Time thinking about this and figuring out how the Scientific Community can interact with the public to reassure them about vaccine about a vaccine. We are going to leave this program and go live to a role on to a discussion on the role of senate judges. Welcome to our today. Our even to our event today. In, let me make a couple of announcements and we will get right down to what we are here for. First, we have a pride for cle credit South Carolina. If you would like credit for attending this event, i ask you submit a record of your attendance. Use the q function and send a message that will be viewable only by me has your name and South Carolina bar number. Or halfway through, i will ask you to do it again to make sure you are still with us. I also want to very briefly preview couple of upcoming events. 2 00,eek on thursday at we will be having a virtual roundtable between three attorneys general. Its going to be a fun event and i would love to see you there. Three cap of that onset of her Kelly Shapiro will be like with us in columbia to preview the Upcoming Supreme Court term at his upcoming book. After that, we will be hosting. Eff judge jeff sutton nobody came today to hear me give announcements and i know you are excited to hear from senator graham. If we have ever had a speaker duction, it no intro is he. Lets jump right into it. Into the first question with a bit of a windup. Since its founding, the Federalist Society is been deeply concerned with the role of the federal judiciary. Founding principles is that in our constitutional system, it is emphatically the role of the judiciary to say not with the law is, but what it should be. One way we advance that principle is by selecting and elevating judges who share that. Originally under your leadership , the senate has passed 200 confirmations a President Trumps judicial nominee and for the first time and i believe more than 40 years, every vacant Circuit Court of appeals seat has been filled. What does this mean . Achievement mean for the future of the federal judiciary . Number one, think you very much for having me and honoring me. What you doreciate for judging, doing his input about nominees. To efforts of her hitting people from being a member of your society and still being a judge, i will stop that with all of my might. Member. Be a its ok to be a conservative and a lawyer. The bottom line is what does it mean . Trumpns that president has done more than anybody in my lifetime to reshape the federal judiciary to a centerright judiciary. Focusing on filling every judiciary, Chuck Grassley was the chairman for the first two years. We have 70 District Court vacancies and 49 nominations. Probably do hundred 20 on my watch. We have made it a priority. Mitch mcconnell deserves a lot of. For all ofyou that who campaign on our behalf and say that judges matter, trump heard you, Mitch Mcconnell heard you and we have delivered your four more years of this, for more years of taking Circuit Court judges. Four more years we can flip more districts. The bottom line is there will be lisa couple vacancies. Will have a chance to feel fill those. Think about that. Think about how satisfied you must be as a Federalist Society member with President Trump in the Republican Senate thank you for this acknowledgment. One thing for me is what kind of issues you will want to have and i think that will loom large on the ballot. Effortill be an express to expand the number of judges. N the spring court i just think this has been one of the great accomplishments for President Trump, myself and Mitch Mcconnell. At in 2020. Ke some of thened statistics, the numbers of judges. In the eight years of president obamas administration, total of 55 federal Appellate Court seats were filled. , 53 seats have been filled by the current administration, so nearly on pace. Us about thet tell priority, the amount of effort and emphasis that leader mcconnell and yourself and others have placed . Tells you everything you need to know. That in one term we have done as much as obama did into terms. That Mitch Mcconnell and myself see picking judges is one of the most important functions of the United States senate. Conventions and almost nothing was said about protest and disorder in the street. The Republican Convention focused heavily on line order supporting victims of crime. About shows us what your priorities are. I think we have done a good job approving through our action what we mean we talk about making the judiciary interpret the law rather than making it from the bench. Well aboutsk you as a particular moment in the past couple of years. 27, right in the middle of the contentious confirmation hearings for judge Brett Kavanaugh of course now a justice. Day, delivered remarks at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary committee that some observers have identified as crucial to his eventual that schapiro has identified your greatest moment. Bit aboutus a little that moment and the emotion and passion that was present in the room. Why did people listen to what i had to say . Nobody would have cared five got mad about the way they treated cap not if i had just been one more mad person but i had something that nobody else had. The ability to look the democrats in the eye and say what the hell are you doing . I would have never done this for sotomayor and cake. Kagan. You dont care how qualified he is. What got me going is i have known Brett Kavanaugh for almost 20 years. I know him to be one of the most capable people any republican president would nominate to the Supreme Court. Here is the one thing that united the party. He was the private secretary of president george w. Bush. He met his wife working for the bush administration. President bush was on the phone day in day out, patching for cap. Vouching for him. Group, thethe bush mccain group ann romney group. All of us believed that anybody on the republican side would have put Brett Kavanaugh on their short list. We saw thisened was as an attack on us, conservatism. We saw what they were doing to line of wanting power too much. It in terms of an offense betrayal friend and a of what i had tried to do. Thomas and alito through this every republican conservative is a racist, lovable law. Blah blah blah. Why is it always our people . What i said that day i meant, that i looked everyone in the eye and said i never would have done this to your nominees. I would not have picked soto meyer or kagan but they were qualified. Brett kavanaugh is as qualified as anyone nominate to the Supreme Court and what we were doing to him is unconscionable. And if they had succeeded in driving him away and he had withdrawn who would be next on our side smart what young conservative manner woman would want to throw their hat in the ring go through this . Gutter member, the accusations were five, three of them anonymous and two of the three proved to be absolute manufacturers. What happened to dr. Ford was real somewhere sometime, but im confident that Brett Kavanaugh had nothing to do with. You were talking about a party in high school that could validate where nobody could validate the claim. Talk about how may beers he had aile in high school, it was party, not a date and location and just a complete low point in my career in the senate. Nowoke up, as i am right the more i think about it the more pistol i get about it, the more pissed i get. If they had succeeded in doing this, they would have changed the people who would come forward to be a judge and anything they could do could wind up doing. So i think the best thing that happened here is that he made it onto the court and i think they thisbe less likely to do to the next nominee because it blew up in their face and i think it affected senate races in that cycle and when i voted sotomeyer and kagan, it did not make me more conservative. I followed the qualifications and not ideology, and now after kavanaugh everything has changed and thank god he is on the bench. And to the extent i have motivated people on our side to and frommore im glad my point of view the real hero here as much as anybody is susan collins, because she had the courage to evaluate Brett Kavanaugh as a judge at human being and found him to be highly qualified. Let me follow up on that. Mentioned Justice ThomasJustice Ginsburg and others. He said it seems like now all that has changed. So let me toss out a couple statistics and then get your reaction. Confirmed 1993g vote of 9630 and spoiler alert the margins are going to get narrower as we go. Sotomayor confirmed 6831. Gorsuch, 5445. Cavanaugh, 5048. The trend there, it doesnt take a statistician to show the increasingly narrow margins. Is the continuation of that trend inevitable or cannot be reversed . Or is it like a door that only swings in one direction. He showed it a bit as to how , but harry reid did more to unleash the sources than anybody in recent memory. Changing the rules to a majority vote and a Circuit Court of appeals. When they had power, they went away from the 60 vote requirement to 50 votes. Here is i think youre going to have more ideologically driven nominees because you dont need to reach across the aisle and pick up a vote like you used to. We had to change the rules for gorsuch to stop his filibuster twice and i would say after gorsuch, nobody can look you in the eye and say they are not qualified. So the point is that conservative nominees have been treated critically unfairly. It all christian. With cavanaugh n harry reid signed decided to change the rules that change the nomination process and what i fear over time is that if we dont turn it down a notch that good men and women will be more reluctant to be a judge. That cavanaugh having survived was a great thing because it shows that these tactics did not work. We want to be respectful of your time. Can i give you one last question . I got other things but we dont want to keep you from the. , heier in your remarks mentioned more than 300 special Interest Groups and a few of their colleagues have voiced support for the idea of expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court. This would not be the first time it was ever discussed. A century ago during the new plan about the a switch in time that saved nine is the phrase. Has been a discussion once before but it has never been done. Do you sense that there is any . Ctual support look at chuck schumer. He is probably going to get challenged by aoc in the primary. Lets talk about some of the things democrats are openly talking about. Alexander was ceded to virginia so people in the d. C. Area could vote. There is a way to enfranchise people without making it a mistake. Theyre talking about making puerto rico estate, doing away with the electoral college. Will becomena, we far less relevant but one of the most egregious things is expanding the number of judges so they can dilute the centerright majority we have created over time. And from 20202024 theyll be one over two, maybe three vacancies, but they are trying to reshape the way our Founding Fathers shaped america to their advantage. Theyre trying to do away with the electoral college, to , thepe what judge does thatd states in a matter was just overwhelmingly partisan. If we lose the house and republicans lose the senate and theresns, i think still a chance of it coming through to do with the legislative requirement and filibuster. Schumer and all of leadership in the senate