Trump Picks Who Wouldn’t Say Brown Decided Correctly Advance

Three more of President Donald Trump’s federal district court nominees advanced in the Senate on Thursday, the latest to clear the Judiciary Committee despite their refusal to say whether a momentous Supreme Court decision on civil rights was rightly decided.

The panel cleared Ada Brown—who could become Trump’s first black female judicial appointee—Steven Grimberg, and David Novak to the Senate floor, where they await confirmation votes.

All of the nominees refused to say whether the landmark civil rights ruling in Brown v. Board of Education was rightly decided, prompting opposition from progressives.

“Senators can and should ask questions about a nominee’s legal views and opinions on Supreme Court cases,” said Dianne Feinstein of California who’s the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

They’re not unique in ducking the Brown question before the Republican-led Judiciary panel. Many of Trump’s nominees have refused to say whether the decision was rightly decided, citing Canon 3A(6) of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which states that a “judge should not make public comment on the merits of a matter pending or impending in any court,” with exceptions.

Democrats say the canon doesn’t prohibit discussing Brown, in which the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, because it doesn’t involve a pending matter.

Nominees who refuse to answer the question about Brown may be doing so to avoid being trapped for follow-up questions about decisions such as Roe v. Wade, which established abortion as a constitutional right.

For example, Sixth Circuit Judge John Nalbandian faced questioning from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) about why he was willing to say Brown was rightly decided, but not willing to say the same for Roe.

Trump has appointed 119 judicial nominees to lifetime seats on the federal bench. This includes 76 district judges, 41 appeals court judges, and two Supreme Court justices.

The nominees received some support from Democrats and were easily cleared.

Brown, now a judge on the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals, was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The former trial court judge has written over 500 opinions and presided over about 150 trials. She was cleared 18-4.

Another black female district court nominee, Stephanie Dawkins Davis, hasn’t yet cleared the committee.

Grimberg, nominated to the Northern District of Georgia, is the general counsel and managing director of Nardello & Co., a global investigations firm. He was cleared 17 to 5.

Novak is a magistrate judge at the Eastern District of Virginia, and is now up to be a judge there. He was cleared 19 to 3.

The committee also cleared Matthew Solomson, who is nominated to a 15-year seat on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Solomson also declined to say whether Brown was correctly decided. He was cleared 19 to 3.