The election results transferring control of both the White House and the Senate to the Republicans were a stunning rebuke of an out-of-touch Democratic Party that had succumbed to a radical agenda. And for all the navel-gazing self-reflection supposedly taking place among liberal pundits, hubris better describes the mood among Senate Democrats. Judiciary Committee Democrats posted Tuesday that “we’re laser-focused on confirming every possible remaining nominee.”
Really? President Biden’s still-pending judicial nominees include a bunch of abysmal picks. I have written about Third Circuit nominee Adeel Mangi; Fourth Circuit nominee Ryan Park; D.C. district court nominees Sparkle Sooknanan and Amir Ali; and Oregon district court nominee Mustafa Kasubhai. With the exception of Park, who was nominated during the summer and voted out of committee at yesterday’s markup, these nominees have been lingering for eight months or more. Another recent nominee, Anthony Brindisi, a former state assemblyman and congressman selected for the Northern District of New York, appeared on the committee’s agenda for the first time yesterday and will therefore face a committee vote at the next markup. At his hearing in September, he was confronted with his past radical positions, including legislation he co-sponsored that among other things would have forced female students to share locker rooms with biological males. Embry Kidd, a magistrate judge whom Biden nominated for the Eleventh Circuit over the objections of both home state senators, is on the brink of a floor vote. He failed to meet his obligation to disclose to the Judiciary Committee two of his pretrial release decisions of child-sex offenders that were reversed by the district court. He additionally was credited for his contribution to a law review article that criticized “capital child rape laws” as “too intense, too frenzied, too emotional, and too mired in racial and class-based prejudice to avoid arbitrariness and caprice.”
Of course, the dark-money groups on the Left that have been calling the shots all along—such as the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, People for the American Way, the Alliance for Justice, and Demand Justice—want every nominee confirmed. These demands are being made as Senate Majority Leader (for a short while longer) Chuck Schumer calls on Republicans to be bipartisan. That merits a laugh. When I hear the name Chuck Schumer—the man who famously howled in front in front of the Supreme Court that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh “released the whirlwind” and “will pay the price”—“bipartisanship” does not come to mind.
At yesterday morning’s markup, Senator Thom Tillis asserted that Ryan Park lacks the votes for confirmation, though the committee reported him out on a party-line vote. In the afternoon, cloture was invoked on Embry Kidd’s nomination by a vote of 49–44, with six Republicans and one Democrat not voting. For them and for other unworthy nominees, keep in mind the dynamics in this still closely divided Senate. There are conflicting reports as to whether Senator Joe Manchin will adhere to his pledge not to vote for any judicial nominees who lack any GOP support. The report suggesting he would break his word quoted him as saying “We’re in different times right now.” It is critical that Republican senators unite in opposition and show up during the lame duck session to try and block any more radical and unfit Biden judicial nominees from being confirmed to lifetime positions on the federal bench.