COURTS/NOMINATIONS/SENATE/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Senate Republican leaders on Thursday [7-19-18] pulled the plug on one of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees after lawmakers raised concerns about racially insensitive articles he wrote as a college student, marking the first time a Trump U.S. appeals court pick was not confirmed. The Republican-led Senate had been poised to vote on whether to confirm Ryan Bounds, a federal prosecutor, to sit on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the nomination would be withdrawn. A White House official said that Bounds has pulled his name from consideration by the Senate, where Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a razor-thin 51-49 majority. The failure of the Bounds nomination could bolster Democratic hopes of blocking Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. The only black Republican U.S. senator, Tim Scott of South Carolina, was pivotal in the Bounds nomination’s downfall.”
–Lawrence Hurley, “Trump appeals court nominee yanked over racially insensitive writings,” Reuters, July 19, 2018 12:26 pm