This afternoon, the Senate confirmed Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras to serve on the Eighth Circuit. David Stras had been the target of a politically motivated refusal to return a blue slip by former Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, who complained that he was too conservative. Franken's fellow Democratic Senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, returned her blue slip. Despite Sen. Franken's protest, Chairman Chuck Grassley went ahead with a hearing for David Stras, noting that he will not allow senators to use the blue slip as a veto for circuit court nominees.
Tellingly, seven Democrats voted to confirm Justice Stras, demonstrating that all the heated rhetoric from Democrats about the sanctity of the blue slip has been just that - rhetoric:
Seven is a large number of Democratic votes for any Trump Circuit Court nominee to receive, as the Democrats have been fairly united in opposing Trump's judicial nominees. It's also worth noting that four of them, Sens. Donnelly, Heitkamp, Manchin, and McCaskill, are up for re-election this year in states that President Trump won in 2018. We may see more carefully chosen votes in favor of the President's nominees in the coming months.
But that they chose to vote to confirm David Stras, when they had an easy excuse to vote no in the withheld blue slip, demonstrates the excellence of Justice Stras as a nominee. We can only hope that it also indicates some weakening of the Democrats' mindless obstruction of President Trump's nominees as the 2018 election nears.
Predictably, CNN has an article promoting the Democrats' point
of view on blue slips, including quotes
from an outraged Senator Franken.
First, I’ve said repeatedly that I’m maintaining the blue
slip courtesy. I’m keeping the policy that the vast majority of my predecessors
had. A negative or unreturned blue slip will not necessarily prevent a hearing
unless the White House failed to consult with home-state senators. This policy
comes directly from a long line of practice including Chairman Joe Biden’s
letter to President George H.W. Bush in 1989.
It’s worth mentioning that my Des Moines Register
op-ed—which Senator Franken brought up yesterday—concerned two district court
nominees. Nothing in the editorial suggests I planned to strictly require two
positive blue slips from home-state senators for circuit court nominees.
In a fight between Chairman Grassley and Senator Franken, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell states that Chairman Grassley, not Senator Franken, is on
the side of the angels over the 8th Circuit nominee Justice David Stras:
In this case, the junior Senator from Minnesota
acknowledges that it is ‘undeniably true’ that Justice Stras is a ‘committed
public servant whose tenure as a professor at the University of Minnesota
underscores just how much he cares about the law.’ Yet our colleague objects to
the committee even considering his nomination.
Why does he want to block a widely respected and
accomplished state Supreme Court justice from his own state whom his
constituents support? Because our
colleague doesn’t agree with the United States Supreme Court Justices whom the
nominee admires, one of whom the nominee happened to clerk for. I applaud
Chairman Grassley for not allowing the blue slip courtesy to be abused in this
fashion, and I look forward to learning more about Justice Stras’s views from
today’s hearing
We join with Leader McConnell in thanking Chairman Grassley for his leadership on the blue slip and confirmation processes. Senator Franken's actions are yet another reason that he should seriously consider resigning from the Senate.
RNLA Executive Director Michael Thielen wrote today in the Daily Caller about how Senate Democrats are attacking and delaying President Trump's excellent judicial nominees:
Thirty years ago, the Senate rejected Judge Robert Bork for the Supreme Court after a series of unprecedented and often untrue attacks by Democrats on one of the nation’s foremost legal scholars. Today, the Democrats and their allies are arguably treating judicial nominees worse. For while the attacks were one-sided, the vote to defeat Judge Bork was at least bipartisan. Today, Democrats and their allies make no such efforts to actually defeat nominees they do not like; instead, they attempt to obstruct and sully the character of nominees.
But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley have expertly led the Senate and are not allowing the Democrats to prevail:
Fortunately, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley does not have unlimited patience with Democrats’ games and obstruction. Thanks to the leadership of Chairman Grassley, 18 nominees are now on the floor awaiting a vote. And the need is great. There are still over 140 vacancies on the federal bench, with 64 classified as judicial emergencies.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has also tired of Senate Democrats’ partisanship and has made the confirmation of judges a priority, with four Circuit Court nominees to be confirmed by the end of this week. As of publication, the new Judge Barrett of the Seventh Circuit and Judge Larsen of the Sixth Circuit have just been confirmed.
Despite the Democrats’ obstruction and delays, Chairman Grassley and Leader McConnell are keeping the process moving, understanding how important these principled nominees are to the American people. Democrats have forced cloture votes on all confirmed judicial nominees from President Trump, compared to none at this point in the Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton, or Reagan administrations. Of course, these cloture votes are simply a delaying tactic, since the Democrats abolished the filibuster for judicial nominations lower than Supreme Court in 2013.
Mr. Thielen provides examples from several currently pending and recently confirmed nominees, including Scott Palk, just confirmed for the Western District of Oklahoma; David Stras, nominated for the Eighth Circuit; Ryan Bounds, nominated for the Ninth Circuit; Amy Barrett, just confirmed to the Seventh Circuit; and Steven Grasz, nominated to the Eighth Circuit. Democrats have baselessly attacked all of them, including Palk who was first nominated to the seat by President Obama, but Leader McConnell and Chairman Grassley are working to ensure that all these superb nominees are confirmed.
RNLA Vice President for Election Education David Warrington wrote today in the Daily Caller about the shameful and bizarre personal attacks against President Trump's nominees made by liberals and establishment Democrats:
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras has been nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He has over seven years of judicial opinions and six years of legal scholarship to scrutinize. But instead of examining his record, liberal organizations have dismissed him as a “right-wing ideologue” who is simply a pawn of organizations like The Federalist Society. . . .
Notre Dame Law Professor Amy Barrett, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, was likely surprised to discover during her confirmation hearing that her sincerely held Catholic beliefs might disqualifyher, as a conservative, from holding judicial office, at least according to Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Texas attorney Trey Trainor, nominated to the Federal Election Commission last week, also quickly came under fire for his sincerely held Catholic beliefs. Like all the other nominees, Trainor’s true transgression is his conservative and libertarian views, particularly his vocal support for First Amendment rights and distrust of government bureaucrats’ efforts to regulate political speech. The vast majority of the American people share these views—liberals also used to value the First Amendment—yet they have been painted as radical enough to disqualify Trainor from public service. . . .
These attacks are not based on an honest review of any nominee’s scholarship, policy views, work history, associations, or character but instead are based on the nominee having been nominated by Trump, having mainstream conservative or libertarian views, and being supported by conservatives and libertarians. They seriously degrade our public discourse and prevent productive discussions and debates about a nominee’s policy views.
The piece closes by thanking those willing to serve our country despite the personal attacks that will be made against them simply for being nominated by President Trump and being conservative or libertarian. These nominees are superb and we are immensely grateful.
