Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is openly encouraging federal judges who are close to the age of retirement to consider leaving the bench in order to give President Donald Trump more judicial vacancies to fill before the presidential election later this year.
During an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt this week, Graham urged judges in their 60s or older to consider taking senior status so that the president could replace them with younger judges. The move would virtually ensure right-wing dominance over the judicial system, and undermine the ability of a Democratic president to ideologically shift the courts.
Graham wasn’t coy with what he hoped would happen.
“If you’re a circuit judge in your mid-60s, late 60s, you can take senior status, now would be a good time to do that if you want to make sure the judiciary is right of center. This is a good time to do it,” he said in the interview.
Graham also encouraged judges to make such retirement decisions as soon as possible, as Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate would “need some time” to nominate and confirm new judges to replace them.
The push by conservative lawmakers for judges to retire has been in the works for at least a few months now. The New York Times reported in March that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was meeting personally with some older judges to encourage them to take senior status.
Republican senators have contradicted their own views on judicial nominations, particularly during a presidential election year. In 2016, Republicans famously obstructed the nomination process for then-President Barack Obama when a seat on the Supreme Court opened in February of that year after Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly. Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to take Scalia’s place, but Republicans blocked him from even being considered, arguing that such nominations should not happen during an election year.
“Let’s let the American people decide. The Senate will appropriately revisit the matter when it considers the qualifications of the nominee the next president nominates, whoever that might be,” McConnell said in 2016.
Earlier this month, however, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg went to the hospital to deal with a gallbladder infection, Republicans appeared to be champing at the bit over whether Trump might have a chance to make another appointment to the Supreme Court. When asked whether he would confirm a new Supreme Court Justice, McConnell appeared to disregard his previous standard.
“If you’re asking me a hypothetical about whether this Republican Senate would confirm a member of the Supreme Court due to a vacancy created this year — yeah, we would fill it,” McConnell told Fox News.
Graham, too, has flip-flopped on the issue, on an even shorter timeline. In 2018, during the nomination hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Graham answered questions about the possibility of a justice being nominated in two years’ time.
“If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait until the next election,” Graham said.
But this month, Graham changed his tune completely, suggesting it was “a different situation” than it is now.
“You had the president of one party nominating, and you had the Senate in the hands of the other party,” Graham said of the circumstances in 2016. “A situation where you’ve got them both would be different.”
The hypocrisy isn’t just evident in hypothetical Supreme Court nominations. Republicans also stalled many of Obama’s district judge nominations in his last year as president. The push to nominate and confirm as many new judges as possible this year is a stark departure from their obstructionism four years ago.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $120,000 in one-time donations and to add 1383 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy