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A Conservative Plan to Weaponize the Federal Courts

The Republicans, seemingly unable to accomplish much of anything else, are desperate to gain control of the federal courts.

Even though there’s been nothing subtle about the current push to fill dozens of judicial vacancies kept open by the Republican-controlled Senate during the final years of the Obama administration, a document now making the rounds inside the Beltway is head-snapping. It is a proposal by a leading conservative constitutional scholar to double or even triple the number of authorized judgeships on the federal Courts of Appeals, now fixed by law at 179.

Why so many, and why now? The author, Steven G. Calabresi, a law professor at Northwestern University, a founder and the current board chairman of the conservative Federalist Society, declares his goal boldly: "undoing the judicial legacy of President Barack Obama."

Linda Greenhouse

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