On Friday, the RNLA announced its opposition to the nomination of Myrna Pérez to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley. Her nomination was part of President Joe Biden's fourth slate of judicial nominees. Pérez is currently the director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program. The Brennan Center is a progressive organization that routinely opposes commonsense election laws.
Pérez's nomination to the Second Circuit is not the first time RNLA has opposed her. In 2014, RNLA opposed Pérez’s nomination to the Election Assistance Commission which she ultimately withdrew from:
We did not oppose Ms. Pérez’s nomination to the EAC on a partisan basis. Rather, we opposed her nomination “because her views are so far outside the mainstream as to be objectionable to reasonable people on the right and the left and because she has demonstrated a willingness to manufacture facts to support her views when the real facts do not do so.” We believe these same attributes disqualify her from being elevated to a position on the Second Circuit.
During Pérez’s Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing, Republican Senators raised their own concerns about Pérez's nomination:
Federal judges, particularly Circuit Court judges, don’t get to pick and choose which cases are precedent based on their opinion of the court’s decision.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) July 14, 2021
Yet Myrna Perez has a history of doing just that. pic.twitter.com/Wja2Cd8zIF
Myrna Perez is too busy being an activist to concentrate on being a second circuit judge. pic.twitter.com/LsSsdobnO0
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) July 14, 2021
Sen. Ted Cruz on Biden’s 2nd Circuit judge nominee Myrna Pérez’s record: “You have waged litigation campaigns and opposed voter ID laws. You have opposed voter integrity laws. You have opposed prohibitions on ballot harvesting. You have advocated for felons being able to vote.” pic.twitter.com/njeLQI83fV
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 14, 2021
While Pérez pushed back on the concerns of Republican Senators, it is unlikely that she would be able to follow through with the promise she made to them to be unbiased:
At her confirmation hearing, Ms. Pérez stated, “I am pledging to no longer participate in policy disputes, and instead I will impartially and objectively review the law, apply it to the record before me, and be faithful to the precedent both of the Supreme Court and the 2nd Circuit.” Unfortunately, there is little in Ms. Pérez’s record to suggest that she will be able to follow through with her pledge.
Since her failed nomination to the EAC in 2014, Ms. Pérez has continued to prove how her views fall well outside of the mainstream and are more partisan than ever. In May of this year, Ms. Pérez authored an article titled, “The GOP Campaign to Make Elections Less Free.” Senator Tom Cotton pointed out during her confirmation hearing how he agreed with Senator Durbin who remarked that this article “sounded like a speech he would give on the Senate floor.” Another article authored by Ms. Pérez from March is titled, “Texas Republicans Move Swiftly on Voter Suppression Bills.” As a Circuit Judge, Ms. Pérez will inevitably preside over electoral disputes. How can she do so in an impartial manner after publicly displaying such disdain for the Republican Party?
Pérez’s nomination is expected to be voted on by the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming week. RNLA urges Chairman Dick Durbin, Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, and the other members of the Committee to oppose this radical and partisan nominee to the Second Circuit.
RNLA's full letter in opposition to the nomination of Myrna Pérez to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit can be read here.