WASHINGTON (CN) - The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved a controversial nominee to the Second Circuit over objections from Democrats about his reluctance to answer questions about issues he worked on while serving as a lawyer in the White House.
Steven Menashi has served in the White House Counsel's office since 2018 and before that spent a year as an attorney at the Department of Education. A former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and partner at the New York firm Kirkland & Ellis, Menashi has also worked as a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. He also has ties to the conservative Federalist Society.
Menashi's nomination was the latest to draw the keen attention of Democrats and liberal activist groups, as his time in the White House and Department of Education put him in contact with some of the Trump administration's most controversial policies.
Senators, including Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy, expressed frustration at Menashi's nomination hearing in September when he largely dodged their questions about what issues he advised on while working in the administration.
The Judiciary Committee pushed back a vote on Menashi's nomination last week after Kennedy expressed concerns about his record and reluctance to answer questions. But Kennedy on Thursday said while he does not agree with some of the things Menashi has said and that he is troubled by Menashi's refusal to answer questions, his concerns have been assuaged enough that he could vote for his nomination.
"I spent a lot of time on this," Kennedy said Thursday. "I'm going to vote for his nomination because I think his reasons are carefully, carefully articulated and I just have to make the assumption that when a nominee testifies to us that 'I'll put my personal feelings aside,' we're going to have to always assume, pretty much, that's accurate, whether you agree with those feelings or not."
When pressed on his work again in follow-up questions submitted in writing after his nomination hearing, Menashi was somewhat more forthcoming, telling senators he gave advice on a host of immigration policies, including restrictions and changes the Trump administration implemented on the process for claiming asylum at the southern border and on efforts to fund President Donald Trump's long-promised border wall.
But he did not answer questions from Democrats on whether he did work on issues related to the ongoing impeachment inquiry in the House, including the whistleblower complaint that helped launch the probe. He did say separately that he did not work on issues related to congressional oversight.
Before the committee voted along party lines Thursday morning to send Menashi's nomination to the full Senate, Democrats said Menashi's reluctance to answer questions undermined the Senate's role in the judicial confirmation process.
"You don't get a Fifth Amendment privilege on nomination," Senator Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said. "There's no free pass to Senate confirmation."
Democrats also raised alarms about incendiary writings Menashi penned as an undergrad and later in his career in which he was critical of affirmative action, the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence and trial lawyers.
In responding to concerns about his college writings, Menashi said that his views on many issues have changed over time and that he would not express himself in the same way now. He also said his job has changed from when he worked as an editorial writer before going to law school.