Donald, son of Jack

President Trump has an astonishingly poor record of success in federal court litigation because his appointees ignore the law.

So he has launched a multi-front campaign to wipe out the federal judiciary by filling with yes-men.

1. Today the president whined about not getting his way and called for a solution:

“What we have to do is Congress has to meet quickly and make a deal. I could do it in 45 minutes,” he said. “We need to get rid of chain migration, we need to get rid of catch and release, and visa lottery, and we have to do something about asylum, and to be honest with you, we have to get rid of judges.”

2. In the Senate, Leader McTurtle is moving to make the approval of Trump judges pro forma. The skids thus greased, he can fill the benches Trump seeks to vacate with more cookie cutter radicals picked by The Federalist Society who will give him what he wants.

3. Columnist Hugh Hewitt has gone after senior status judges: those with 15 years or more of service, having reached 65, they can take a reduced caseload while retaining full benefits. When a judge takes senior status, a new full-time judge can be appointed without a new seat having to be created by Congress.

"Article III judges must reel in the administrative state, must uphold property rights, must guarantee the full civil rights of every American — all of those rights for all Americans," Hewitt wrote in The Washington Post last week. He explained,

I believe these judges who are so eligible should announce their intention to take senior status — and soon. The rules have finally changed, and judges eligible for this choice thus have it in their power to guarantee that their successors will be superbly qualified. Their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution will be honored by opening the door for the next generation of judges committed to the rule of law and, yes, an “originalist” approach to judging.

Trump’s first term is rapidly running out. To conduct the search and background checks necessary to find five-star replacements for those judges who raise their hand for senior status would require a declaration of intent from them by early summer at the latest.

If any of these judges had doubts about the quality of Trump’s nominees, they know now that his choices are superb, their collective output vast and certain to grow. To get the courts back to doing what the courts should be doing, we need more such nominees, and in a timely fashion. If you know one of these judges, perhaps leave a copy of this column on his or her desk. A small nudge, perhaps, and a reminder that their distinguished careers will be more distinguished still if their place on the court is taken by a young superstar judge.

 This is court-packing, plain and simple: something "constitutionalists" on the Right have long abhorred.

In Henry the Sixth, Part 2, the traitor Dick the Butcher declares:

It's an oft-quoted line, and almost always wrongly.

The full text explains a different reason:

CADE
I thank you, good people: there shall be no money;
all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will
apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree
like brothers and worship me their lord.

DICK
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

CADE
Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable
thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should
be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled
o'er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings:
but I say, 'tis the bee's wax; for I did but seal
once to a thing, and I was never mine own man
since. How now! who's there?

Enter some, bringing forward the Clerk of Chatham

SMITH
The clerk of Chatham: he can write and read and
cast accompt.

CADE
O monstrous!

SMITH
We took him setting of boys' copies.

CADE
Here's a villain!

SMITH
Has a book in his pocket with red letters in't.

CADE
Nay, then, he is a conjurer.

DICK
Nay, he can make obligations, and write court-hand.

CADE
I am sorry for't: the man is a proper man, of mine
honour; unless I find him guilty, he shall not die.
Come hither, sirrah, I must examine thee: what is thy name?

Clerk
Emmanuel.

DICK
They use to write it on the top of letters: 'twill
go hard with you.

CADE
Let me alone. Dost thou use to write thy name? or
hast thou a mark to thyself, like an honest
plain-dealing man?

CLERK
Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up
that I can write my name.

ALL
He hath confessed: away with him! he's a villain
and a traitor.

CADE
Away with him, I say! hang him with his pen and
ink-horn about his neck.

Exit one with the Clerk

As a letter to The New York Times explained in 1990:

In reference to the review of ''Guilty Conscience,'' (May 20) Leah D. Frank is inaccurate when she states that when Shakespeare had one of his characters state ''Let's kill all the lawyers,'' it was the corrupt, unethical lawyers he was referring to. Shakespeare's exact line ''The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers,'' was stated by Dick the Butcher in ''Henry VI,'' Part II, act IV, Scene II, Line 73. Dick the Butcher was a follower of the rebel Jack Cade, who thought that if he disturbed law and order, he could become king. Shakespeare meant it as a compliment to attorneys and judges who instill justice in society.

Were he a reader, Trump would call homself Cade.