Senate Republicans Work to Cut More Corners in Judicial Confirmations

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 13, 2019 – Following Senate committee hearings today in which Republican majorities voted to reduce debate time for district court nominees and held hearings for two appeals court nominees over the objections of their home-state senators, AFJ President Nan Aron released the following statement:

“Senate Republicans are working overtime to sweep away more rules and norms so that President Trump can have his way with judicial nominations. Today the Judiciary Committee held hearings for two New York judicial candidates over the objections of their home-state senators, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand. One of the nominees, Michael Park, is best known for his legal battles against equal opportunity programs including race-conscious admissions at Harvard — and today, he became the latest Trump nominee to refuse to say whether Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided. At the same time, the Rules Committee took a nonsensical vote to slash post-cloture debate time on district court nominees from 30 hours to 2. The only explanation for this is that lately we’ve seen some unqualified Trump nominees fail due to last-minute revelations about their records. Now, Republicans seem determined to curtail the vetting process so flaws in nominees’ records won’t come to light. If they succeed, scores more Trump nominees could be swept into lifetime judicial office at top speed and with virtually no scrutiny, and the American people will be the ones who suffer.”