Pruning/Saving the Federal Judiciary

Andrew D Ellis
4 min readFeb 13, 2020
Judge Jonathan Kobes on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit rated “not qualified” by the ABA because, inter alia, he was “unable to provide sufficient writing samples of the caliber required” of a circuit judge. Would he quit if he were paid enough?

There is a lot of gnashing of teeth on the left about Moscow Mitch’s successful confirmations of conservative-leaning Federal judges. And, let there be no doubt, Moscow has pushed through scores of judges — all without much regard to their qualifications. Good or bad, brain dead or on life support, judicial candidates that who have the “right” blessing have gotten confirmed. From Moscow’s point of view, let quality be damned.

Andrew D Ellis