MAGA Law: How the Trump Judges Twist U.S. Justice
They’re overwhelmingly young, white, male, and extreme. And they’ll be in power for a generation
JAY MICHAELSON



The hard right’s takeover of the Supreme Court is real, and is having real consequences. But despite that leaked decision that would overturn Roe, this takeover isn’t just about abortion, and it’s not just about the Supreme Court. In fact, Trump-appointed judges at all levels of the judiciary are remaking nearly every aspect of American law, from voting rights to environmental regulations, police accountability to LGBTQ and women’s equality.

There are also a lot of these judges. In four years, the Trump administration put a record 226 life-tenure federal judges on the bench. And while these judges don’t make the headlines like the Supreme Court does, they are already transforming our country, a little bit at a time.

Perhaps most important, they will be there for many, many years. Because Trump’s minions chose the youngest cohort of judges in recorded history, some of these people are in their thirties and forties. That means they could still be on the bench in 40, even 50 years — if climate change hasn’t flooded their courtrooms by then.

SO, WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Well, for a start, they’re 84 percent white and 76 percent male, well out of proportion to the population, which is 58 percent non-Hispanic white, and 50 percent male. (At the appellate-court level, the slant is even greater: 43 of Trump’s 54 appointees are men.) Keep that in mind the next time a court decides something about women’s rights to control their bodies.

And they were, statistically speaking, remarkably less qualified than usual. In four years of Trump, the nonpartisan, nonpolitical American Bar Association rated 10 of his nominees as “not qualified,” something they’d done only 12 times in the previous 27 years. (True to form, Republicans have attacking the American Bar Association itself.)

Now, to be sure, many Trump-appointed judges are solid jurists — with very conservative résumés, but with solid reputations as well. But many others are not.

“The plan was to put on as many folks who have ...

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... e-1352779/