Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) on Thursday slammed her Republican colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee for pushing through a large number of President Donald Trump’s right-wing nominees.
At a hearing to discuss attorney general nominee William Barr, Hirono turned her attention to 40+ judicial nominees that the committee is expected to confirm.
“This week, I would like to focus on some of the nominees… that are part of this administration’s effort to pack our federal courts with ideologically-driven nominees,” Hirono told the committee. “Who gets on the federal court for life is high stakes. Just ask the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation who have spent decades and lots of money placing people who are on their ideological page on our federal courts.”
The senator noted that “over 80 percent” of the president’s nominees are members of the conservative Federalist Society.
“And yet, less than 4 percent of all American lawyers are Federalist Society members,” she explained. “Court packing is proceeding apace.”
According to Hirono, “Too many of these nominees have spent their careers opposing the rights of women, minorities, the LGBTQ community and Americans who need affordable health care.”
“Month after month, we have seen a parade of these so-called conservative activists nominated to the federal courts,” she added. “They have been groomed by conservative political ideologues. They want to see Roe v. Wade overturned or narrowed into oblivion, LGBT people permanently consigned to the margins of American life and constitutional and civil right encroached on the religious preference of a vocal few.”
