Latest news with #judicialnominees
E&E News
5 days ago
- General
- E&E News
Environment issues abound as panel grills Trump judicial picks
Senate Democrats spent much of the first hearing on President Donald Trump's second-term judicial nominees Wednesday grilling his pick for an influential federal appeals court about whether presidents must follow court orders. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday took up five judicial nominations, spending the bulk of time on Whitney Hermandorfer to serve on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The hearing comes as courts across the country have blocked — at least temporarily — some of Trump's efforts to reshape the federal government, prompting the president and his allies to lash out. Democrats pressed Hermandorfer on whether she would decide against the president. Advertisement 'My role would be to carry out my oath to the Constitution, first and foremost,' Hermandorfer told told Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), adding that she'd rule against the administration 'if that's what the law requires.'
News24
03-06-2025
- Business
- News24
Trump seeks to reshape judiciary as first nominees face Senate
Trump's new judicial picks face Senate panel. Nominees back abortion bans, oppose trans rights. Trump dumps Federalist Society, wants loyal judges. US President Donald Trump's first batch of judicial nominees since returning to the White House is set to go before a US Senate panel as the Republican looks to further reshape a judiciary whose members have stymied parts of his agenda. Five of the 11 judicial nominees Trump has announced so far are slated to appear on Wednesday before the Republican-led US Senate Judiciary Committee, which will weigh whether to recommend them for the full Senate's consideration. Those nominees all have conservative bona fides that their supporters say will help Trump shift the ideological balance of the judiciary further to the right after making 234 appointments in his first term, which was a near-record for a president's first four years in office. Trump's first-term appointees included three members of the US Supreme Court, which since gaining a 6-3 conservative majority has curtailed abortion rights, rejected affirmative action policies on university campuses and limited the power of administrative agencies. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that Trump was committed to 'restoring integrity to the judicial system, which begins with appointing America First judges, not unelected politicians in robes.' Among Wednesday's nominees is Whitney Hermandorfer, who as a lawyer serving under Tennessee's Republican attorney general has defended the state's abortion ban and challenged federal protections for transgender youth. Hermandorfer, who is nominated to a seat on the Cincinnati-based 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals, will appear before the Senate panel with four nominees to fill trial court vacancies in Missouri. Those include Joshua Divine, Missouri's solicitor general, who challenged Democratic former President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness efforts and has defended abortion and transgender healthcare restrictions. The hearing comes days after Trump broke with conservative legal activist Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who advised Trump on judicial appointments in his first term. Trump wrote: I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous judicial nominations. 'This is something that cannot be forgotten!' Leo in response said he was grateful Trump transformed the courts. He said the judiciary 'is better than it's ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trump's most important legacy.' Trump's attack on Leo came a day after a three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade, including a Trump-appointed judge, blocked most of his tariffs. It is one of several rulings White House officials describe as part of a 'judicial coup' by judges who have blocked his policies. Mike Davis, whose conservative Article III Project backs Trump's judicial nominees, said that in his second term Trump 'doesn't need to appease the DC establishment with weak and timid judges.' 'He is picking bold and fearless judges, like Emil Bove, who will follow the Constitution instead of seeking establishment favour.' Bove, a Justice Department official who previously served as Trump's defence lawyer in the New York criminal trial over hush money paid to a porn star, was nominated last week to join the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination drew criticism from Democrats and Ed Whelan, a conservative legal commentator who in a piece in the National Review called Bove's nomination 'disturbing.' Whelan said in an interview: Clearly you have some folks agitating for MAGA-type nominees, and the White House will be open to those folks so long as they also have good legal qualifications. But he said most of Trump's nominees, as well as candidates in the pipeline, have fit within the rubric of what Trump would have sought in his first term. 'It's going to be very hard for Trump to pick people other than people with traditional conservative qualifications,' Whelan said.
Reuters
03-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Trump seeks to reshape judiciary as first nominees face Senate
June 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's first batch of judicial nominees since returning to the White House is set to go before a U.S. Senate panel as the Republican looks to further reshape a judiciary whose members have stymied parts of his agenda. Five of the 11 judicial nominees Trump has announced so far are slated to appear on Wednesday before the Republican-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which will weigh whether to recommend them for the full Senate's consideration. Those nominees all have conservative bona fides that their supporters say will help Trump shift the ideological balance of the judiciary further to the right after making 234 appointments in his first term, which was a near-record for a president's first four years in office. Trump's first-term appointees included three members of the U.S. Supreme Court, which since gaining a 6-3 conservative majority has curtailed abortion rights, rejected affirmative action policies on university campuses and limited the power of administrative agencies. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that Trump was committed to "restoring integrity to the judicial system, which begins with appointing America First judges, not unelected politicians in robes." Among Wednesday's nominees is Whitney Hermandorfer, who as a lawyer serving under Tennessee's Republican attorney general has defended the state's abortion ban and challenged federal protections for transgender youth. Hermandorfer, who is nominated to a seat on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, will appear before the Senate panel with four nominees to fill trial court vacancies in Missouri. Those include Joshua Divine, Missouri's solicitor general, who challenged Democratic former President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness efforts and has defended abortion and transgender healthcare restrictions. The hearing comes days after Trump broke with conservative legal activist Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who advised Trump on judicial appointments in his first term. 'I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations,' Trump wrote. 'This is something that cannot be forgotten!" Leo in response said he was grateful Trump transformed the courts. He said the judiciary "is better than it's ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trump's most important legacy." Trump's attack on Leo came a day after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade that included a Trump-appointed judge blocked most of his tariffs. It is one of several rulings White House officials describe as part of a "judicial coup" by judges who have blocked his policies. Mike Davis, whose conservative Article III Project backs Trump's judicial nominees, said that in his second term Trump "doesn't need to appease the D.C. establishment with weak and timid judges." "He is picking bold and fearless judges, like Emil Bove, who will follow the Constitution instead of seeking establishment favor." Bove, a Justice Department official who previously served as Trump's defense lawyer in the New York criminal trial over hush money paid to a porn star, was nominated last week to join the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination drew criticism from Democrats and Ed Whelan, a conservative legal commentator who in a piece in the National Review called Bove's nomination "disturbing." "Clearly you have some folks agitating for MAGA-type nominees, and the White House will be open to those folks so long as they also have good legal qualifications," Whelan said in an interview. But he said most of Trump's nominees, as well as candidates in the pipeline, have fit within the rubric of what Trump would have sought in his first term. "It's going to be very hard for Trump to pick people other than people with traditional conservative qualifications," Whelan said.
