The DC Circuit Court will now be Democratic/moderate

[cthulu2016]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is THE court for a lot of things the federal government does. It is the last court before the Supreme Court for a lot of laws, regulations, etc., because it's jurisdiction is DC and the federal government is headquartered in DC.

A lot of issues are decided conservatively by that court, and the US Supreme Court can let those interpretations stand simply by doing nothing.

In future, thanks to filibuster reform, that court will be center-left. (The addition of the three previously blocked appointees will bring the court to a majority of Dem appointees and end the court's current reliance, due to under-staffing, on a group of right-wing fill-in judges.)

This will require the Supreme Court to ACT to over-turn reasonable DC Circuit decisions and decide cases conservatively, rather than merely doing nothing.

And that really matters.

A good piece on the topic:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/11/21/the-d-c-circuit-court-was-at-the-center-of-the-filibuster-fight-heres-why-it-matters/

[PM Martin]

1. Obama has appointed highly qualified judges.

They should be confirmed.

Harry Reid has made this possible.

[Tx4obama]

2. Yes, BUT don't forget...

The majority of the SENIOR status (semi-retired) judges that still hear cases is republican: 1 Democrat and 5 Republicans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_District_of_Columbia_Circuit#Active_and_senior_judges

It will take a few years before we have a true majority.

[cthulu2016]

3. Those SENIOR STATUS judges will now be used much less

The court is supposed to have 11 judges. As it dwindled down to only eight the Republicans saw that most of the SENIOR STATUS judges were right-wingers and thus began their argument that the court should stay at only eight judges. That shortage forces more involvement by the semi-retired RW judges.

With the three new members, taking it to eleven full-time judges, those senior members will be used less.

They will be part of fewer panels. That is, involved in fewer cases. Not many circuit cases are decided by the entire court.

[Tx4obama]

4. Well, that is true - good point :)

But it will be even better when those semi-retired republicans are moved to the FULLY retire list

[dsc]

5. actually those judges should negate the need for the senior judges

meaning we should wind up with a true majority sometime soon.

[cthulu2016]

6. .

[Laelth]

7. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth