This is the latest installment in a series on the progress of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees in the Senate.
WASHINGTON (CN) – The Senate this week confirmed five of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees, including one to the Ninth Circuit.
Daniel Collins, Ninth Circuit
The Senate confirmed Collins to the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday, the second Trump nominee confirmed to the court in a week.
Collins is a partner at the Los Angeles firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, a job he has held since 2003. A former clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, Collins also held jobs in the George W. Bush Justice Department and as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles.
Collins did not have the support of either of his home-state senators and faced opposition from Democrats over his representation of fossil fuel companies in court.
Read his full nomination story here.
Howard Nielson, U.S. District Court for the District of Utah
Confirmed 51-47 on Wednesday, Nielson was one of the longest-delayed Trump judicial nominees, having been first nominated for a position on the bench in September 2017.
Nielson faced significant questions from Democrats about his work in the courtroom, specifically one case in which he was part of a team of lawyers that defended California's Proposition 8, a state ballot measure that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
Nielson's team tried to have the opinion that found the ballot measure unconstitutional tossed out because the judge who wrote it, U.S. District Jude Vaughn Walker, did not disclose that he was gay. Nielson's name appears along with seven other lawyers at the top of the motion, but the document was signed by another attorney at Nielson's firm.
In the motion, the attorneys argued Walker should have made clear whether he and his long-time partner intended to get married if the ballot measure was struck down and that by keeping this information from the public, he created the possible impression of a conflict.
"Simply stated, under governing California law, Chief Judge Walker currently cannot marry his partner, but his decision in this case, and the sweeping injunction he entered to enforce it, would give him the right to do so," the motion states.
When senators pressed Nielson on the motion, the attorney responded that the views included in court documents do not represent his personal opinion, but instead the best argument he could make on behalf of his client.
"In Hollingsworth and in other cases I have developed specific legal arguments to support my clients' general views and positions," Nielson wrote in response to questions submitted after his nomination hearing. "The arguments I present as an advocate are always offered on behalf of my clients, however, not myself."
Nielson is a partner at the Washington, D.C., firm Cooper & Kirk and also spent time at the Justice Department from 2001 to 2005. Nielson clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court and worked at the Washington, D.C., firm Jones Day from 1999 to 2001.
Stephen Clark, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
Confirmed with a 53-45 vote on Wednesday, Clark faced opposition from Democrats for his record on abortion.
Clark in 2016 gave a presentation at Duke University saying he has found it "very, very fulfilling and rewarding" to do "pro-life legal work" and he filed briefs on behalf of clients opposing the federal health care law's contraceptive mandate.
In a speech, Clark also said "one of the next evolutions of same-sex marriage is polygamy," explaining at his nomination hearing that he meant there remain questions about the "limiting principles" included in the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.