Senate Judiciary Set to Vote on Radical Biden Nominees
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on whether to move the nominations of a long list of Biden judicial appointees to the Senate floor. Among them are some of the most radical nominees brought during the Biden Administration. The nominees highlighted below were renominated by the Administration after they were unable to secure their confirmation prior to the end of the 117th Congress.
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Grassley Calls Out Extremist Judicial Nominees
In Thursday's hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on multiple Biden nominees for the federal judiciary. Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) commented on three nominees in particular, stating, "with their activist records, I don’t believe these nominees will respect the rule of law and follow the law as written, so I’m going to oppose them."
These three nominees were Nancy G. Abudu for the Eleventh Circuit; Nusurat Jahan Choudhury for the Eastern District of New York; and Natasha C. Merle for the Eastern District of New York.
Read moreAbudu May Be Biden's Most Radical Judicial Nominee Yet
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee considered five of President Biden's judicial nominations. Most notable was the consideration of nominee Nancy Abudu to the Eleventh Circuit. RNLA is formally opposing the nomination of Ms. Abudu because:
[H]er views are extreme and fall outside of the mainstream. RNLA has only formally opposed one other judicial nominee made by the Biden Administration. We oppose Ms. Abudu because her views and rhetoric go beyond that of even progressive activists, and we see no reason to believe that she will be an impartial judge on the “hot button” issue of election law.
Read moreBiden Nominee Thinks Denying Violent Felon Voting Rights = Slavery
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its first meeting to consider judicial nominees since the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Included on the agenda is the nomination of Nancy Abudu to the Eleventh Circuit, who RNLA has previously highlighted as a nominee outside of the mainstream.
Read moreRIP Orrin Hatch: A True Compassionate Conservative
Senator Orrin Hatch passed away Saturday. He was a true leader and a great friend to the Republican National Lawyers Association. He spoke to RNLA more than any other elected politician and was very close to one of our founders, Betty Southard Murphy. As the left tries to lionize him for being some bipartisan figure from a bygone age, we should remember what a strong Republican Senator Hatch always was. As his former staffer, Tom Jipping, stated: Senator Hatch was “a real compassionate conservative.”
But that compassion should not be mistaken for weakness. The Wall Street Journal had it right when it editorialized:
The press is eulogizing former Senator Orrin Hatch for his civility and bipartisan deal-making with Democrat Ted Kennedy. He certainly was a gracious man who represented a more civil era in politics. But we’ll remember the longest-serving Republican Senator, who died Saturday at age 88, for the moments he bucked Beltway convention and took unfair abuse for it.
The first was his stalwart defense of Clarence Thomas against the accusations by Anita Hill in 1991. Ms. Hill’s claims have achieved totemic status on the political left. But they arrived only at the last minute, midwifed by Democratic operatives, and lacked substantiation. On the Judiciary Committee, Senator Hatch subjected the claims to proper scrutiny. He helped confirm Justice Thomas, who has been a credit to the High Court and country.
Read moreKBJ Confirmed to Supreme Court
On Thursday, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to serve as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by a vote of 53-47. She will replace Justice Stephen Breyer and be the first Black woman to serve on the Court.
Read moreKBJ Receives Tie Vote from Senate Judiciary Committee
Earlier today, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court received a tie vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. No Republicans voted in favor of the nomination.
Read moreNews -- In a party-line vote, Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocks 11-11 on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to SCOTUS.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 4, 2022
Next up: A vote tonight to discharge the nomination by full Senate. Simple majority is needed
Cloture vote: Thursday
Confirmation: Thursday or Friday
Takeaways from Day 3 of KBJ's Confirmation Hearings
On Wednesday, Americans across the country tuned in to day three of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. While many of the same topics previously discussed were raised again, there were some clear takeaways from the 10+ hours of discussion between the Committee and Judge Jackson.
Read moreJudge Jackson: “There Were No Victims”
In 17 years of closely watching Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson had the worst second day performance of anyone I have watched when she contradicted herself multiple times during questioning. It also became clear that she is soft on crime, not in some sort of abstract way, but she is overly sympathetic to criminals to the detriment of victims.
1. Judge Jackson stated: “There were no victims” regarding the sentencing of a fentanyl and heroin drug kingpin. While Judge Jackson did add later that were no victims available to testify, as Senator Cotton pointed out, there are definitely victims of a drug kingpin. However, Judge Jackson still twisted a compassionate release statue to reduce the sentence of this drug kingpin.
Asked if she reached out to any of the victims of a heroin trafficker, Ketanji Brown Jackson dismisses the question by saying “there were no victims” pic.twitter.com/FU0SOCLZRX
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 22, 2022
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In Contrast to Democrats, GOP Signals Respectful Questioning for KBJ Hearing
On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up the first day of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. From the start of the hearing, it became clear that the atmosphere of the hearings would be night and day from the hearings for former President Trump's nominees to the Court (Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch). Ranking Member Chuck Grassley explained during his opening statement:
We will conduct a thorough, exhaustive examination of Judge Jackson’s record and views. We won’t try to turn this into a spectacle based on alleged process fouls. On that front, we’re off to a good start. Unlike the start to the Kavanaugh hearings, we didn’t have repeated, choreographed interruptions of Chairman Durbin during his opening statement like Democrats interrupted me for more than an hour during my opening statement at the Kavanaugh hearing.
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