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May 8, 2020

Mitch McConnell Prioritizes Judicial Confirmations as Senate Returns Amid Pandemic
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Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc Connell brought senators back
from an extended, six-week recess this week but did not schedule any
coronavirus-related measures. Mc Connell's first order of business was a
confirmation hearing for 37-year-old Justin Walker, President Trump's
nominee for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia. If confirmed, Walker will replace 65-year-old
Judge Thomas B. Griffith, who announced in March he's planning to retire
in September. The progressive advocacy group Demand Justice is asking
federal courts to investigate whether Senator Mc Connell pressured Judge
Griffith to retire to clear the way for Walker - who's a protégé of Mc
Connell. At Walker's Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, Illinois
Democrat Dick Durbin said he'd rather be addressing the coronavirus
pandemic.

Sen. Dick Durbin: "It is the gravest challenge and crisis that we have
faced, many of us, in our lifetime. And so I thought, if the Senate
Judiciary Committee is coming back for business, there's certainly a lot
of things we can bring up. …

The list is lengthy. And unfortunately, it isn't the reason we're
returning this week. Instead, we're considering the nomination of a
37-year-old family friend of Senator Mc Connell's to the second-highest
court in the land."


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