Trump Remakes Federal Judiciary In His Image
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.5 • 24.9K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2020
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson, and senior political editor and correspondent Ron Elving.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Ashley in Washington, DC. My sister Meredith lives in England, so we don't know when we'll get to see each other again. |
| 0:07.0 | While some people find comfort in looking up and seeing the same moon when they are far apart, Meredith and I laugh about how we find comfort in knowing we are both listening to the NPR Politics podcast. |
| 0:18.0 | This podcast was recorded at... |
| 0:21.0 | 215 on Wednesday, July 1st. |
| 0:24.0 | Things may have changed by the time you hear it. Here's the show Meredith. |
| 0:30.0 | Aww, that's so sweet! Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Tamer Keith, I cover the White House. |
| 0:36.0 | I'm Carrie Johnson, National Justice Correspondent. |
| 0:39.0 | And I'm Ron Elving, Editor Correspondent. |
| 0:41.0 | So Carrie, we are here today because the Trump administration has now confirmed its 200th federal judge. |
| 0:49.0 | Once we confirm Judge Wilson today, the Senate will have confirmed 200, 200 of President Trump's nominees to lifetime appointments on the federal bench. |
| 1:01.0 | Judicial appointments are something that we don't talk about that much on the podcast, but they are incredibly important in terms of a president's legacy. |
| 1:11.0 | They're so important, Tam, these people serve for life terms and so they can stay on the bench for 20, 30, sometimes even 40 or more years. |
| 1:21.0 | This is going to be President Trump's most enduring legacy most likely, no matter how the election turns out in November. |
| 1:28.0 | And when we talk about judges, the people's court comes to mind or law and order or one of these things. |
| 1:34.0 | But these judges are making decisions about a lot more than small criminal cases or civil cases. |
| 1:43.0 | Yeah, this is not Judge Judy, no offense to Judge Judy. |
| 1:47.0 | These people sit on the federal bench. |
| 1:49.0 | Yeah, exactly. These people sit on the federal bench and they rule on cases that matter a lot. |
| 1:54.0 | Things like abortion access, climate change, voting rights and more. |
| 1:58.0 | They rule in DC in particular on policy and regulation. They rule on things like the DACA program and immigrants rights. |
| 2:06.0 | And in fact, because the Supreme Court actually takes so few cases, fewer than 100, these courts are often the court of last resort. |
| 2:13.0 | They, their decisions matter and they last. |
... |
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