i think this is an activist court. getting rid of roe v wade was an incredible thing for pro-life. simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court. is the u.s. senate confirmation process to blame for polarizing the entire judicial branch? what you want to do is destroy this guy s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020. donald trump, mitch mcconnell and their republican buddies are shoving aside the wishes of the american people in order to steal the supreme court seat. is the court now out of sync with the american public? a court that s already pretty illegitimate is going to be in full crisis mode. and now new questions of ethical standards. have the justices damaged the court s reputation further by failing to disclose financial relationships and gifts from wealthy donors? the perception of the american people is important to me. the highest court in the land should not have the lo
change the rules more. what is the choice? continue like we are or have democracy. well, democrats did learn to care. president donald trump worked with senate republican leader mitch mcconnell to reshape the federal judiciary, appointing 54 federal appellate judges in four years, just one short of the 55 appointed in eight years. in february of 2016, less than two hours after the death of justice antonin scalia, nine months before the election, 11 months before the end of obama s term, mcconnell made it clear that he would not even confirm a replacement before a new president had taken office. the republican-controlled senate went further and even refused to have a hearing on merrick garland, obama s nominee, for that seat. one of my proudest moments is when i looked at barack obama in the eye and i said, mr. president, you will not fill this supreme court vacancy. [ cheers and applause ] and in 2017, when democrats filibustered trump nominee neil gorsuch for that scalia seat,
both parties want an activist judiciary in what has become a race to the bottom. since the bork nomination in the 80s, every move has been a tit for tat, and each party has rationalized its escalation in the judicial wars by claiming the other side did it first. here s a stunning fact. the last time a republican-controlled united states senate confirmed a democratic president s supreme court nominee grover cleveland administration nearly 130 years ago. in 2013, pushed by the obstruction of obama s nominees to the federal courts in that moment, as well as the executive branch, democratic senate majority leader harry reid decided to go nuclear, in his words, ending the filibuster, the 60-vote requirement for judicial nominees below the supreme court. let them do it. why in the world would we care? we were trying to protect everybody. i mean, they want simple majority. fine. i mean, all these threats about we re going to
. welcome back. data download time as we discuss the supreme court s evolution, particularly how its standing among the public has deteriorated as they perceive it to be more and more partisan. we re here to provide a reality check on exactly what is driving this shift. there s one simple way to describe this, and that s just simply the number of appointments. since lbj, republican presidents have been in office for 32 years and have gotten 16 supreme court justices. democratic presidents have been in office 22 years and have only gotten five justices. some of that is actuary tables. you have jimmy carter, who served four years, got zero appointments. george h.w. bush served four years, got two. donald trump four years, got three. so you see how that happens. now let s look at the views, the polling views of whether this court is too liberal
or too conservative. going back to the start of the century, as you can see here, it has fluctuated between too liberal and too conservative narrowly. you know, during the bush years and the war on terror. it was seen as too conservative. during the obama years, obamacare ruling, same-sex marriage, it was seen as too liberal. but look at this. it has skyrocketed. now, 42% currently think it is too conservative. and in fact, what makes that number unique? it s above the there s a third punch we ask here. is the court too liberal, too conservative or about right? about right led throughout the entire century until these last couple of years. now let s move to the issue of whether they re right about this. is the public right? has the court shifted its views to the right? well, the national academy of sciences sort of compared key supreme court rulings with public opinion for different decades. in 2010 versus where democrats wanted rulings and republicans want rulings, the court basical