Reuters
29-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Justice Department curtails ABA role in vetting Trump's judicial nominees
May 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday limited the American Bar Association's decades-old role in rating candidates for life-tenured positions in the federal judiciary, curtailing its ability to vet new nominations by Republican President Donald Trump. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a letter to ABA President William Bray said that for decades the nation's largest voluntary association of lawyers had enjoyed special access to judicial nominees. "Unfortunately, the ABA no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees' qualifications, and its ratings invariably and demonstrably favor nominees put forth by Democratic administrations," Bondi wrote. She said that while the ABA was free like other organizations to comment on judicial nominations, Trump's nominees will not respond to its questionnaires and the Justice Department will no longer direct them to provide the group waivers allowing them access to their bar records. The ABA did not respond to a request for comment. The announcement came a day after Trump announced six new judicial nominees including Emil Bove, a Justice Department official who previously served as his criminal defense lawyer in the New York trial in which the president was convicted of criminal charges over hush money paid to a porn star. Trump announced that he was nominating Bove, the principal associate deputy attorney general, to serve as a life-tenured judge on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a move decried by Democrats. Starting in 1953 during Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure, the nonpartisan legal organization had vetted judicial nominees before they were sent to the U.S. Senate, which must vote to confirm them. The practice continued until 2021, when Republican President George W. Bush ended the tradition of giving the ABA a first look at nominees. While Democratic President Barack Obama revived the practice, Trump ended it again in 2017 in his first term, and Biden did not revive the practice. Bondi's letter went a step further by curtailing the organization's ability to vet nominees after they were named. Conservatives have long accused the ABA of bias against Republican judicial nominees. During Trump's first term in office, it rated 10 of judicial nominees as "not qualified." Those included U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a trial judge in Florida who is married to Chad Mizelle, Bondi's chief of staff. In a post on X, Chad Mizelle said the ABA "weighs nominees on politics, not qualifications." "The ABA even ruled that Clarence Thomas – one of the greatest jurists of our time – was 'not qualified' to serve as a judge," he wrote. "That's just one example." The first of Trump's 11 announced judicial nominees of his second term are slated to appear before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on June 4. Trump in his first term secured confirmation of 234 judicial nominees, including three members of the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority. Read more: Trump nominates his former defense attorney Emil Bove to serve as appellate judge Trump readies to name 'fearless' conservative judges in second term
Fox News
29-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Justice Department tells American Bar Association it will no longer comply with ratings for judicial nominees
FIRST ON FOX— The Justice Department on Thursday formally notified the American Bar Association that it will no longer comply with its ratings process for judicial nominees, the result of what it argues is a biased system and one that "invariably and demonstrably" favors nominees put forth by Democratic administrations. The letter, sent by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to ABA President William R. Bay, was previewed exclusively to Fox News. It marks the latest escalation in a protracted legal fight that Republicans have waged against the nation's largest association of legal workers. "For several decades, the American Bar Association has received special treatment and enjoyed special access to judicial nominees," Bondi said in the letter. "In some administrations, the ABA received notice of nominees before a nomination was announced to the public. Some administrations would even decide whether to nominate an individual based on a rating assigned by the ABA." The Justice Department said in the letter that it will no longer grant the ABA the "special treatment" and first access it has received for years. "Accordingly, while the ABA is free to comment on judicial nominations along with other activist organizations, there is no justification for treating the ABA differently from such other activist organizations and the Department of Justice will not do so." It also ended an Office of Legal Policy that directed judicial nominees to provide waivers allowing the ABA access to non-public information for nominees, including bar records. "Nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the ABA," Bondi said. The Trump administration's decision to excise the ABA from the judicial nomination process comes after several Republican senators on the Senate committee tasked with vetting judicial nominees told the ABA in a letter earlier this year that they planned to ignore its rating system. The ABA, established in the late 1800s, has grown into a sprawling organization that touts a membership of over 400,000 legal workers. But it has sparked criticism from Republicans, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, previously blasted the ABA as a "radical left-wing advocacy group." He and others on the panel previously took aim at the group for embracing so-called "woke initiatives," including its heavy use of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI efforts, in many facets of its work. This is not the first time Republican administrations have broken with the ABA. The George W. Bush administration ended the practice of giving the ABA a first look at nominees, and Trump also did so in his first presidential term. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
