WASHINGTON (CN) - The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nominations of 10 federal judges on Thursday, including two nominees to the 5th Circuit and an 8th Circuit nominee the American Bar Association rated unanimously not qualified.
It was the committee's busiest day of approving judges during the Trump administration, eclipsing the eight nominees it sent to the full Senate on Oct. 26. The three circuit court nominees the panel approved on Thursday is also the most in a single day this year.
All of the circuit court nominees advanced on 11-9 votes that fell strictly along party lines.
The most controversial nominee on the agenda was Steven Grasz, whom the American Bar Association rated unanimously not qualified in October. President Donald Trump's nominee to the 8th Circuit, Grasz has a history of working in Republican politics, having served as Nebraska's deputy attorney general from 1991 to 2002 and as general counsel for the Nebraska Republican Party.
The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary found Grasz would have trouble separating "his role as an advocate from that of a judge," citing interviews with Grasz's peers who questioned his commitment to following precedent.
"In sum, the evaluators and the committee found that temperament issues, particularly bias and lack of open-mindedness were problematic," Pam Bresnahan, the chair of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The evaluators found that the people interviewed believed that the nominee's bias and the lens through which he viewed his role as a judge colored his ability to judge fairly"
Grasz is the first circuit court nominee to receive a unanimous not qualified rating from the ABA since 2006 and Republicans turned the fight over his nomination into a referendum on the group's long-time role in evaluating judicial nominees.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the ABA a "liberal advocacy group" at a hearing on the ABA following Grasz's nomination hearing last month, while other Republicans cautioned against looking at the organization as a neutral arbiter of judicial quality.
Republicans boosted their claims last week when Grasz provided additional documents to the Judiciary Committee that appeared to contradict the group's findings about his attempt to disqualify a member of Nebraska's judicial selection committee. The documents Grasz provided to the committee showed Grasz was representing a client when he attempted to have a member of the judicial nominating commission disqualified due to allegations of "unethical behavior."
The ABA report on Grasz cited his efforts as evidence of "allegiances too strong for Mr. Grasz to be independent," while also faulting him for using confidential information in the effort. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., provided a letter from Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson in which Peterson said Grasz did not break rules any rules in filing the complaint.
In the end, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said her concerns about Grasz go beyond the ABA's findings, as she also cited Grasz's work defending Nebraska's restrictions on abortion access. Grasz specifically defended a regulation that prevented Medicaid dollars from going towards abortions for poor women who are the victims of rape or incest.
"Based on these factors, I share the concerns that Mr. Grasz will be unable to detach himself from his deeply held social agenda and political loyalty and I cannot support his nomination," Feinstein said.
The committee also approved Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, a nominee for the 5th Circuit the Texas legislature declared the state's first "tweeter laureate" in 2015.