Why Amy Klobuchar Voted for Many of Trump’s Judicial Nominees

Mr. Franken believed Judge Stras was too conservative and feared the Trump administration would use his appointment to the Eighth Circuit to build a case to nominate him to the Supreme Court. He wasn’t alone: Judge Stras’s nomination was opposed by many civil rights, abortion rights and human rights organizations, which raised questions about his record and conservative views.

At Judge Stras’s confirmation hearing, Mr. Franken said he had “expressed severe reservations” about him in meetings with the White House, based on his previous rulings and what he saw as a partisan tilt in some of those decisions. “I voiced concerns about his professional experience, which signaled a very conservative view of the law,” Mr. Franken said.

Ms. Klobuchar had a different view: While Mr. Franken opted against returning his “blue slip” — a piece of blue paper with a senator’s opinion of the nominee on it — Ms. Klobuchar did.

Historically, the refusal to return a blue slip by a home-state senator would be the end of a nominee’s consideration. But the split between the Minnesotans gave Republicans a rationale to proceed with Judge Stras’s nomination despite Mr. Franken’s opposition.

When Judge Stras came before the committee, Ms. Klobuchar introduced him. While she said she was “deeply concerned” about the end of the blue slip process, she expressed no similarly grave reservations about Judge Stras, lavishing praise on his record of public service, the respect he garnered from other judges in the state and his work as a law professor.

“I chose to introduce this nominee because at this moment, a time in our history I believe that in some small way it is important that we respect those that we don’t always agree with because we must restore that respect for our courts,” she said. “Thank you for your public service, Justice Stras.”

Before the nomination came to the floor of the Senate for a final vote, Lambda Legal, a national organization that fights for the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, sent a letter to every senator, expressing concern about whether Judge Stras would adhere to civil rights rulings by the Supreme Court. The group said he had questioned lines of the majority opinion in a ruling that struck down a Texas sodomy law as unconstitutional.

Source link