Park, Bianco Vote Shows Bipartisanship “Completely Dead”

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 7, 2019 – Following the Senate Judiciary Committee vote today to advance the nominations of Joseph Bianco and Michael Park, two nominees for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals who do not have the approval of their home-state senators from New York, AFJ President Nan Aron released the following statement:

“Republicans certainly seem bent on making abuse of the judicial confirmation process the new normal, although one day they will undoubtedly come to regret it. With today’s vote to advance these two Second Circuit nominees, Republican leadership has made it clear that the Senate tradition of bipartisan consultation on judicial nominations is completely dead. We’ve already seen a nominee in another circuit confirmed over the objections of his home-state senators, the first time on record that this has happened. And this steamrolling over senators is happening so people like Michael Park, who is best known for fighting equal opportunity programs in higher education, can get on the bench for life.”