Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday afternoon that the Senate would vote on the 15 nominees by the end of the evening. Three nominees are for appellate courts--one each for the Second, Third and Ninth Circuits. That would put the total of appellate judges confirmed at 29 in the last two years--a modern record for the first two years of a Presidency.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris complained Thursday that they did not sign off on three White House nominees for open California seats on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and said they would oppose their confirmation in the Senate.
President Trump announced Wednesday evening he had nominated Assistant U.S. Atty. for the Southern District of California Patrick J. Bumatay, Los Angeles appellate attorney Daniel P. Collins and Los Angeles litigator Kenneth Kiyul Lee for California-based vacancies.
Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she and the administration were still trying to reach a consensus on nominees when the White House abruptly announced them.
"I repeatedly told the White House I wanted to reach an agreement on a package of 9th Circuit nominees, but last night the White House moved forward without consulting me, picking controversial candidates from its initial list and another individual with no judicial experience who had not previously been suggested," Feinstein said in a statement.
In a letter sent to Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) on Wednesday, White House Counsel Donald McGahn said the White House made a good faith effort to work with California's senators, both Democrats.
"We have made more attempts to consult, and devoted more time to that state than any other in the country," McGahn said in the letter.
He detailed dozens of meetings with Feinstein or her staff regarding the White House's list of potential 9th Circuit judges since Trump took office and the lack of "constructive" feedback he says he received. He said that Harris refused to "engage with the White House at any level, whatsoever on the issue."
"At a certain point, we just have to nominate people," White House spokesman Raj Shah told The Times.
Both Harris' and Feinstein's staffs took issue with McGahn's description, saying their judicial selection review committees, made up of legal experts, law professors and attorneys, looked at but did not recommend any of Trump's picks. Together the senators proposed their own nominees in May.
"I met with Don McGahn on June 27 to discuss the vacancies and explained that Sen. Harris and I strongly opposed Daniel Collins," Feinstein said. "I also told him Kenneth Lee had problems because he failed to disclose to our judicial selection committees controversial writings on voting rights and affirmative action."
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Although three California nominees wouldn't flip the political lean of the largest circuit district in the country, they would increase the conservative presence on a court that has delivered some of Trump's biggest policy setbacks, including rulings against his travel ban and immigration programs.
If Trump filled all of the current openings in the nine Western states that make up the 9th Circuit, its balance would be 16 Democratic appointees to 13 Republican appointees.
The Senate on Thursday night approved Idaho attorney Ryan Nelson to join the 9th Circuit, bringing the total number of Republican appointees on the circuit to 10.
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