Continuing his mission of stacking the nation’s courts with conservative judges, President Donald Trump announced a new wave of judicial appointments last week, including Patrick J. Bumatay, an openly gay conservative federal prosecutor nominated to become a federal judge.
Trump nominated Bumatay to sit on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the liberal-leaning San Francisco court Trump has openly attacked on Twitter during his presidency.
The Log Cabin Republicans are thrilled.
“Patrick would make an excellent addition to the court,” Gregory Angelo, president of the gay GOP group, told the Washington Blade. “The historic nature of his nomination as an openly gay man adds an additional layer of prestige to what by all counts is an exceptional career in law.”
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California Democrats are not so thrilled.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris have both spoken out against Bumatay’s nomination. Trump ultimately ignored the senators’ recommendations for this and other California judicial vacancies.
“I repeatedly told the White House I wanted to reach an agreement on a package of 9th Circuit nominees,” Feinstein said in a statement last week. She said “the White House moved forward without consulting me” and selected “controversial candidates,” and “another individual with no judicial experience who had not previously been suggested.”
“The decision to move forward with these nominees without consultation or responding to my acceptance of the White House offer reflects President Trump’s desire to remake the court,” Feinstein added.
“The Trump Administration is trying to pack the courts for years to come,” Harris said on Twitter. “We will fight this.”
The Trump Administration is trying to pack the courts for years to come. We will fight this. https://t.co/d1bOOVDtMJ
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 14, 2018
Via the Blade:
Bumatay clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich, a George W. Bush appointee who sits on the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Judge Sandra Townes, another Bush appointee on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Bumatay graduated with honors from Yale University and obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School.
Bumatay is a member of the Federalist Society, the increasingly powerful conservative group that has had a heavy influence on Trump’s judicial appointments, including to the Supreme Court.
The powerful 9th Circuit has ruled against the Trump Administration’s travel ban, transgender military ban, and withdrawing of federal funding for sanctuary cities.
Here’s what Trump has had to say about the court:
It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018
Well, as predicted, the 9th Circuit did it again – Ruled against the TRAVEL BAN at such a dangerous time in the history of our country. S.C.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2017
…the Ninth Circuit, which has a terrible record of being overturned (close to 80%). They used to call this "judge shopping!" Messy system.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017
First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017
rray63
So to the esteemed Senator if the judge doesn’t walk in lockstep with her then they are not qualified? A gay judge is a gay judge. Why are we tearing down our own? It’s time for the Senator to step down. I hope this judge is appointed. The far left has had a lock on that appeals court for years. I’ve said it before and been attacked, the far left and far right are not the answer, the answer is somewhere in the middle. Okay, call me names now.
Edreama
“A gay judge is a gay judge”, I beg to differ with you. This nominee is ultra conservative.
You may remember they want to repeal marriage equality. The 9th District needs a moderate at the minimum preferably a liberal!!
fur_hunter
HEY…..ray..ray….wake up and smell the coffee. What are you? 20 years old, knowing NOTHING of gay history? This smells so bad, I think it really is a pile of $H!T in disguise. Wait and see. I’ll bet the guy being nominated is a total @$$HOLE towards gay issues and the community. MARK MY WORDS! It’s like the line from Hamlet. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
Allen Villarreal
I don’t think as many would mind if you just said you voted for Trump than pretend that this is about anything else.
Daniel
I agree completely. The Left doesn’t want a gay man they want a LEFTIST LGBTQ€?b— whatever, it’s all about ideology NOT simply being same sex attracted. What the Left can’t change in Congress they want the courts to do for them – illegally.
Mick406
Allen Villarreal
Allen, Allen, Allen . . . Such a handsome young man!
I voted for Trump, and I know MANY gay Mexican men who also voted for him. I don’t know what you think about the USA, but if you like it, and want us to stay prosperous and not turn into a Third World country, you should probably step back and look at the big picture. The country can’t survive under the principles of the Democrat Party. We can’t sustain all the ‘free stuff’ for many more years. The 52% of us who work to pay for the 48% welfare recipients just can’t keep up this pace.
Daniel
GREAT POST! We need fairness all across the board. Laws upheld by the courts. If not, then why do we have laws and courts?!
aequalitasTN
I not sure everyone should be so quick to jump to conclusions on this; I saw nothing in any of the comments or the story detailing this AUSA’s distinguished record as a prosecutor, nor anything that noted him as overtly qualified either. I am skeptical for this reason: 40% of Trump’s appointees to the federal bench have an anti-LGBTQ track record (see particularly: Amy Coney Barrett, John Bush, Gregory Katsas… the list goes on and on, unfortunately). Hell, even the ones who don’t make such a name for themselves prior to advancing do so when they actually are confirmed and commissioned (see Gorsuch’s dissent in Pavan v Smith). I am certainly willing to hear the nominee’s qualifications, but I am just skeptical of everyone Trump puts forward, primarily for the reasons mentioned, but also for the fact that his VP is rabidly anti-LGBTQ and he, with the help of the Federalist Society (also w/ a long record of Anti-LGBTQ bias) are the ones putting names forward.
