Here (Doesn't) Come The Judge

Racist, sexist Senate Republicans never let an opportunity to screw over Senate Dems go to waste when it comes to petty procedural stuff to urt Black women, and they delivered again today in blocking the 3rd Circuit's first Black woman judge.

President Biden’s nominee to serve as the first Black woman judge on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals failed to win confirmation in the Senate Tuesday after two Democratic senators missed the vote: Sens. Maggie Hassan (N.H.) and Tammy Duckworth (Ill.).

Public defender Arianna Freeman’s nomination to the appeals court failed by a vote of 47 to 50. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted “no” to give him the procedural flexibility to bring her nomination back to the floor at a future date.

Hassan and Duckworth were absent, as was Republican Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.).

Every Republican present voted against the nominee.

If both absent Democrats had been present and voted “yes” along with Schumer, Freeman would have won confirmation in a 50-49 vote. Democrats also could have won Freeman’s confirmation in a 49-49 vote, with Vice President Harris breaking the tie because of Young’s absence.

Hassan is in New Hampshire, where voters are taking part in primary elections on Tuesday. Hassan also cast her vote in New Hampshire on Tuesday morning.

A senior GOP aide said Freeman’s confirmation failed because of Democrats’ “attendance problems,” while a senior Democratic aide downplayed the setback as something that happens from time to time in a narrowly divided Senate.

Freeman’s nomination to serve on the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit divided the Judiciary Committee along partisan lines earlier this year. Democrats and Republicans deadlocked 11-11 on a vote to discharge her to the floor.

A graduate of Yale Law school, Freeman has worked as a public defender for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, representing state and federal inmates in challenging their convictions and sentences.

 

Republicans don't want Black women on the federal bench, they've made that clear over the last 21 months. They especially don't want female Black public defenders on the federal bench, because the federal bench is primarily the domain of rich white Federalist Society men who want to dismantle democracy and replace it with a white supremacist theocratic police state. 

So yes, they blocked her, forcing Schumer to bring her vote back up later, in case a red state Democratic senator dies or something and they can take over the Senate in the meantime.

Racism never stops being petty or hateful.