Bill McMorris of the Washington Free Beacon reports on efforts to move President Trump’s judicial nominations forward.
Conservative activists are accusing Senate Democrats of hypocrisy for holding up the nominations of a number of President Donald Trump’s appointees to the federal bench.
Carrie Severino, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and president of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, accused Senate Democrats of obstructing the appointments of “well qualified” nominees to federal courts.
Severino said Democrats were holding up the nominations of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and Notre Dame law school Prof. Amy Coney Barrett to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Both nominees received “well qualified” ratings from the American Bar Association (ABA)—the highest possible grade—though a minority of voters opted for a “qualified” rating for Barrett.
They are two of the most impressive lawyers of their generation and bring with them extensive experience,” Severino said in a statement. “Evidently Senate Democrats have a problem with accomplished, articulate conservative women.”
Democrats on the committee grilled the nominees at a Wednesday Judiciary Committee hearing. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), ranking member on the committee, criticized Barrett, a Catholic mother of seven children, for her faith during a Judiciary Committee hearing, saying, “the dogma lives loudly within you and that’s of concern.”
