Senate Confirms Trump Pick to Lead DOJ’s Legal Policy Arm

Aaron Reitz was confirmed to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, a unit that serves a key role in the president’s selection of judge nominees.

The Republican-led Senate approved Reitz’s nomination, 52-46, along party lines on Wednesday. Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) didn’t vote.

Reitz, a chief of staff for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former deputy in the Texas attorney general’s office, is set to lead a unit that serves as the primary policy adviser for Attorney General Pam Bondi. The office also assists in the recommending of judicial nominees and in coordinating their Senate confirmation process.

During his confirmation hearing in February, Reitz drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers over his responses to questions on whether it would ever be acceptable to disobey a federal judge’s order.

Reitz said it would be “too case specific” for him to commit that officials should follow all court orders and that there’s “no hard and fast rule.”

The issue has come to a head as President Donald Trump and his allies ramp up attacks on judges and as GOP lawmakers push legislation reining in lower courts’ ability to issue nationwide relief blocking executive actions.

A trial court judge in Washington is also reviewing whether the administration defied an temporary restraining order against deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members, which the government has denied.

“Failing to unequivocally commit to following federal court orders should be disqualifying for any nominee before the Senate,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement following Reitz’s confirmation. “I am dismayed that my Republican colleagues do not see it this way.”

During the February hearing, Cruz said he has “every confidence” that Reitz will succeed at the Justice Department, including as a “critical right hand” for Bondi.