Appeals Pick Advances on Party Line, Other Votes Bipartisan (2)

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a Third Circuit pick for Delaware along party lines, while two district court nominees got bipartisan support even though progressives have put Democrats on notice about backing Trump selections.

Jennifer Mascott cleared the Republican-led panel, 12-10, on Wednesday. Her nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit goes to the full Senate for consideration.

The law professor who’s been working in Trump’s White House Counsel’s Office came under pressure from Democrats at her confirmation hearing over her limited ties to the state and the legal community there.

She isn’t admitted to practice law in Delaware, according to the Office of the Delaware Supreme Court. Records show she owns a property near a beach there.

“Delaware is a special place, a special bar, and this nomination is norm shattering,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said before the vote.

Coons also has raised questions about Mascott’s legal experience for a circuit that handles appeals from Delaware’s federal trial bench, a major venue for corporate and bankruptcy matters.

Mascott joined the second Trump administration this year, after she taught administrative and constitutional law at Catholic University of America and George Mason University. At Catholic Law, she founded the Separation of Powers Institute, which focuses on administrative and constitutional law scholarship.

Mascott said at her Sept. 3 confirmation hearing that she looks forward to “joining the legal community, specifically in Delaware” and she plans to establish her chambers in Wilmington if confirmed.

Two of President Donald Trump’s other district court picks got bipartisan support in committee. They include Harold Mooty III, 18-4, to the Northern District of Alabama; and Bill Lewis, 14-8, for the Middle District of Alabama. Lewis is Trump’s first Black judicial nominee so far.

Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the panel’s top Democrat, and Adam Schiff of California voted for Lewis. Durbin, Schiff, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Chris Coons of Delaware, and Peter Welch of Vermont rounded out Democratic support for Mooty.

The two votes marked the first time any of Trump’s judicial nominees have advanced out of committee with Democratic support this term.

Demand Justice and other liberal groups have urged blanket opposition to the president’s judicial nominees from Democrats. The organization under its new president has pledged to revive bold pressure tactics from the first Trump administration, including some that rankled Senate Democrats.

“History will not look kindly on those who express righteous indignation about Trump on social media, then turn around and enable him by voting for his judges,” said Demand Justice President Josh Orton in a statement following the committee votes. “Talking the talk is not enough and Demand Justice will hold these Democratic Senators accountable.”

The committee also advanced Edmund LaCour’s nomination, 12-10, to the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Trump had nominated LaCour, who’s been the state’s solicitor general since 2019, to the Middle District of Alabama in 2020 but he was blocked by then-Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.).