President Obama continues to work on appointing judges, one of the most powerful but underrated abilities the president is given under the US Constitution. The latest one to come up for confirmation is John J. “Jack” McConnell, Jr for the US District Court in Rhode Island. This is one of the more troubled picks for a federal seat that President Obama has offered, and he’s already once been skipped over by congress in a previous round of confirmations.

Jack McConnell is a major donor to the Democratic Party, which makes any nomination of the man by a Democrat troubling, to say the least. Judges are in theory impartial and apolitical, and while no one is perfectly so, a major donor to one political party is obviously not in any way.  McConnell has even made inflammatory anti-Republican statements in the past, demonstrating his strong party allegiance.