SOME GOOD NEWS – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  Sometimes the most lasting impact of an administration is felt, not in the headlines, but in the news on page 20.  The Senate is now confirming a number of President Trump's judicial nominations.  The country will be better off for his excellent choices.  From Powerline: 

This morning, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Notre Dame Law professor Amy Barrett as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit. The vote was 55-43.

Three Democrats — Sen. Joe Donnelly, Sen. Tim Kaine, and Sen. Joe Manchin — broke ranks and voted to confirm Barrett. They thus rejected the suggestion by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and others on the Senate Judiciary Committee that Barrett is too Catholic to be an appellate judge.

This morning, the Senate also voted 60-38 for cloture (i.e., to limit debate) on the nomination of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen to serve as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit. The Senate now has up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate on Justice Larsen’s nomination. Larsen may be confirmed as early as tomorrow.

Next, the Senate will turn to the cloture and confirmation votes on Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Tenth Circuit. She will probably be confirmed by the end of the week. If so, that will make it three conservative female circuit judges confirmed in three days.

COMMENT:  And more confirmations are coming.  If the GOP can keep control of the Senate next year, the federal court system might well be heavily transformed by the Trump administration, and a major danger to the nation – judicial dictatorship by liberal judges – could be avoided.

November 1,  2017