Right now, Donald Trump and his acolytes are “flooding the zone” with various illegal, unconstitutional and unethical orders. If you’re somebody who cares about individual rights and the rule of law, you’re probably trying to keep your head above water.

That applies to just about everybody I know, love and work with. It’s very tempting to keep responding to the outrage du jour. It’s also a recipe for exhaustion.

What I really hope we can do in this new environment is focus on areas where we know how to win and how to make a difference. Fortunately, there are a number of them, including federal judicial nominations.

The critical role of judges is already in the spotlight in Trump’s first weeks in office. Trump’s reckless orders to do things like freeze federal spending, gut the civil service, end birthright citizenship — and wreck people’s lives — instantly ended up in federal court.

This is exactly what happened with his first-term travel ban, too, and it proves again that judges will be a deciding factor in whether Trump’s........

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