Daily Brew: May 16, 2019

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search

May 16, 2019

Get your daily cup of news




%%subject%%

Today's Brew compares judicial appointments + a Texas constitutional amendment adding $3 billion for cancer research  
The Daily Brew

Welcome to the Thursday, May 16 Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

  1. Trump has fourth-most federal judges, most appeals court judges confirmed at this stage of last 13 presidents
  2. Texas voters to decide on additional $3 billion in funding for state's cancer institute
  3. Former board member wins special runoff election for seat on Los Angeles school board

Trump has fourth-most federal judges, most appeals court judges confirmed at this stage of last 13 presidents

Tuesday’s Number of the Day looked at federal judicial confirmations under President Trump to date—104 Article III judicial nominees as of May 15, 2019.

Today, let’s take a closer look at how that figure compares to other modern presidents at this stage of their terms. We looked at the last 13 presidents, dating back to Harry Truman.

Article III judges are lifetime appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court, a U.S. court of appeals, a U.S. district court, or the Court of International Trade. As a reminder, the breakdown of Article III judges is as follows:

  • Supreme Court of the United States: 9 justices
  • United States court of appeals: 179 judgeships
  • United States district court: 677 judgeships
  • United States Court of International Trade: 9 judgeships

The chart below shows the number of Article III judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate under each of the last 13 presidents on or before May 15 of their third years in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.


Here are five takeaways from the above graph and other elements of the data:

  • Trump has made the fourth most Article III appointments through this point in his term. The three presidents who had more at this point were Bill Clinton (141), George W. Bush (124), and John F. Kennedy (116).
  • Trump has made the most appeals court appointments through this point, 39, which is 22% of the 179 appeals court judgeships. The next highest number of appointments at this point in a presidency was Richard Nixon (25) and George W. Bush (21).
  • Kennedy had 56 judges confirmed in the first year of his term, most among the group. Dwight Eisenhower had nine, the fewest. Trump's 19 appointments in the first year of his presidency were eighth-most.
  • Trump has made the eighth-most district court appointments, 63, which is 9% of the 677 district court judgeships. Clinton had made 118 such appointments, and George W. Bush had 100.
  • Trump inherited 108 Article III judicial vacancies when he was inaugurated. This represented 12.4% of the 870 Article III judicial posts. Among the last six presidents, only Clinton inherited more vacancies—111 of 842 positions, or 13.2 percent.

For more charts and to explore the raw data, visit our in-depth analysis at the link below.

Learn more

blank

Texas voters to decide on additional $3 billion in funding for state's cancer institute  

Voters in Texas will decide a constitutional amendment later this year that allows the legislature to increase the maximum amount of bonds issued by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) from $3 billion to $6 billion.

In 2007, Texas voters approved the Texas Cancer Prevention and Research Institute Amendment, otherwise known as Proposition 15, which authorized the CPRIT’s creation. CPRIT is authorized to make grants to public and private researchers, education institutions, and medical research facilities to research the causes of cancer in humans and develop cures, mitigation procedures, and prevention protocols and services. Proposition 15 allowed the Texas Public Finance Authority to authorize $3 billion in general obligation bonds to be used for the institute's operation and grants. CPRIT’s authority to issue grants expires in August 2022.

The CPRIT bond increase amendment is the second measure certified for the 2019 ballot in Texas. The first, the Transfer of Law Enforcement Animals Amendment, would allow for the transfer of law enforcement animals to their handlers or others if it is deemed to be in the animal's best interest. The 2019 session of the Texas Legislature is expected to adjourn on May 27, 2019, during which time the legislature can refer additional constitutional amendments to the ballot.

Texas’ Legislature can refer statewide ballot measures, in the form of constitutional amendments, to the ballot any year. However, since the legislature convenes regular sessions in odd-numbered years but not even-numbered years, most amendments have been referred to the ballot in odd-numbered years. Between 1995 and 2018, 157 of 159 (99%) statewide ballot measures appeared on odd-numbered year ballots, an average of 13 measures per odd-numbered year. During that time, voters approved 91% of constitutional amendments that were referred to the ballot. Nationwide, six statewide ballot measures have been certified for the 2019 ballot in four states.

Former board member wins special runoff election for seat on Los Angeles school board

Former Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board member Jackie Goldberg defeated former vice president of the Board of Public Works Commissioners Heather Repenning in a runoff election Tuesday for the District 5 seat on the LAUSD Board of Education. Goldberg received 72% of the vote to Repenning's 28%, according to unofficial results. The seat was up for special election to fill the vacancy caused by Ref Rodriguez's resignation, who left the board in July 2018.

The district’s elections in 2017 flipped the LAUSD board from a 4-3 majority of members supported by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) to a 4-3 majority of members supported by the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). Rodriguez was a member of the latter group.

In this election, UTLA endorsed Goldberg, and the CCSA did not endorse a candidate. Goldberg's election returns the board to a majority of members backed by UTLA.

LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the United States and had 224 independently operated charter schools in 2017, more than any other school district in the nation.

Both Goldberg and Repenning said they supported holding charter schools to the same standards as public schools, but they differed in the degree of emphasis they placed on charter school policy and other issues in their campaigns.


See also

Retrieved from "https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Daily_Brew:_May_16,_2019&oldid=8439697"