Op-Ed: Mainstream News Ignoring Threat Posed By Sen. Res. 355

WASHINGTON, D.C.—There's no denying that the adult industry, and the country in general, faces multiple threats from the Trump administration, its appointees and its lackeys in Congress and state governments. If it's not Trump's deep-sixing of the Paris Accords on climate change, leading to significantly more islands and coasts under water by the end of the century, then it's Trump's penchant for insulting foreign leaders or simply treating them like crap, possibly leading to increased warfare, possibly of the nuclear variety. If it's not Congress refusing to consider gun control in the wake of the increasing incidence of mass shootings at schools, it's Congress and HHS restricting women from access to birth control and abortion on demand. Simply, the challenges the country faces are almost too numerous to mention—and the fact that the Justice Department hasn't yet gotten around to a new wave of obscenity prosecutions is viewed by most veteran adult industry members as simply a matter of time—and even still, the Trumpistas did manage to pass FOSTA/SESTA, targeting consensual adult prostitution under the guise of fighting sex trafficking. But believe it or not, none of those poses as much threat to the future of the United States as Senate Resolution 355. First, a little primer on the federal judicial system. Article III of the U.S. Constitution states, in pertinent part, "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour. ... The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority." If that's not clear, it means that the Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body, and there is no appeal possible from its final rulings—though some rulings have been altered through acts of Congress. Below the Supreme Court are the various appellate courts, each representing between three and ten states and territories, which handle the appeals from the U.S. districts (and occasionally state districts) within each state—and all decisions by the federal appellate courts are appealable to the U.S. Supreme Court—at that court's own discretion whether it will consider the case or not. Moreover, Supreme Court justices and federal judges are appointed for life, and the admonition that they "shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour" is rarely enforced. In the entire history of the United States, just eight federal judges (none of whom was a Supreme Court justice) have been removed from office through impeachment, though a similar number have been impeached and acquitted. But considering the total number of federal judges who have served since the beginning of the U.S. judicial system, eight is a miniscule number. And therein lies the problem. All federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, must be approved to serve by Congress, and people who've paid close attention to that approval process are aware that during the eight years of the Obama adminstration, although he filled 329 judgeships—three more than the number filled by President George W. Bush—he still left 100 judicial positions unfilled, including the seat on the Supreme Court left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, and although he died in February of 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—a Republican, natch!—refused for a full year to give Obama's replacement candidate Merritt Garland a hearing on his qualifications. Finally, President Shit-For-Brains (as talk show host Chelsea Handler labeled him) nominated Tenth Circuit Appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch to the position, and while his Senate hearing was a bit contentious, in the end, the Republican majority employed what's called a "nuclear option" to change long-standing Senate rules to squelch a threatened filibuster by Democrats to allow Gorsuch to be approved by a simple majority rather than the 60 votes which had previously been required to end a filibuster. Since January 20, 2017, the date of Trump's ascension to the presidency, Senate Republicans have made it one of their highest priorities to fill the now-140 vacant judgeships on the U.S. Courts of Appeal and District Courts—and anyone who's paid attention to that process understands that not one of the candidates who's already been nominated—and likely none of those who will be nominated—could even remotely be described as "liberal," and there's good reason to doubt that many of them do/will even deserve the label "fair" in their consideration of any of the hot-button issues that are currently roiling the country. Of course, the judges' political bent is understandable: Presidents can be impeached or voted out of office, congress(wo)men and senators can be impeached or voted out of office—but federal judges serve for life unless they fail to observe "good Behaviour"—and it would take some outstandingly bad behavior on their parts to get them removed. Hence, Republicans' paramount aim during the Trump/Pence tenure is to get as many "friendly" judges approved as possible before their time runs out—and that may happen sooner rather than later. Which brings us to Senate Resolution 355, introduced last Pearl Harbor Day (December 7) by Sen. James Lankford (R-what else?-OK). It's not a long resolution—those interested can read it here—but it's an incredibly important one, mainly because of this clause: "Special rule for district court nominees.—If cloture is invoked in accordance with rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate on a nomination of an individual to serve as a judge of a district court of the United States, there shall be no more than 2 hours of post-cloture consideration equally divided in the usual form." Translation: If, during a district judge's confirmation hearing before the Senate, any senator objects to stopping the hearing in order to vote on the candidate ("cloture"), Sen. Res. 355 would limit any further debate/discussion to TWO HOURS! As an email screed from the ultra-conservative American Family Association points out, "Democrats have been using an existing Senate rule requiring 30 hours of Senate floor debate on most of President Trump's nominees. At the current rate of the Democratic obstruction, confirming the president's nominees will take 9 years!" And of course, Republicans can't have that! Why, with Democrats possibly gaining majorities in both the House and Senate come the November 2018 election, the possibility exists that some of the religio-conservatives with which Trump and Republicans want to pack the courts might not get approved! And if that happens, how will all the legislation and rules designed to screw common people in favor of the 1% that actually rules this country, not to mention challenges to currently existing civil liberties that religio-conservatives don't like (like contact ads on sites like Backpage or Craigslist), possibly be upheld in the courts? Interestingly, not a single mainstream news source has deemed this issue important enough to cover—except Bloomberg News ... on its blog! And it should go without saying that when those Trump picks finally take their various courtroom benches, and when Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III finally gets around to filing obscenity charges against adult producers, the chances of their being acquitted will fall precipitously, while crap legislation like FOSTA/SESTA will be upheld with no recourse through the courts—because religio-conservatives will own the courts! Good luck if 355 passes! Pictured, l-r: Neil Gorsuch and Donald Trump