Biden judicial nominee jeopardized by Democratic concerns over signature on abortion case
Kaelan Deese
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Democrats are raising concerns about the nomination of Michael Delaney to an appeals court over his signature on a legal brief defending a parental notification law for abortions in New Hampshire, marking a rare rebuke of President Joe Biden‘s federal judicial selections by lawmakers seeking to defend their pro-abortion rights positions.
“A look at Delaney’s legal career includes an egregious lack of respect for the privacy, safety, and rights of survivors and an apparent endorsement of the practices schools so often use to intimidate survivors into silence,” read a letter sent to Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month by groups including the National Women’s Law Center, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and People for the American Way.
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Meanwhile, Delaney already sustained pushback from both sides of the aisle for representing St. Paul’s School in a school sexual assault case in which he previously filed a motion that would have allowed a minor plaintiff to remain anonymous on the condition that she and her representatives agreed to remain publicly silent about the case during litigation.
Delaney has vehemently pushed back on concerns surrounding his representation for the school, saying, “I do not believe my role as an advocate for the school in this case would compromise my ability to be a fair and impartial judge.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who introduced Delaney during his confirmation hearing, also criticized the letter raising concerns over the nominee. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-MA) has also put her support behind Delaney.
“I think those progressive groups did not do their homework very well,” Shaheen said last week. “They did not really talk to the broad range of supporters that he has in New Hampshire, and they have factual inaccuracies in what they’ve said.”
Protest against Delaney will test the limits for how far the White House will go to support its nominees to the federal bench amid Biden’s record number of appointments during his first two years in office.
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Delaney was poised for a vote on Thursday along with several other judicial nominees, though the meeting was canceled due to the absence of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) amid her recovery from shingles.
Other delayed nominees included Robert Kirsch and Michael Farbiarz for trial court seats in New Jersey and Orelia Merchant for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.