WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate’s number two Democrat signaled Tuesday that he had no intention of backing away from a federal appellate court nominee who has been the subject of an intense messaging campaign — one that has rattled even some members of his own party.
Adeel Mangi, tapped by the Biden administration last fall to fill a vacancy on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, has faced intense scrutiny from congressional Republicans, who in recent months have attempted to problematize his affiliation with a Rutgers University research program and a prison reform advocacy group.
Although lawmakers and legal experts have pointed out that Mangi’s work with these organizations was limited and the effort to link the nominee to any controversy has been tenuous at best, the negative attention has pushed some Democrats in vulnerable seats to publicly come out against his confirmation.
Both of Nevada’s senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, have said they would not support Mangi if his nomination were brought up for a vote. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has separately said he will not back any White House judicial nominee that cannot attract at least one Republican vote.
Conservative legal organizations have also targeted other Democrats facing tough reelection battles, such as Montana Senator John Tester and Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey. Casey told Courthouse News last month that he was still weighing whether to support Mangi.
Despite the precarious position of Mangi’s nomination, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin implored his colleagues to rise above the noise.
Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said lawmakers should “dismiss the smear campaign against Mr. Mangi.”
Durbin recalled the nominee’s December confirmation hearing, during which Republicans grilled Mangi — who if confirmed would be the first Muslim-American on the federal appellate bench — for his stance on the Israel-Hamas war as well as his previous work on the advisory board of the Rutgers University Center for Security, Race and Rights.
Republican lawmakers at the time, led by Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, pointed to a 2021 event held by the Rutgers center on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks which featured remarks from an academic scholar convicted of aiding a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Kennedy had suggested that Mangi was involved in the event, although the nominee said he hadn’t even been aware of it.
Durbin blasted the GOP attacks as “un-American,” arguing that his colleagues were “trying to blame Mr. Mangi for statement by other people and events he didn’t attend and wasn’t even aware of.”
“That is guilt by association,” he said. “It is wrong, and it is unfair.”
The Democratic whip also pointed out that the nominee had condemned antisemitism and terrorism “no fewer than ten times” during his confirmation hearing.
“Any insinuation that Mr. Mangi is antisemitic or a terrorist sympathizer is rooted in anti-Muslim bigotry that has no place in our country or our Congress,” Durbin said. “The claims are simply false.”
The top Democrat also took aim at more recent attacks on the nominee for his affiliation with prison reform advocacy group Alliance for Families of Justice. Mangi worked as part of a pro bono legal team in a 2018 lawsuit challenging the death of a prison inmate in New York which involved the organization and was later invited to serve on its advisory board.
Durbin slammed accusations from some Republicans that Mangi’s affiliation with the alliance puts him in league with “cop-killers,” calling those claims outrageous and arguing that the nominee’s work with the organization was “nominal.”
The Illinois senator argued that the campaign against Mangi has been a political hack job and that questions about his record have strayed far from what a federal court nominee should expect from the confirmation process.
“Any judicial nominee should expect a close examination of his legal career before the committee,” the lawmaker said. “However, he should not have to answer for baseless and bigoted attacks that do not reflect him or his record.”
Mangi’s nomination also got a vote of confidence Tuesday from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Despite words of support from Democratic leadership, it’s unclear whether the Senate will move ahead to confirm Mangi to the federal bench. Speaking to Courthouse News Tuesday morning, Durbin declined to say if there had been any movement towards a floor vote.
The majority whip said he had spoken with some lawmakers about Mangi but declined to elaborate on whether he had talked to any of the Democratic holdouts or whether he had swayed them to back the nominee.
Meanwhile, more than 100 public policy and advocacy groups sent a letter to senators last week imploring them to confirm Mangi to the Third Circuit, blasting the attacks against him as “manufactured and baseless.”
The pro-Mangi organizations thumped the nominee’s work as a private practice and pro bono attorney and said he was “eminently qualified” for the circuit court.
“We urge senators to assess Mr. Mangi’s nomination based on his credentials and qualifications for the job, not his religion, race or ethnicity,” the organizations said in their letter.
Mangi, meanwhile, has pushed back on his detractors, writing in a letter last month to New Jersey Senator Cory Booker that the attempts to portray his Muslim faith as violent or paint him as an opponent of law enforcement were “shocking and false.”
The White House tapped Mangi in November 2023 to fill a vacancy on the Third Circuit, which hears cases from lower courts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Biden administration has continued to back the nominee, claiming the attacks against him are rooted in Islamophobia.
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