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.

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.

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.

News -- In a party-line vote, Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocks 11-11 on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to SCOTUS.

Next up: A vote tonight to discharge the nomination by full Senate. Simple majority is needed
Cloture vote: Thursday
Confirmation: Thursday or Friday

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 4, 2022

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. Join RNLA this Friday at 2:00 p.m. ET for a webinar recapping the week of hearings featuring the Article III Project's Mike Davis and the Ethics and Public Policy Center's Ed Whelan. Register on Zoom here!

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.

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.

And contrary to WaPo’s claim he “cement[ed] his status as a player” for “racial advancement,” @dickdurbin’s history on the Judiciary Committee is rife with anti-Catholic & anti-Hispanic attacks. He asked Justice Barrett if she was an “orthodox Catholic”3/5 https://t.co/sVjOuwiFrT

— Michael Thielen (@MB_Thielen) February 22, 2022

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled, "Protecting a Precious, Almost Sacred Right: The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act" (a.k.a. H.R. 4 / S.4).  Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke testified before the Committee in attempt to defend the proposed partisan power grab and federal takeover of our elections.

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled, "Texas’s Unconstitutional Abortion Ban and the Role of the Shadow Docket." As Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn pointed out during the hearing, the Senate Democrats are more focused on intimidating the federal judiciary than dealing with the myriad of crises the Biden Administration faces.

The September 13th protest by liberals in front of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home was too much even for Senate Democrats. 

Senate Judiciary Committee members from both parties denounced a protest targeting the Maryland home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, saying the families and homes of government officials are not fair game.  . . .

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) similarly criticized protests targeting public figures’ homes.

“We all know that you have to have a tough mental hide to be in this business,” Durbin said. But “it is absolutely unacceptable from my point of view to involve and major public figure’s family or their home, or to involve yourself in criminal trespass in the name of political freedom of speech.”

“There are proper venues to express yourself and I don’t believe a person’s home or their family should be fair game in this business,” he added.

The more that comes to light about Myrna Pérez, the more it is obvious that any fair-minded person would oppose her nomination to the Second Circuit due to how progressive and highly partisan she is as a judicial nominee. Myrna Pérez is an extremist with views on felon re-enfranchisement that even Democrat caucus Senators like Angus King, who widely support felon re-enfranchisement, would never entertain.