Mitch 'Nuclear Option' McConnell Poised to Turn Steady Stream of Trump's Right-Wing Judges Into a Flood

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is reportedly pursuing a “nuclear option” rule change to make it easier to push through a flood of President Donald Trump’s right-wing judges.

Under the new rules, nominees for lifetime appointments on lower courts would only require a simple majority of votes rather than the current 67. Critics condemned the move as “hijacking” the federal judiciary and pointed out that even if Democrats regain control of the Senate and White House in the next election, they may not have any more spots to fill post-2020.

As noted by Politico, which first reported on McConnell’s plan Wednesday, the “stream of [Trump] judges is about to become a torrent.”

Responding to the report, Brian Fallon, executive director of the advocacy group Demand Justice, tweeted that Democrats “will need to add seats across the judiciary to restore any sense of balance and legitimacy.”

Shifting federal courts to the right has been a long-term priority of the GOP embraced by the Trump presidency, and as the Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced appointees to the floor at alarming rates, critics have warned that Trump’s nominees “are not normal.”

A Data for Progress study published in January concluded that Trump “is delivering for conservative activists through his judicial appointments, installing reliably Republican judges where he can.” The study, which was commissioned by Fallon’s Demand Justice, also noted that “Trump’s appointments stand out as being conservative, white, and male relative to his predecessors.'”

After the study came out, Fallon charged that “Democrats in the Senate have been too slow to recognize the crisis that is underway.” Urging party leaders to fight back against Republican efforts to remake the federal courts, he said, “Democrats can’t continue to treat this situation as business as usual.”