My Little Garden Zoo: African Additions

 As opening day approaches I made room for 5 more species for the African Area.

Dromedary

Wild Painted Dogs

Plains Zebra

Spotted Hyena

Western Lowland Gorilla

President Biden's Impact on the Eighth Federal Circuit Judiciary

 Ah, the lonely, Eighth.  Rising northward from the northern extremes of the grand Mississippi lowlands it doesn't stop until it gets the great river's head waters in Minnesota and includes the northern half of the Great Plains.  At one point reliably Blue, that role now falls solely to Minnesota.  With the rest of the states led by a range of all white and mostly male Republican Senators you might expect a lot of reticence to cooperate with Biden administration in choosing judges to fill vacant seats, and this is were you would be mostly mistaken.  The first Republican led state to approve a Biden nominee was Iowa, and since both South Dakota and Nebraska have come on board.  

The two largest states in circuit are a study of opposites: Missouri (pop 6,178,000) and Minnesota (pop 5,717,000).  The former represented in the Senate by two male Maga-Republicans including noted Insurrectionist supporter Joshua Hawley, while Minnesota's Senators are both Democratic women.  With just 461,000 difference in population, both states have 8 member House of Representative delegations; however, Minnesota can manage with just 7 Federal Judges while Missouri needs 16!  Is Missouri more than twice as lawless as Minnesota?  Extrapolating further to another state in the 8th Circuit, Arkansas.  With a comparative population of 3,046,000, it is home to 8 Federal Judges.  Over twice as many per capita as Minnesota.  Is Minnesota really that much safer?  Don't ask George Floyd's family, or is this just one of innumerable examples of the systemic racism present in the Federal Judiciary?  Because one thing that Missouri and Arkansas have that Minnesota doesn't is a whole more Black people.  Think about it, kittens.  Just think about it.

So what are the claims to demographic fame that the 8th circuit can make?  The least number of women by percentage.  The least number of non-white judges by percentage.  The Appellate Division with the greatest percentage of men (91%), of white Judges (91%) and of Republican appointed Judges (91%)

With so few open seats the raw number of women judges out of the 55 total seats in the circuit actually dropped from 13 to 12, in spite of Biden nominating 3 women to seats in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota.  

By attrition only the percentage of women rose by 0.08%... 

Biden introduced the first two Hispanic Judges to the Circuit

President Biden's Impact on the Seventh Federal Circuit Judiciary

 The Seventh Circuit is home to the third largest District in the Federal Court System of Northern Illinois with 23 seats, after Southern New York (New York City) and Central California (Los Angeles-Riverside-San Bernadino) with 28 seats each.  Not surprisingly, former President Obama's footprint through the judiciary is still strong in All three Illinois-based Districts, as well as, Western Wisconsin with both seats are held by his appointees.  Former President Trump made some appointments, but out of deference to his longtime colleague and friend, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, Senator McConnell allowed non-Federalist Society candidates to be nominated and confirmed at the District level.  With the benevolence of the Republican Senators from Indiana, there have been modest but important gains in both gender and diversity in this circuit.

A ten percentage point gain of women on the Appeals Court is only eclipsed by the Diversity stats.  From ZERO non-white judges to 36%.  In the District of Northern Illinois the number of non-white justices went from 9 put 22 to 12 out of 23.  The District of Northern Indiana becomes the first District in the Seventh Circuit to become majority female, while both Central and Southern Illinois maintained gender parity.

President Biden's Impact on the Sixth Circuit Federal Judiciary

 The Sixth Circuit Stars in Michigan and moves south through Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  When President Biden was elected in 2020 this meant by way of Senatorial seats Michigan (blue), Ohio (purple), Kentucky and Tennessee (red), with Tennessee a crazier shade of red thanks to Senator Blackburn.  As purple goes, Senator Portman of Ohio was a reasonable man.  The results have been no nominations for either Kentucky nor Tennessee and in Ohio with the replacement of Senator Portman with Senator Vance--crazy like a Blackburn, Ohio was off the table after 2023, too.  

The long and short of it, both in Gender parity and Racial/Ethnic diversity, the Sixth District has been a wash.  There were 26 female judges when President Biden took the oath of office and there will be 26 female judges when his first term ends.  Racial diversity has increased slightly, but at the cost of Racial diversity.  The 13 Black Judges have shrunk to 11, but now this 1 Hispanic Judge (Northern Ohio) and 1 East Asian Judge (Eastern Michigan).  

There is one open seats on the Appeals the Court that has yet to have a nominee presented.  The seat is in the Middle District in Nashville.  I have a favorite candidate, who lives in Memphis and so the question would be would she bifurcate her life or move her family to Nashville.  In any event, I hope they choose a qualified woman who is also Non-White.

The yellow represents South Asian

The orange represents Hispanic

The green Eastern Asian

The pink Middle Eastern

My Little Garden Zoo: Initial African Habitats

 The work continues on restoring My Little Garden Zoo, slow and steady.  I was able to clean-up the last 4 habitats in the zone that is traditionally filled with animals from Africa, and then chose which species would inhabit those planters.  I clearly need to add some more!  Hell, I could triple the number of planters and still not have all of the African animals in my figurine collection on display.  But I would like to include at least: African Painted Dogs, Spotted Hyenas, Ostriches, and Meerkats...  I also have several other ungulates: Greater Eland, Lesser Kudu, Eastern Mountain Bongo, Impala, Hirola, Addra Gazelle, Sable Antelope, Blue Wildebeest and Scimitar Oryx.   

The zoo doesn't formally open until Memorial Day Weekend, so like every other year...I have time to over-do-it! 

AARDVARK

AFRICAN ELEPHANT

AFRICAN LION

CAPE BUFFALO

COMMON CHIMPANZEE

DIANA MONKEY

GEMSBOK

GREATER FLAMINGO

NILE HIPPOPOTAMUS

OKAPI

RING-TAILED LEMUR

SOUTHERN WHITE RHINOCEROS

THOMPSON'S GAZELLE

WARTHOG

WHITE & BLACK RUFFED LEMUR

President Biden's Impact on the Fifth Circuit Federal Judiciary

 The Fifth Circuit has a reputation as a very conservative circuit.  Encompassing Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, the region wasn't always conservative, nor is it uniformly conservative today; however, President Trump was able to appoint some very conservative judges, members of the Federalist Society.  Arguably, the most conservative activist Jurist in the country is Judge Mark Kasmaryk seated in Northern Texas. 

By the middle of the third year of the Biden administration open seats in four of the Districts: Eastern Louisiana, Western Louisiana, Southern Texas and Western Texas had reached the point that the work of the Districts was under stress.  It was at this time that the Senators from Texas and Louisiana came to agree on three candidates each.  It did not fill the entirety of open seats, but the confirmation of these judges (all men), did release some of the pressure.  

Additionally, in the second year of the Biden Administration a candidate was nominated with the initial blessing of the two Senators from Mississippi for an open seat in the Northern District of Mississippi.  After the fact, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith discovered that the nominee believed that Trans people were human beings who deserved all the same rights and protections afforded by the Constitution that she had, and she rescinded her blue card killing the nomination.

The majority of changes represented in the charts is due to attrition and open seats.  It speaks to the fact that Conservatives understand if you don't move, you move backward.

Dinner: Beef, Carrots and Mushrooms in Gravy over Egg Noodles