Dick Durbin Has a History of "Abuse and Bigotry" on Judiciary Committee

On Monday, The Washington Post published a puff piece on Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, lauding him for potentially presiding over the confirmation of the first Black female Supreme Court Justice. But as RNLA Executive Director Michael Thielen points out, Durbin has a long history of "abuse and bigotry" against judicial nominees during his time on the Committee, the most recent example being how he grilled Justice Amy Coney Barrett about her Catholic beliefs.

A 2015 article from Investors Business Daily recalls Durbin's rabid opposition to Miguel Estrada, a nominee by President George W. Bush to the D.C. Circuit, as an “especially dangerous ... Latino ... being groomed [for the] Supreme Court.”:

Durbin also opposed the nomination of Miguel Estrada, President George W. Bush's U.S. appeals court nominee. Estrada was described in a Nov. 7, 2001, borderline-racist staff memo to Judiciary Committee member Durbin as "especially dangerous, because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment. They want to hold Estrada off as long as possible."

"They" were left-leaning special-interest groups such as the People for the American Way, the National Organization of Women, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Alliance for Justice — groups that, like current Democrats, believe that you must be the "right kind" of Hispanic or black to hold high public office. Conservative blacks and Hispanics need not apply.

It's not just Senator Durbin who has a history of opposing conservative minority nominees:

According to an analysis from the right-leaning Article III Project, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted against 95% of minority appeals court nominees from Trump. 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., meanwhile, voted against 81% of such nominees, according to the analysis. And Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., one of the most vocal members of the Judiciary Committee, voted against 71% of Trump's minority appeals court nominees.

The analysis by the Article III Project also identifies dozens of other minority federal court nominees from Trump and former President George W. Bush that at least one the three senators opposed. 

"Democrats talk a big game on diversity in the courts and about how representation matters, but their records don’t match their rhetoric," Article III Project founder and president Mike Davis said of the analysis, first shared with Fox News. "These Democrats are quick to weaponize race and gender to achieve their progressive political goals, but diversity in the workplace, racial progress, and gender equality clearly aren’t their real priorities."

President Biden's pick could be announced any day, but the pick will likely be announced as close to Biden's second State of the Union Address as possible to distract from his numerous failures at home and abroad.

One thing is for sure, regardless of when and who President Biden chooses, Democrats like Dick Durbin will "cry racism" at GOP opposition despite the Democrat Party's long, sordid history of poorly handling the judicial nominations process.