will be under enormous pressure on the left. So a lot is at stake. My upon all talk about where he is at versus where i am at. But today is about the Federalist Society. The day is about thanking me but i want to thank you for helping me make sure we have good information about judicial nominees and make it aware to South Carolina ands taking ans and for stand on conservative judicial philosophy. It is a great thing to be doing at any efforts to blackball your group will be met with fierce opposition by me and many others. So thanks. Thank you. I know we have already capped you a few minutes longer than i originally asked for your asked for. We appreciate your time and leadership in washington. Thank you again for joining us today. Thanks senator, graham. We will turn out to our panel. I introduce them in just a moment. And by the magic of technology, there they are. Popping back up on meeting their microphones and turning their cameras back on your backup. It is a distinguished panel. If you struggle with inferiority , you do not want to host a panel like this because i will tell you have accomplished anything were to. And i will pick things off. Started with mark schempp from bringing them young university, the valedictorian of his class. From harvard, he worked with that judge gorsuch. Previously was the principal at the doj office of legal policy, where among other things he personally prepared over 100 nominees for confirmation by the senate and in the process earned to the attorney generals distinguished service award. Brian fitzpatrick has a degree Chemical Engineering and looked up to his and worked up to his class, working in the ninth circuit and then justice scalia. He taught at nyu school of law and has received all kinds of awards and publish all kinds of books. Lastly, jd from notre dame with judge sykes on the seventh circuit and he served as subcommittee counsel and chief counsel. He served as Deputy Assistant ag and currently as chief nomination counsel for the Senate Judiciary committee. Ofthere ever was a group folks that knew a thing or two about our topic today, this is that, where them. Or them. Let me start with my first question. It is quite possible that a number of our viewers are not familiar with some of the procedural, mechanical steps that take place even before a nominee is announced. View ofgive us a 32nd what that process looks like . I would be happy to. It starts off when a vacancy is announced. So a judge sends his letter saying i plan to leave the bench for whatever reason. At that point, interviews happen, so names are selected by the white house by the department of justice, usually in consultation with home state senators and there are interviews at the white house. In the current administration, they are usually in the counsels office and department of justice. They dont have explicit litmus tests in terms of how you feel about roe v. Wade or heller, none of that something in the case of District Courts, there are a fair amount of mechanics in terms of what a district judge actually does. I think the jurisprudence is more important in interview when it comes to circuits. But for districts, theres a lot of concern. Kanas person do this job . Selectedt, somebody is , there is vetting by the department of justice and fbi. After that process, the person is nominated. After the nomination, there is anding on their review after that, a questionnaire gets sent to the senate usually while the vetting is going on in the department of justice. That is all the information about speeches they have given, articles they have written. Have litigated against and with. It is what sets the clock. There are also blue slips, once the nomination happens. If it is a Circuit Court, the practice is more varied in terms of whether or not a blue slip is necessary to have a hearing proceed. Then we have the hearing. People are familiar with those and then after that there is a Committee Process in terms of transferring the nominee from the committee to the floor, after which they have their vote. And if confirmed, they then appoint him or her. [indiscernible] we use the mall as your first login but check in right now at the halfway point. I will address this to the panel. Things we have seen inr the last couple of years the nominations context and in nearly every context, have relatively long past social or law school can come back to haunt a nominee. Talk to us a little bit about that. Is that a new phenomenon . Maybe it appears to be or maybe it is longer standing and what advice would you give to people currently in college or law school . Was one of the most disappointing i think, episodes during the Trump Administration, as we did lose one very good court of appeals nominee who was nominated to the ninth circuit to replace a judge because he had written some in the stanford newspaper when he was an undergraduate basically making fun of identity politics. Articles andese they turned them against him and sadly one of our senators from the great state of south is not willing to vote and had to withdraw his nomination. So my view is that has been going on for a long time and it is because i dont think the can beatc Party Republicans on judicial philosophy. We have that issue sewn up. When elena kagan during her confirmation hearing says we are all textual lists now, i think we now that we have won the battle of ideas. So the only way the left can bring down a nominee is to find something personal in their past. That is why they go to college writing, why they go after Brett Kavanaugh with the allegations they went after him for. In some ways, it is attributed the success we have had on substance that these issues are used instead, it has been