Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris are mad (again) at Donald Trump. He has ignored their opposition to his picks to the liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It’s about time.

Deference to senators concerning federal judgeships is a long tradition. When a president proposes a federal judge, the judge’s home state senators can send the Senate Judiciary Committee a “blue slip” indicating support or disapproval. As the committee’s chairman Chuck Grassley has said, the blue slip procedure is “premised on the idea that home-state senators are in a good position to provide insights into a nominee from their state.”

It also fosters good will between the executive and legislative branches. And it can result in solid candidates for key positions, given that principled compromise can bring good results.

Why a President Acted

Those days are, at least for now, over. The senators from California are too liberal to thwart the will of the American people, who elected a conservative president and Senate. The president’s team tried negotiating with them over the picks for this important federal court. To no avail. White House Counsel Don McGahn wrote Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, “We have made more attempts to consult, and devoted more time to that state than any other in the country.” 

He and his aides held “dozens of meetings with Feinstein or her staff” about whom to nominate for the Ninth Circuit. The Senator, he said, had not provided “constructive” help. Harris refused to “engage with the White House at any level, whatsoever on the issue.” 

So, the president announced three highly qualified candidates: Daniel Collins, Kenneth Kiyul Lee, and Patrick Bumatay. Collins, 56, clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia after graduating from Stanford University School of Law. Lee, named in 2014 by the California legal newspaper The Daily Journal one of the state’s “Top 20 Lawyers under 40,” served as an Associate White House Counsel to President George W. Bush. 

And Bumatay, a Harvard Law grad, is a former Associate Attorney General of the United States. He’s now Counselor to the Attorney General. He has also been a federal prosecutor.

The Angry Left

These men are brilliant. Accomplished. Conservative. All are members of the Federalist Society, sanity’s alternative to the ACLU. And all are relatively young.

For the left, this combination is like a recipe for legal arsenic. People who take the Constitution as a written text with a clear meaning. Who will rule from what’s been the most liberal federal court in the nation? Unthinkable! And the fact that they might stay on that same court for decades? Call for the defibrillator!

Two of these men are of Asian heritage: Bumatay of Filipino background, Lee of Korean. These fine Americans’ ethnicity removes another arrow in the Democrats’ usual quiver of politically-based attacks.

The Ninth Circuit is one of the country’s most influential courts. It has jurisdiction over nine western states. Its rulings have a huge impact on tens of millions of Americans. It’s also been one of the most left-leaning courts. It overruled Prop 8, the California ballot initiative recognizing marriage as a one-man, one-woman relationship. It ruled that “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. The court doesn’t think the Second Amendment applies to individuals.

Constitutionalist Judges

Mr. Trump is on a gratifying roll when it comes to judicial appointments. As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell noted on Thursday, The senate has confirmed his nominees at “a historic pace.” 84 total. Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. 29 circuit judges, and 53 district court judges. Fifteen of these judges were confirmed just this week.

The President promised he would appoint conservative judges. To his great credit and, more importantly, the long-term benefit of our country, he is keeping his word.

And one way he’s doing that? He’s ignoring the abuse of blue slips. As Grassley said, the local senator may have a better idea than other people how good the nominee really is. In theory, it’s a good idea. But in reality, it’s meant senators informally block nominees they disagree with. The Democrats took a wise procedure and made it a political tool.

The president isn’t letting them do that any more. Senator Grassley explained:,“A senator can’t use a blue slip to block a nominee because it’s not the person the senator would’ve picked. The president gets to nominate judges.”

Imagine that: A president nominating qualified men and women to the federal bench. And not letting senators use a cheap trick to block them. Donald Trump is exercising his constitutional duty and keeping his campaign promise at the same time. No wonder the left is having fits. Or that conservatives are cheering.