Trump Appeals Court Pick Who Drew Conservative Ire Confirmed (1)

Republican senators confirmed a Trump appeals court nominee despite criticism from outside groups that she wasn’t conservative enough.

The GOP-led chamber voted 52-46 on Monday to confirm Rebecca Taibleson to the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The Wisconsin-based federal prosecutor replaces Judge Diane Sykes, who took a form of partial retirement Oct. 1.

Taibleson clerked for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was on the D.C. Circuit, and the late Justice Antonin Scalia. She testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2018 in support of Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court as he faced allegations of sex assault, which he denied. Taibleson also previously worked as assistant to the solicitor general during Trump’s first term.

But leaders at the Council for National Policy, First Liberty Institute, and other conservative organizations argued in their pressure campaign against Taibleson that she hasn’t sufficiently shown her commitment to the conservative legal movement. It was a first for President Donald Trump, who’s aggressively sought to push the judiciary rightward this term.

The groups pointed to political donations from Taibleson and her husband, and her donation to a Jewish social services and communal organization that supports LGBTQ+ causes, and the purported left-leaning politics of her synagogue.

One critical letter signed by a coalition of conservative groups and posted by the Conservative Action Project has since been deleted, and it’s unclear why the letter was removed.

Advancing American Freedom, a conservative organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, came to Taibleson’s defense to dispel purported “myths” that she is a “secret liberal.” And Senate Republicans showed little interest in the conservative pushback.

Taibleson defended her conservative bona fides at her confirmation hearing, including her upbringing by her father, George Mason University law professor Michael Krauss, and her early aspiration as a first-year law student to clerk for Scalia.

“I was raised by a very conservative law professor, and it has stuck,” she said at the Sept. 17 hearing.

Taibleson also received support from the likes of former Beth Williams, ex-assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy during Trump’s first term.

“It would be hard to find an appellate lawyer of Rebecca’s age with more varied and significant federal appellate experience. She is uniquely and indisputably qualified to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit,” former and current Kirkland & Ellis lawyers, including Williams, wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary panel.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin stood by her opposition to Taibleson to vote against her confirmation.

The Wisconsin Democrat had reserved her judgment on the nomination for most of Taibleson’s confirmation journey, as the senator faced angering progressives or rejecting the bipartisan process that yielded the nomination.

Taibleson was included in a list of suggested nominees compiled by the bipartisan commission in Wisconsin Baldwin and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) established. Although Baldwin later said that didn’t mean she endorsed Taibleson’s nomination.

Johnson said in a statement after the confirmation vote that he’s confident Taibleson “will be a valuable addition to the Seventh Circuit, given her strong commitment to the Constitution and her dedication to applying the law as written.”

Trump has an additional circuit seat to fill after Eighth Circuit Judge Duane Benton, a George W. Bush appointee, announced plans to take senior status in an Oct. 24 letter to the White House.