Current and former RNLA leaders are pleased to support the nomination of Rebecca Taibleson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The letter below was submitted in anticipation of Taibleson's confirmation hearing which can be viewed here.
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Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Durbin:
As current and former leaders of the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA), we urge you to swiftly approve President Trump’s nomination of Rebecca Taibleson to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Ms. Taibleson came highly recommended to the President by Senator Ron Johnson. She has been thoroughly vetted and the RNLA has every confidence in the judgment of President Trump and Senator Johnson in their assessment of Ms. Taibleson’s experience, competence, and judicial philosophy.
The success of federal appellate courts and our justice system is dependent on judges who are experienced at defending the rule of law and upholding the rights laid out in the U.S. Constitution. Ms. Taibleson has a demonstrated history of commitment to these sacred pursuits. Moreover, her outstanding appellate qualifications are a matter of public record.
Ms. Taibleson’s extensive and non-partisan legal career makes her exceptionally qualified for the federal appellate bench. After graduating from Yale Law School, Ms. Taibleson clerked for then-U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. While in these roles she developed a strict textualist approach to the law. Her clerkships were followed by a distinguished career in both private practice and at the Department of Justice—as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, District Appellate Chief, and an Assistant to the Solicitor General—during both the Trump and Biden Administrations. Her legal qualifications are impeccable.
Ms. Taibleson has spent her career at the Department of Justice and the highest levels of the federal court system fighting for law and order as a tough-on-crime prosecutor—and opposing compassionate prison inmate releases for “gender-affirming care.” In her role as a federal appellate lawyer, she has defended First Amendment rights and prevented partisan state governments from compelling disclosure of donor lists, a tactic historically used by leftist activists to disrupt funding and speech of their political adversaries. Ms. Taibleson has already shaped criminal law in the Seventh Circuit as a federal prosecutor in a way highly protective of the public. She will continue that legacy as an appellate judge.
In 2018, Ms. Taibleson testified in support of Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation at a time when it was politically difficult for any person to speak publicly about her beliefs on the subject. Her testimony was credible and compelling. Regardless of where one stood on the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh, we look at her decision to speak publicly as a demonstration of her loyalty to her former mentor and her personal courage to stand up for what she believed was right. Those are significant character traits for a federal judge.
Finally, some have raised concerns about Ms. Taibleson. We have considered those concerns and ultimately trust the judgments made by President Trump and Senator Johnson that Ms. Taibleson is committed to a textualist approach to the law and conservative legal principles. As practicing Republican and conservative lawyers, we view the concerns raised as superficial political points that have no bearing on a serious assessment of Ms. Taibleson’s qualifications as a potential jurist.
For example, her choice to accept an internship as a law student at the Department of Justice does not indicate she is unqualified philosophically just because she did so during the time of the Obama Administration. Many law students look for an opportunity to gain experience and advance their skills at a young age without considering the partisan leadership of the government. At most, her choice indicates a lack of partisanship at an early stage in her career. Likewise, she rose to the Solicitor General’s Office during the time of the Trump Administration and the fact that Ms. Taibleson spent six additional months working there full-time, following the inauguration of President Biden, indicates nothing about her partisanship or judicial philosophy.
Her very limited contribution to Senator Joe Manchin after he voted to confirm her mentor Justice Kavanaugh and upheld the filibuster is understandable and in no way indicates to us anything about her judicial philosophy. In 2024, Ms. Taibleson indeed donated to the judicial campaign of Bridget Schoenborn in Wisconsin, who ran as a conservative in the primary and was supported by a number of conservatives, the local Republican Party, and conservative groups such as Turning Point.
Finally, we draw no conclusion about Ms. Taibleson whatsoever, not political or philosophical, because she once made a faith-based donation to a local Jewish community group that held liberal views among other religious positions. Some of us donated to Jewish community groups to support Israelis displaced during the recent war without regard to all the positions taken by the organizations on a host of social issues. In sum, we have considered these points and have concluded they say nothing about Ms. Taibleson’s judicial philosophy or legal qualifications to serve on the Seventh Circuit.
For all of these reasons, we encourage the Senate to provide President Trump with its advice and consent and expeditiously confirm Ms. Taibleson as Judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned Current and Former RNLA Leaders *
Read the full list of signatories here.
*All persons have signed in their personal, and not their official or professional, capacities.