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Monday, March 18, 2024 | Back issues
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Committee resumes judicial confirmation hearings with approval for Michelle Childs

The former Supreme Court hopeful received bipartisan praise from lawmakers, while an 11th Circuit nominee faced GOP ire.

WASHINGTON (CN) — After losing out on a nomination to the Supreme Court, J. Michelle Childs testified Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee alongside four other judicial nominees, including an 11th Circuit pick who faces staunch opposition from Republican senators.

Childs, who is set to ascend to a seat on the D.C. Circuit, was initially scheduled for a confirmation hearing regarding the posting back in February, but her hearing was delayed after her name popped up on the shortlist of candidates to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. President Joe Biden ended up nominating Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was confirmed earlier this month.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, was a public and dogged advocate for Biden to select Childs for the highest court and used Wednesday's hearing to express his disappointment, but continued support for her nomination to serve as a federal circuit judge.

"As you can tell, I was all in on her moving up. It was up to President Biden as to who to nominate to the Supreme Court. But this position that she's being nominated for is consequential," Graham said Wednesday. "I hope there's some encouragement from this committee, that Congressman Clyburn, myself and others in South Carolina can rally around the accomplished woman who has worn the robe well and has potential to serve at the highest level of the judiciary."

Childs, currently a U.S. District Court judge for the District of South Carolina and previously an attorney in private practice, garnered praise from senators on both sides of the committee.

But Biden's other circuit court nominee Nancy Abudu, selected for the 11th Circuit, faced strong opposition from Republican senators on the panel.

If confirmed, Abudu would be the first Black woman and first person of color from Georgia to serve as a judge on the 11th Circuit.

Abudu faced sharp criticism from Republicans including Senators Chuck Grassley, Ben Sasse and Marsha Blackburn over her job as the deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit known for its legal fights regarding civil rights.

“There've been repeated examples of the center targeting mainstream conservative groups," Grassley said.

Sasse pressed Abudu about the center's categorization of organizations such as the Alliance for Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal organization that supports recriminalizing sexual acts by LGBTQ people, and the Family Research Council, which has fought against marriage equality and the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” as hate groups.

Abudu noted that, as a member of the organization's legal department, she does not participate in research that informs the center's classifications of political and advocacy organizations.

"My commitment to equal justice under law, to racial justice, to ensuring that all people are able to exercise their constitutionally fundamental rights has been the focus of my work with the Southern Poverty Law Center and I'm very proud of the work that I've done in that capacity," Abudu said.

She emphasized that, prior to her time at the center and her work with the ACLU, she also spent time as a staff attorney for the 11th Circuit and had also represented people in First Amendment cases related to their religious expression.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas argued that the Southern Poverty Law Center was responsible for a 2012 shooting at the Family Research Council. Conservative groups at the time of the shooting connected the crime to the civil rights organization's decision to call the council a hate group, although the center condemned the attack which was carried out by a gunman not associated with the center.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center is a hateful and extreme place and their hate, among other things, has led to horrific violence," Cruz said, referencing the attack. "You went to work for them knowing that their hate had led to this violence?"

"I went to work for the SPLC to help lead its voting rights practice group," Abudu replied.

Cruz bore down on statements the center has made calling GOP lawmakers Senator Josh Hawley, Blackburn and even Cruz himself extremist.

"How could anyone who is not on the radical left, how could someone who is pro-life, how could someone who's conservative, how can someone who's religious, have any degree of confidence if they were to appear at a court with you as a judge? You've spent a lifetime working for groups that smear half this country as white supremacists and Klansmen," Cruz said.

"That's what my religious-freedom, my free-speech work, my voting-rights work, my criminal-justice work, Senator Cruz, all of that work that I've done, represents: my commitment to making sure that all people at least have equal access to justice and equal justice under law," Abudu replied.

Democratic lawmakers came out in defense of Abudu and her work for the Southern Poverty Law Center, arguing she was not responsible for defending all the stances and decisions of the center.

"I'm really curious, because I am a lifetime member of the NAACP, but you wouldn't ascribe all of the views of the NAACP to me, would you?," Senator Cory Booker asked Abudu.

"No, sir," she replied.

"Well, yeah, because I've disagreed with the NAACP, but I've paid my dues and I've written them checks," Booker noted.

The committee also heard testimony from three district court nominees, including a nominee who could become the first Bangladeshi American to serve as a federal judge.

Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, a nominee for the Eastern District of New York, would break multiple barriers if confirmed to the bench, including becoming the first Muslim woman to sit on the federal bench.

She is currently the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and previously held several positions with the organization in New York.

"This is a great day for glass ceilings and for history, as America grows and grows and expands and expands and becomes greater and greater," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in support of Choudhury's nomination and the slate of judicial nominees.

Judge Ana Isabel de Alba, currently a judge on the Superior Court of Fresno County in California, would be the first Latina to ever serve on the Eastern District of California if she's confirmed by the Senate.

Natasha Merle, the current deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, also testified before the committee Wednesday. She is slated to become a judge for the Eastern District of New York.

“This is a great day for glass ceilings and for history as America grows and grows and expands and expands and becomes greater and greater," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in support of Choudhury's nomination and the slate of judicial nominees.

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Categories / Courts, Government, Politics

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