Today, at the end of a long executive business meeting, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to report favorably the nominations of William Barr to be Attorney General and 44 judicial nominees, including circuit court nominees Bridget S. Bade (Ninth Circuit), Paul B. Matey (Third Circuit), Eric D. Miller (Ninth Circuit), Eric E. Murphy (Sixth Circuit), Chad A. Readler (Sixth Circuit), and Allison Jones Rushing (Fourth Circuit).  The judicial nominees had previously had hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee but were held up by Democrats' delays and obstructions, so they had to be re-nominated by President Trump in this Congress.

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing for current Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator and Scalia Law Professor Neomi Rao's nomination to the D.C. Circuit.  RNLA Executive Director Michael Thielen described in the Daily Caller how Senate Judiciary Democrats attempted to trip her up and ended up only looking foolish themselves:

President Trump has started 2019 by continuing his success of nominating excellent, well-qualified judges. This was the first major test of new White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and he has passed with flying colors.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board raised initial concerns that an unnecessary compromise might be in the works with the California Senators. They explained:

The RNLA will honor Mike Davis, former Chief Nominations Counsel to then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, with the 2019 Betty Murphy Award. Prior to serving Sen. Grassley, Davis worked in private practice in Denver where he chaired RNLA’s Colorado Chapter, clerked for Justice Neil Gorsuch when he was on the Tenth Circuit, helped get Justice Gorsuch confirmed, and again clerked for Justice Gorsuch at the Supreme Court.

Last Friday, a group of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky were provoked and attacked because of their Catholic beliefs and outward support of President Trump by wearing hats that said “Make America Great Again.” The students and their parents have been faced with threats of attack and fear that their families will be destroyed; this is the same hostility that Justice Kavanaugh and his family faced during his hearing and confirmation process.

Today, President Trump sent to the Senate a list of executive branch nominations, which included many who were nominated during the last Congress, but either never had a hearing or were never voted on. Those nominated include: former RNLA Chair John Ryder, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority; former RNLA Chair Kimberly Reed, to be President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States; RNLA member James "Trey" Trainor, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission; and RNLA member Dennis Kirk, to be Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Senate Judiciary Democrats are once again facing criticism for their treatment of a judicial nominee. However this time it comes from an unexpected source, the Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii. She wrote: 

While I oppose the nomination of Brian Buescher to the U.S. District Court in Nebraska, I stand strongly against those who are fomenting religious bigotry, citing as disqualifiers Buescher’s Catholicism and his affiliation with the Knights of Columbus. If Buescher is “unqualified” because of his Catholicism and affiliation with the Knights of Columbus, then President John F. Kennedy, and the 'liberal lion of the Senate' Ted Kennedy would have been “unqualified” for the same reasons.  

Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution clearly states that there "shall be no religious test" for any seeking to serve in public office.
No American should be told that his or her public service is unwelcome because “the dogma lives loudly within you” as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said to Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearings in 2017 to serve as U.S. Circuit Court judge in the 7th Circuit.

When the 116th Congress started last Thursday, all pending nominations from the 115th Congress were sent back to the White House and the nominees will need to be renominated to be considered for confirmation by the new Senate.  The hundreds of nominations sent back to the White House included a record number of judicial nominees, due to Democrats' delay and obstruction.  Tom Jipping of the Heritage Foundation described the problem and the Democrats' tactics:

The Senate Judiciary Committee will have three new faces on the Republican side as the 116^th Congress gets underway today: Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa, Senator Marsh Blackburn from Tennessee, and Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri. Senators Ernst and Blackburn will be the first two women to ever serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee for the Republicans. These new committee members will be in the spotlight as the Senate Judiciary Committee looks to continue confirmation hearings on judges and cabinet members, especially the already announced hearing on President Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, William Barr, which will take place on January 15 and 16, per a statement released by outgoing Chairman Chuck Grassley and incoming Chairman Lindsey Graham.

At the end of last month, The Daily Caller reviewed the top 32 "worst cases of media misquotes, misleading narratives, major corrections and straight-up fake news" in 2018.  It's no surprise that nearly all of them portrayed President Trump, Trump Administration officials, Trump nominees, or Republicans in an inaccurately poor light.  What may be surprising is a full quarter, or eight, related to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court: