Patrick Bumatay appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, on Oct. 30, 2019.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on two nominees for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday, senators from both political parties raised dueling concerns about how the judicial confirmation process currently plays out.
Republicans on the committee criticized the American Bar Association’s “not qualified” rating of former Nevada Solicitor General Lawrence VanDyke issued the night before the hearing, with some calling on the White House to cut off the organization’s access to candidates claiming bias against conservative candidates. Democrats, meanwhile, noted that home state senators had not returned blue slips indicating their approval of VanDyke’s nomination nor that of Southern California federal prosecutor Patrick Bumatay, the other nominee under consideration Wednesday morning.
