Earlier this month Jennifer Mascott became Donald Trump’s most recent appointee to the Third Circuit. It was done over the objections of the home state senators; neither senator from Delaware returned their blue-slip from either Delaware senator (the tradition of seeking home state senator approval before confirming a judge, which the first Trump administration abandoned to get more lifetime appointment for conservative nominees). And while the Democrats from Delaware might have objected to a great many potential nominees, the fact that Mascott is not a member of the Delaware bar just added salt to the wound.
Those tangential ties to The First State (she owns a vacation home there) — and all the conservative bona fides — were enough for Mascott to get the nod from Trump. As reported by Jezebel:
Mascott, a former law professor at Catholic University, is deeply conservative, having clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and for then-appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh. During Trump’s first term, she worked for the Justice Department and assisted the White House with the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. She also joined Trump 2.0 earlier this year by taking a job in the White House Counsel’s office. Mascott has praised the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, after saying that Roe belonged in “the dustbin of history.” In late 2021, while speaking at a Senate hearing, she also defended the court’s decision not to strike down the Texas bounty hunter abortion ban that nullified Roe.
Mascott was confirmed by a 50-47 vote, with pro-choice Republican Lisa Murkowski voting against the nomination.
But that isn’t the most controversial thing to happen to the Third Circuit. That dubious honor, of course, goes to the elevation of Emil Bove. Nothing could stop the former Trump henchman’s lifetime appointment — not a whistleblower, not 900 former DOJ attorneys all screaming NO, nothing.
This all leaves the Third Circuit with a conservative majority. Of the 14 active judges on the circuit, 8 were appointed by Republican judges and six of those by Donald Trump himself. It’s a helluva legacy he’s leaving on his sister’s (the late Judge Maryanne Trump Barry) home circuit.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
The post Third Circuit Has Been Utterly Transformed By Donald Trump appeared first on Above the Law.
Earlier this month Jennifer Mascott became Donald Trump’s most recent appointee to the Third Circuit. It was done over the objections of the home state senators; neither senator from Delaware returned their blue-slip from either Delaware senator (the tradition of seeking home state senator approval before confirming a judge, which the first Trump administration abandoned to get more lifetime appointment for conservative nominees). And while the Democrats from Delaware might have objected to a great many potential nominees, the fact that Mascott is not a member of the Delaware bar just added salt to the wound.
Those tangential ties to The First State (she owns a vacation home there) — and all the conservative bona fides — were enough for Mascott to get the nod from Trump. As reported by Jezebel:
Mascott, a former law professor at Catholic University, is deeply conservative, having clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and for then-appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh. During Trump’s first term, she worked for the Justice Department and assisted the White House with the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. She also joined Trump 2.0 earlier this year by taking a job in the White House Counsel’s office. Mascott has praised the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, after saying that Roe belonged in “the dustbin of history.” In late 2021, while speaking at a Senate hearing, she also defended the court’s decision not to strike down the Texas bounty hunter abortion ban that nullified Roe.
Mascott was confirmed by a 50-47 vote, with pro-choice Republican Lisa Murkowski voting against the nomination.
But that isn’t the most controversial thing to happen to the Third Circuit. That dubious honor, of course, goes to the elevation of Emil Bove. Nothing could stop the former Trump henchman’s lifetime appointment — not a whistleblower, not 900 former DOJ attorneys all screaming NO, nothing.
This all leaves the Third Circuit with a conservative majority. Of the 14 active judges on the circuit, 8 were appointed by Republican judges and six of those by Donald Trump himself. It’s a helluva legacy he’s leaving on his sister’s (the late Judge Maryanne Trump Barry) home circuit.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
