Tuesday was an absurdly mixed day for those concerned with criminal justice, civil rights, the courts, and the U.S. legal system generally.

On one hand, California took the most drastic, wide-ranging, and just-a-hair-shy-of-revolutionary step toward restructuring their criminal justice system by removing money from the Golden State’s bail regime entirely. This is beyond encouraging and shows that the hard work of criminal justice advocates is not for nothing. For an initial analysis of this bill and what it does for California, see here.

On the other hand, Senate Democrats allowed President Donald Trump to make seven (7) lifetime appointments to the federal bench. All on the same day. This is astoundingly and shockingly bad for several reasons.

First of all, these numbers are simply without precedent. Throughout President Barack Obama’s first term – the first two years in which the Democrats held a 60-seat majority in the U.S. Senate, meaning that they didn’t need a single Republican vote to pass legislation or confirm executive nominees – confirming seven judges in a single day never happened. Not once.

Such a high number of attempted judicial confirmations in a single day would have likely invited accusations of court-packing from the GOP. In fact, nonsensical cries of “court-packing” were eventually leveled by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his half-lucid sidekick Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) during the spring and summer of 2013. But again, for the full-on display of genetic GOP hypocrisy, please note that Obama never once attempted to ram through so many judges in one fell swoop.

And, as far as Congressional intransigence and Hashtag Resistance resisting go, Senate Democrats fought with Obama far more than they’ve ever attempted to stop Trump. The proof here is in the bi-partisan pudding.

Second, these judges are mostly Trump judges – with one exception. (That one exception is Judge Susan Baxter, an elderly moderate originally nominated by Obama – and held up by McConnell – in 2015.) In essence, this means six of the seven judges have been vetted and hand-selected by the Federalist Society, an arch-conservative judicial group hellbent on returning America to a pre-New Deal system of law and politics. In a word, these judges are extremists.

Most of the judges confirmed on Tuesday will happily, dutifully and reliably chip away at reproductive freedom, LGBTQI equality, civil rights and voting rights, workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights, and just about every progressive or forward-thinking victory held dear by the U.S. left, and taken for granted by just about everyone else.

One judge confirmed on Tuesday, Charles Goodwin, is particularly egregious. Goodwin was deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association, a professional and non-partisan group typically in the habit of rubber-stamping most judicial nominations regardless of partisan considerations. Goodwin couldn’t make it past the people who only look at attorneys’ poodle papers. But he sailed through the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

Third, what the actual fuck. These nominations breezed their way into lifetime judgeships based on a “deal” between McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Residents at the Hart Office Home for Geriatrics are well known for their buddy-buddy friendship and perpetual double-dealing. This is true. But Tuesday’s confirmations take the fecklessness of the official opposition to a disturbing new level. Why? Because Democrats got next-to-nothing out of this deal.

As mentioned, the elderly Judge Baxter isn’t likely to serve long on the bench. But close to 100 percent of Trump’s Federalist Society-sanctioned nominees are young and ready to remake the judiciary like it’s 1889. As celebrated journalist David Dayen noted, the real prize for Senate Democrats was getting to go home early.

That’s actually not a joke. Senators are very invested in going home. They like going home and many of them feel like they have to campaign — some of them actually do. But a few extra days worth of the Labor Day holiday on the stump isn’t quite a bargain. It’s something. But it’s not a bargain.

There were rumors that liberal-favorite Mark Pearce would be re-confirmed to head the National Labor Relations Board as part of the unanimous consent deal between McConnell and Schumer, a deal which would have been blown up had even one senator raised their voice to complain.

Those were simply rumors. Pearce is now out in the wild. Democrats traded decades worth of a reactionary conservative jurisprudence for a few extra moments at home.

So, let’s step back and refresh.

Senate Democrats abided by a deal to confirm 11 nominees – including seven (7) lifetime appointments to federal courts – with absolutely no debate as part of a package deal. Most of these nominees were nodded through without an actual roll-call vote at all. Even the usual cast of 2020 contenders lent their silent nods of approval.

Senate Democrats got to go home early for their cowardly – though increasingly predictable – acquiescence. So, what did Democratic Party voters get? Several more judges who will work very hard to strip away their rights for decades. Oh, and made fools of. But by now that’s probably a bit redundant.