Also, can we honestly stop this crap of just because someone has a political view different from our own they are automatically Anti-American? Seriously, it’s juvenile. Grow enough intelligence to attack the merits of an opposing political position or shut-up already. I’ll go ahead and say that I am a Democrat, despite agreeing with about 20% of the Republican platform on economics and fiscal responsibility (but seriously, put these planks into action instead of just voting mindlessly for endless government funding of contractors under the guise of defense then complaining about domestic spending). The reason I am a Democrat is actually pretty simple: the Republican platforms in most states doesn’t recognize my right to exist, and nationally, it doesn’t recognize my right to live my life freely and equally (though lately, it seems to be matching the state GOP platforms more and more); the whole exercise of LGBTQ people voting for the GOP (in the aggregate, not necessarily individual candidates – but do consider who they caucus with folks) is akin to a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders, at least for me! Conversely, I challenge anyone to show me a piece of legislation introduced by a Democrat in the last 15 years that actually RESTRICTS the rights of individuals, while the GOP, for the most part, has been championing the causes of the Dominionist Theocrats, who all hate us, under the guise of “religious freedom” or some other thinly veiled, patriotic sounding phrase that inspires immediate assent from the masses without the need to think about the issue critically in the least.
bowlingbutch
Any gay person, judge or not, who supports trump’s policies is obviously mentally off. Gay people have had to fight hatred for decades and to buy into the hate of this president shows a lack of human intelligence
frankcar1965
When the people revolt they won’t have to worry about packing the courts for years to come.
Smith David
Here we go again. Democrats, we need to focus our efforts on the issue of voter suppression. The Republicans on the hill are miles ahead of us on this issue.
So much so, they have been legislating these red states with this isssh. It’s crazy. Using laws to literally block the votes of African Americans and American Indians. This has been going on for years and it has yet to be resolved. Dems, we need to wake up. So much time has been wasted. It’s criminal.
justyouandi
This “voter suppression” and “block the votes” crap is just that ….. CRAP!
It doesn’t happen!
Mick406
justyouandi
Good post!
Voter suppression?!!! I’m 71 years old and never in my life have I EVER seen one person prevented from registering to vote or to vote. This is a figment of liberal imagination. In fact, The Dems get a whole lot more mileage out of their votes than any other political party. They often get to vote twice! And they’ve got so many patriotic voters, they rise up from the grave to cast their ‘dead votes’.
We need voter identification in every state. That way, only qualified LEGAL citizens can vote.
These comments here are RICH! :))
WillParkinson
Then you lovely men aren’t paying attention.
aequalitasTN
@justyouandi, @Mick406
So should the states be allowed to purge voters from the roles simply because they haven’t voted in several years (OH)? How about classifying citizens as “pending” voters or their ballots as “provisional” just because their middle initial is not the same as it was on their Birth Certificate and their Driver’s License because they, say, got married and failed to change everything with every level of crazy bureaucracy in the supposedly well run state (GA)? Our states have a nasty history of disenfranchisement or there would have been no need for things like, oh, ya know, the 15th, 19th, 24th, or 26th Amendments, or laws such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It really is ridiculous to think that states and their officials would not try again, given the long history of such, to design laws that disproportionately effect minority populations and prevent them from voting.
fur_hunter
Trust me. There is a line from Hamlet that applies here. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Just wait and see. This has a catch to it.
bobnla
dear Dianne and Kamala;
you guys lost the 2016 election; President Trump is our president and as per his constitutional duties, he nominated an excellent individual to become a Judge on the prestigious 9th Circuit. The nominee is a respected conservative, and he is gay. The Senate needs to confirm, and we expect you both will vote in the affirmative. Is he qualified?…absolutely
WillParkinson
You lost me at the blah blah blah.
scotshot
He’s qualified per your standards. Why would any Senator vote to confirm a man whose political views are antithetical to American values? Your misguided comment is evidence of your ignorance of the values America (along with Constitutional amendments) was founded on.
Please keep commenting. During these turbulent times we need to have a good laugh.
Mick406
bobnla
I’m glad you had the guts to post what you said. More people on this forum need to speak out as you have.
Queerty and many people on this board forget that not everyone here is a gay liberal, or liberally gay! Some us like law and order, the American flag, and apple pie. We like to stand for being productive citizens. Not destructive and violent.
God Bless America! And God Bless some of the younger liberal members of this board, as they will see as they turn older and older, they become will more and more conservative. One day, they will write out words on here as I have done. Let’s just hope we have a Republic left as we see it today.
WillParkinson
Oh, Mick. You’re so cute. I’m a gay liberal, love my country, hate seeing what it’s in the process of becoming under Trump, I’m neither destructive nor violent.
As for the Republic as we see it today, do you mean the very thing crumbling around our ears? The massive increase in debt, the threat to senior citizens to cut their money which Republicans are claiming is an ‘entitlement’, a Supreme Court justice who has no business on any court. That republic?
Democrats aren’t perfect (far from it), but they’re the lesser of two evils.
aequalitasTN
Why does the Senate automatically need to confirm? I’d like for them to review his record in more detail first. I guess that is just a thing of the past though. Certainly, Senators Feinstein and Harris don’t need to come out the gate swinging before they do the same either! Give him a chance, but the Senate has to vet him, gay or not, or it is not doing its job! Everything I have seen those far is rather positive but he still needs to have his record scrutinized before they take a vote.