Senate GOP Obstruction Effects Lower Courts As Well As SCOTUS

We all know how important it is for Democrats to win the Senate in order to end the current dysfunction concerning the Supreme Court and usher in a new era of a liberal court for the first time in half a century. But Daily Kos has a nice series on how Republican obstruction has created massive dysfunction in the lower courts as well. Because of their obstruction, there are now many jurisdictions where, because of the lack of diversity on the court, you can almost guarantee what ruling will be given. This has resulted in “jurisdiction shopping” where GOP Attorneys General can choose which court they will go to with whatever case they have. Of course, one of the greatest abusers of this system is the state of Texas. Attorney General Ken Paxton went all the way from the capital of Austin to Wichita Falls in order to file a challenge to the Obama administration’s recommendations on transgender bathroom use. The district court there has all of one judge, a George W. Bush appointee, who had already had a history of ruling against same-sex couples. Similarly, in 2014, Attorney General Greg Abbott went down to Brownsville to file his objection to Obama’s immigration executive orders. Again, there was only one judge in rotation in that court and he had a track record of anti-immigrant rulings. And, as we saw with that very case, the Supreme Court split 4-4 and a lower court ruling that stayed those orders stood. In effect, the GOP Senate has refused to fill so many vacancies that it is possible to almost predict exactly how a court will rule in any individual case. And, since many of these remaining justices are Republican appointees, these rulings have a clear conservative bent. So, yes, the Supreme Court is critical, but the lower courts are important as well. And the dysfunction in these courts will only end when the Democrats take control of the Senate.