Monday, March 5, 2018

ICYMI: “Controversial” Nominee Ryan Bounds: People Who Know Him Support Him

Ninth Circuit Nominee Ryan Bounds is under predictable attack from liberals who don’t know him and seemingly hate him because he was nominated by President Trump.  What isn’t predictable is the response to those attacks.

I’ll let David Lat of Above the Law and Courtney Angeli explain what is going on (emphasis added):
Nothing in a recent report about Ryan from the Alliance for Justice, a left-wing group reflexively critical of Republican judicial nominees, changes this. Taking short excerpts from Ryan's college writings from almost a quarter-century ago, the group report attempts to argue that he is somehow "insensitive" and "hostile" to women and minorities. We know Ryan very well, having known him for a combined 40-plus years. We know he harbors no such insensitivity or hostility -- and we speak as members of the supposedly maligned groups. One of us (Angeli) is a woman, former president of the Oregon Federal Bar Association, and founder of a law firm honored by the Oregon Women Lawyers' Association for its commitment to work-life balance and diversity. The other (Lat) is a gay Filipino-American who writes and speaks in support of Asian-American and LGBT causes.  . .
None of us would appreciate being defined at 40-something by our most hyperbolic collegiate musings. The Alliance for Justice's need to resort to them in Ryan's case reflects the lack of legitimate objection to his nomination. But we urge readers to review the group's report against Ryan's complete articles from the Stanford Review anyway, to see just how misguided its charges are.
Another open letter to the editor by people who know Mr. Bounds entitled Different political backgrounds support Bounds for Ninth Circuit makes the case to the Senate Judiciary Committee as follows:
We write to offer our unqualified and personal support of Ryan Bounds as a nominee to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. We all have a long personal history with Ryan, as we grew up together in the same rural northeastern Oregon town of Hermiston. As members of Oregon’s legal, medical, corporate, and higher education communities and leaders and volunteers for a variety of progressive causes and organizations — including the Oregon Democratic Party, the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign, SOLV (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism), Oregon Women Lawyers, and Basic Rights Oregon — we are uniquely situated to critically assess Ryan’s growth and temperament over more than three decades. We have no doubts about Ryan’s capacity to serve as a judge by any criterion — be it personal, intellectual, professional, or temperamental. We urge your fair and thorough consideration of his nomination. . . .
[They conclude by stating to the Committee:] If Ryan is incapable, in your eyes, of serving his country as a judge, we must share our worry as to who might be qualified and suited for the judiciary in the view of the committee and Senate.
Shame on Senate Democrats if they reflexively follow the Alliance for Justice and oppose this qualified nominee. 

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