and DC v Heller. https://t.co/qZXrvogE56

— Ilya Shapiro (@ishapiro) July 2, 2018

5.  President Trump is reportedly personally interviewing five finalists.  David Latt says four of those finalists are:

I can CONFIRM (multiple sources) that President Donald Trump personally interviewed these four #SCOTUS candidates today: Judges Amy Barrett (7th Cir.), Brett Kavanaugh (D.C. Cir.), Raymond Kethledge (6th Cir.), & Amul Thapar (6th Cir.). #AppellateTwitter

— David Lat (@DavidLat) July 2, 2018

4.  The fifth person is a woman, as President Trump has stated two of the five potential nominees are women.  Possibilities include: Margaret Ryan, Joan Larsen, or Allison Eid.

3.   While much has been written about the qualifications of Judge Barrett and Judge Kavanaugh, Judge Kethletdge has largely flown under the radar.  Here is a great piece by RNLA Board of Governors Member Chuck Cooper on Kethledge. 

2.   Another potential nominee not receiving as much attention is Judge Thapar.  For his appellate nomination, RNLA endorsed Amul Thapar and worked on his judicial confirmation.

1.  The "judge whisperer" Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society summed up President Trump's Supreme Court shortlist well: "The list is really good," Leo said, adding, "You can throw a dart at that list and in my view you would be fine."

The RNLA is very excited to support the nominee in the mold of former RNLA Member Justice Neil Gorusch.  Stay tuned for more information here and buckle your seat belt for Monday.

Loss of Senate Decorum is Hurting America: Well-Qualified Candidates Opt-Out Instead

Late Wednesday night, Florida Senator Marco Rubio took to the Senate floor to deliver an impassioned speech about the need for civility and decorum to return to the Senate. Senator Rubio comments come on the heels of recent controversy stirred by Senator Elizabeth Warren when she imputed the reputation of fellow Senator Jeff Sessions on the Senate Floor just before his confirmation as Attorney General. 

Senator Rubio delivered a long overdue condemnation to his colleagues in the Senate regarding the recent state of politics in the Senate and behavior by Democrats:

One of the great traditions of our nation is the ability to come forward and have debates, but the founders and framers and those who established this institution and guided it for over two centuries understood that that debate was impossible if in fact the matter became of a personal nature. 

I want people to think about our politics here in America. I'm telling you guys I don't know a single nation in the history of the world that's been able to solve its problems, when half the people in the country absolutely hate the other half of the people in that country. This is the most important country in the world, and this body cannot function if people are offending one another, and that's why those rules are in place.

[T]urn on the news and watch these parliaments around the world where people throw chairs at each other and punches and ask yourself how does that make you feel about those countries? It doesn't give you a lot of confidence about those countries. I'm not arguing that we're anywhere near that here tonight, but we're flirting with it. We're flirting with it in this body and we are flirting with it in this country. We have become a society incapable of having debates anymore. In this country, if you watch the big policy debates that are going on in America, no one ever stops to say I think you're wrong, I understand your point of view, I get it. You have some valid points, but let me tell you why I think my view is better. I don't hear that anymore.

Senator Rubio highlighted that Republican Senators have long refrained from such unbecoming behavior out of respect for the institution and decorum of the Senate. He noted two recent, prominent examples of the confirmations of Secretary Clinton and Secretary Kerry:

Some very nasty things have been written and said about Secretary Clinton, and I think the Senate should be very proud that during her nomination to be secretary of state, despite the fact that I imagine many people were not excited about the fact that she would be secretary of state, to my recollection and perhaps I'm incorrect, not a single one of those horrible things that have been written or said about here, some of which actually did accuse her of wrongdoing were ever uttered on the floor of the Senate. 

Senator Rubio concluded with a warning of sorts and urged the Senate to return to the proper decorum owed to the institution and the nation:

The fundamental reality...is that this body cannot carry out its work if it is not able to conduct debates in a way that is respectful of one another, especially those of us who are in this chamber together…if this body loses the ability to have those sorts of debate, then where in this country is that going to happen? What other forum in this nation is that going to be possible? And so I would just hope everybody would stop and think about that…If this body isn't capable of having those debates, there will be no place in this country where those debates with occur. And I think every single one of us, to our great shame, will live to regret it.

Unfortunately, Senator Rubio's foreshadowing was all too right. Yesterday, Mr. Charles Cooper, a well-known and an extremely well-qualified Supreme Court litigator, withdrew his name from consideration to be Solicitor General of the United States. Mr. Cooper cited the current nature of Senate and the circus games the Senate Democrats are playing.

After witnessing the treatment that my friend Jeff Sessions, a decent and honorable man who bears only good will and good cheer to everyone he meets, had to endure at the hands of a partisan opposition that will say anything and do anything to advance their political interests, I am unwilling to subject myself, my family, and my friends to such a process.

The result: America is left caught in the middle. Senators Schumer and Warren and the rest of the Democrats are hurting America by not allowing a real, fair debate of President Trump's nominees. Rather, they just want to unnecessarily slow down the gears of government in an unprecedented way.

Chuck Cooper to be Presented RNLA's Highest Award

The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) is pleased to name Charles “Chuck” Copper as the recipient of the 2016 Ed Meese Award.  Cooper was selected for the Ed Meese Award, named after the 65th United States Attorney General, as he has upheld the rule of law in the face of adverse political challenges. 

Charles J. Cooper is a founding member and chairman of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC. Named by The National Law Journal as one of the 10 best civil litigators in Washington, he has over 35 years of legal experience in government and private practice, with several appearances before the United States Supreme Court and scores of other successful cases on both the trial and appellate levels.

Shortly after serving as law clerk to Judge Paul Roney of the Fifth (now Eleventh) Circuit Court of Appeals, and to Justice (later Chief Justice) William H. Rehnquist, Mr. Cooper joined the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in 1981. In 1985 President Reagan appointed Mr. Cooper to the position of Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. Mr. Cooper reentered private practice in 1988, as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of McGuire Woods. From 1990 until the founding of Cooper & Kirk in 1996, he was a partner at Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge where he headed the firm’s Constitutional and Government Litigation Group.

Mr. Cooper’s practice is national in scope and is concentrated in the areas of constitutional, commercial, and civil rights litigation. He is currently representing private clients in a variety of commercial cases, including antitrust, intellectual property, and contract disputes. Mr. Cooper also represents a number of state and local government bodies, as well as private clients, in a wide range of constitutional and federal statutory cases.

In 1998 Mr. Cooper was appointed by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist to serve as a member of the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Mr. Cooper is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and he has spoken and published extensively on a wide variety of constitutional and legal policy topics.

Mr. Cooper is a lifelong Republican who has been active in numerous local, state and national election campaigns.  He served as National Co-Chairman of Lawyers for Bush-Cheney 2004, the last successful Republican Presidential Campaign.  Mr. Cooper’s firm has employed numerous leaders in the Republican and conservative legal movement including Senators Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz.  Mr. Cooper has also been previously honored by the RNLA with the 2010 Republican Lawyer of the Year Award.