WASHINGTON – Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article III Project (A3P), today released the following statement on President Biden’s first slate of 11 judicial nominees.
“Conservatives and most other sensible Americans understand judges have a modest, but critical, role in our constitutional order: judges resolve legal disputes between parties. Liberals, on the other hand, believe judges serve as our unelected overlords who do the elected Democrat politicians’ dirty work by unconstitutionally legislating grand policy schemes that lack popular support from the American people.
“Liberals cannot win elections by selling their radical nonsense, so they cobble together coalitions. Liberals only pretend to care about diversity to help them obtain and maintain power. Indeed, they have a clearly documented, 30-year pattern and practice of voting against highly qualified women and minority judicial nominees — going back to Justice Clarence Thomas — from Republican presidents. So when liberals claim they want ‘diversity’ on the federal bench, it’s clear they really mean ‘liberal judicial activists.’
“But elections have consequences. Unfortunately, we have a Democrat president. And because too many Republican voters stayed home for the two Georgia runoff races in January, we have a 50-50 Senate controlled by a Democrat vice president’s tie-breaking vote. Liberals certainly do not have any mandate for radical change, but they do have narrow control of the process to confirm federal judges. Thus, our approach will reflect this reality.
“A3P will #resist the impulse of the radical leftwing groups — such as Brian Fallon’s Demand Justice, Vanita Gupta’s Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Kristen Clarke’s National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law — to mindlessly oppose the President’s nominees, like they did to nearly all of President Trump’s nominees. Their #resist strategy was counterproductive and undermined their credibility, helping Senate Republicans confirm hundreds of President Trump’s conservative judicial nominees. This included 3 Supreme Court justices and a near all-time-record 54 federal circuit judges to the critically important federal courts of appeals, the last stop for more than 99% of federal appeals.
“Some of today’s nominees are familiar names; others are not. We look forward to learning more about each nominee, including their qualifications, views of the proper role of a judge, and their commitment to the rule of law, as they proceed through the Senate’s critical constitutional advice-and-consent process. While A3P will not mindlessly oppose every one of the President’s nominees, we will certainly oppose nominees who are outside of the mainstream and lack bipartisan support. This is particularly true of judicial nominees, who serve in a separate and independent branch of government.
“The liberals’ predictable cries of ‘racism’ and other woke genuflecting when conservatives rightly oppose extremist leftwing nominees will ring particularly hollow considering how many highly qualified minority and women judges Senate Democrats and their leftwing allies opposed for no other reason than a Republican president nominated them.”
The Article III Project (A3P) was founded by veteran GOP operative and attorney Mike Davis, who, after helping win the Senate confirmation battles of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, developed the reputation as a “take-no-prisoners conservative eager to challenge the left with hardball tactics,” as reported in The New York Times. A3P defends constitutionalist judges, punches back on radical assaults on judicial independence (like court-packing) and opposes judicial and other nominees who are outside of the mainstream.
Davis previously served as Chief Counsel for Nominations to Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and led the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and a record number of circuit court judges.
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