The American people can be assured that our legal system is in the very best of hands with Joe Biden's judicial nominees.
We don't expect every judicial nominee to be Oliver Wendell Holmes. But it would give us a little more confidence if Joe Biden's judicial nominees knew the difference between a "stay" order and an "injunction."
"A stay order would prohibit, um, sorry. An injunction would restrain the parties from taking action. A stay order … I'm not sure I can, actually can, can give you that," said Sara E. Hill, nominee to be the district judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
No doubt she's Biden's first nominee for the Supreme Court.
Carrie Severino, constitutional lawyer and president of the Judicial Crisis Network, asked the pertinent question.
🚨President Biden’s district judge nominee Sara Hill was unable to explain to @SenJohnKennedy the difference between a “stay order” and an “injunction.”
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) November 15, 2023
How can an individual who wants to be a federal judge possibly not know this?
Senator Durbin even congratulated Hill… pic.twitter.com/6oJAKqhN3I
Senator John Kennedy has been toying with Biden's judicial nominees for most of Biden's presidency. Hill is not the only questionable nominee Biden has sent up to the Hill.
Hill has been championed by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee as being an "accomplished litigator with deep ties to Oklahoma and significant courtroom experience." If she is confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Native American to serve as a federal judge in Oklahoma.
The Biden administration has touted its diverse nominees to the federal bench, including nominating Adeel Mangi, who would be the first Muslim American to serve as a circuit court judge if confirmed.
Hill's nomination brings the issue of "diversity" front and center when considering the nomination of federal judges. That Hill could not explain the difference between a "stay" and an "injunction" is not as important as whether the fact that she's Native American should even matter.
She explained "Certainly, taking on the role of the federal district judge is one that leaves behind the life of advocacy and embraces the job and the life of a jurist, one who takes the cases before them and looks at them fairly, impartially and applies the law to the facts” she said. “I understand very much that that’s the job of the district judge and not to serve as an advocate.”
Great answer. So let's ask Joe Biden why it matters that she's Native American. If it's a question of "interpreting" the law, that's a very narrow path that Hill is required to walk. She just can't make the law up. It's there, written down in black and white.
The response might be that she will see the question before her as a Native American, not a white American. That's true. But I have yet to hear a rational explanation as to why race matters when interpreting the law on a case-by-case basis.
The reason for "diversity" in judicial nominations is politics; no more, no less.
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