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JUDICIARY
Obama’s strategic
choices change
course of courts
Minorities, Democrats fill benches
after eight years of appointments
BY DAVE BOYER
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
high expectations — including driving
out Washington corruption and ushering
in an economic boom.
President Obama has reshaped the
federal courts for decades to come with a
record number of women and minorities
appointed to lifetime judgeships, despite
losing his high-profile battle over the U.S.
Supreme Court this year.
Of the more than 340 judges nominated by Mr. Obama and confirmed by
the Senate, about 42 percent are women,
19 percent are black and 11 percent are
Hispanic — more female and minority
appointees than any other president.
Mr. Obama also has appointed at least
11 federal judges who are openly gay,
another record.
Along the way, the president has
turned nine of the 13 key federal appeals
courts into majority-Democrat courts.
When he came into office in 2009, only
one of the circuit courts was majority
Democrat.
“That’s a huge impact,” said Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy
director at the Judicial Crisis Network,
a conservative legal group. “Typically,
we see over eight years that a president
will have a chance to replace a third of
federal judges, and that was just what
Obama did. And he was very strategic
in how he did that.”
Although Senate Republicans blocked
Mr. Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to replace the late Justice
Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court,
the circuit courts handle much larger
caseloads overall. Mr. Obama’s impact
is already clear.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
based in Richmond, Virginia, previously
was known as one of the most conservative appeals courts in the nation.
Democratic appointees now outnumber
Republicans by a 2-1 margin.
That circuit court struck down North
Carolina’s voter ID law in July in a
» see RUST | A9
» see COURT | A9
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRUE COLORS: Lisa Rossi of Youngstown, Pennsylvania, was not shy about showing her support for Donald Trump on Election
Day. Working-class voters in the Rust Belt say they are excited about the future but don’t have a blind allegiance to Mr. Trump.
TRANSITION
Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt expecting
results after delivering Trump win
BY S.A. MILLER
TRUMP
COUNTRY
Northampton County, in the heart of Pennsylvania’s
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
BETHLEHEM, PA. | Joe Wilshire never
voted in a presidential election, never
thought it made a difference, until he cast
his ballot for Donald Trump and helped
deliver a blow to “the bureaucracy” that
he says has been running the U.S. into
the ground.
One of the so-called invisible Americans whom Mr. Trump connected with
in the Rust Belt, the 36-year-old parcel
deliveryman said he felt empowered
by his role in swinging Pennsylvania
and the presidential election. Now he
expects nothing less from Mr. Trump
than greatness.
“I feel like my vote meant everything
in the world,” Mr. Wilshire said as he
handed off a package at a neighborhood
bar. “I feel like our voice has been heard.
You can’t go around shouting ‘racist’ and
‘bigot’ to silence us and think we won’t
come out to vote.”
After putting Pennsylvania in the
once-mighty steel industry, provided critical
support for Donald Trump in his upset presidential
election victory.
Northampton
County
PENNSYLVANIA
NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
County seat: Easton
Population: 300,813 (2015 estimate)
Largest city: Bethlehem — population 74,900 (2010 census)
DEMOGRAPHICS:
VOTER REGISTRATION (SEPTEMBER):
White
81%
Democrat:
47.21%
Black:
5%
Republican:
34.76%
Other/independent:
18.03%
Hispanic:
Asian-American/Other:
10.5%
3.5%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; Northampton County (www.northamptoncounty.org)
Republican column for the first time in
nearly three decades, working-class voters here said they are excited about the
future. But they also said they don’t have
blind allegiance to Mr. Trump; they have
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Presidential
war powers
show no signs
of changing
BY SETH MCLAUGHLIN
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
President Obama took office criticizing the expansive wars fought
under the 2001 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military force, but
over the past eight years, he has become attached to the two documents
and used them to justify expansion of
U.S. military action around the globe.
His campaign to oust Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi, his halting policy
toward Syria and, just last month, his
expansion of the U.S. commitment to
fighting al-Shabab in Somalia have all
been initiated under the legal cover of
the 2001 AUMF aimed at punishing al
Qaeda for the Sept. 11 attacks.
The issue flew under the radar in
the presidential race this year, and
President-elect Donald Trump has
given no indication that he plans to
change course after he takes the oath
of office next month, leaving matters
in a legal gray area.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers
has long demanded that Congress
reassert itself and claim a say in extended military actions, but divisions
have prevented Capitol Hill from
settling on a replacement — undercutting efforts to rewrite the earlier
AUMFs.
Some opponents have begged
the courts to step in, saying Mr.
Obama’s fight against the Islamic
» see FORCE | A4
SYRIA
RUSSIA
Aleppo fall caps legacy
of Obama doctrine
Kremlin’s penal system
worries rights groups
BY CARLO MUNOZ
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The fall of the rebel-held Syrian city of Aleppo to Russian- and
Iranian-backed forces loyal to
President Bashar Assad sounds
the death knell for the outgoing
Obama administration’s handsoff counterterrorism doctrine,
analysts say.
The final batches of antiAssad fighters vacated formerly
POLITICS
rebel-held areas of eastern
Aleppo on Friday, officially bringing the city — which was Syria’s
economic and cultural hub before
the war — under the regime’s
control.
The fall of Aleppo was the
biggest victory for government
forces and their Russian and Iranian supporters since moderate
rebel groups, emboldened by
» see SYRIA | A5
WORLD
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
ASSOCIATED PRESS
STAKING CLAIM: Syrian troops brought Aleppo under the control of
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Friday by driving out the last rebels.
COMMENTARY
MOSCOW | Russia’s penitentiary system has come under
scrutiny after a Kremlin critic
said he was tortured at a prison
camp and forced to shout, “Putin
is our president!”
Ildar Dadin, 34, made the
claims in letters that his attorney and his wife in November
smuggled out of the prison camp
LIFE
$20 billion per year Netanyahu criticizes It won’t be easy
Chart-topping pop
going to nukes during Obama over refusal to reforming the bloated singer George Michael
Obama’s terms. A3
veto U.S. resolution. A8 federal bureaucracy. B1 dies at age 53. B8
INDEX
in Karelia, a remote region in
northwestern Russia. He also
said he was severely beaten on
numerous occasions, hung up by
his cuffed hands and threatened
with rape. He said the head of
the prison camp, a Maj. Sergey
Kossiev, personally oversaw the
torture sessions.
Mr. Dadin said that when he
complained to prison staff that
BY MARC BENNETTS
» see RUSSIA | A5
VOLUME 34, NUMBER 262
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02803 87040
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