Trump’s Ohio judicial picks divide Brown, Renacci

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nomination of two Ohio lawyers to the federal bench sparked a confrontation in the U.S. Senate race, as Republican Jim Renacci ripped Sen. Sherrod Brown’s decision to oppose Eric Murphy and Chris A. Readler to a federal appeals court based in Cincinnati.

Within hours of Trump’s announcement Thursday, Brown said he would vote against both judicial nominees, even though it could be months before the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a confirmation hearing. The Ohio Democrat said he could not “support nominees who have actively worked to strip Ohioans of their rights.”

That prompted Leslie Shedd, a Renacci campaign adviser, to accuse Brown of playing “politics with the federal courts," asserting that Brown “has a proven history of obstructing President Trump’s nominees. Only this time, he’s trying to block two qualified and deserving Ohioans from serving on the federal bench.”

The battle to confirm Murphy and Readler to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is just another in a series of bitter struggles between Democrats and Republicans over control of the federal courts. Even Republicans who are cool to Trump’s presidency have enthusiastically endorsed his efforts to appoint legal conservatives to the federal bench.

Murphy has been the state solicitor in the office of Attorney General Mike DeWine since 2013, overseeing and arguing cases involving appeals before the Ohio Supreme Court, the 6th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. The former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy argued before the 6th Circuit against legalizing same-sex marriage.

Readler, a former partner in the Columbus law office of Jones Day, has been principal deputy and acting assistant attorney general for the civil division at the U.S. Department of Justice.

In addition to voicing his opposition to Murphy and Readler, Brown will not return what is known as a blue slip to the Judiciary Committee on the nominations, spokeswoman Jennifer Donohue said. In the past, senators could block judicial nominations from their home states by not taking that step. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been brushing aside Democrats who have refused to return a blue slip.

“Senator Brown made very clear to the White House after meeting with both candidates and reviewing their records that he could not support these nominees because of their records working to strip Ohioans of their rights and their failure to answer for those records in meetings with the senator,” Donohue said.

“Senator Brown actively tried to work with the White House and offered alternative choices — including respected conservative lawyers. He remains willing to work with the White House on alternative candidates that he could support.”

By opposing both nominees, Brown is occupying the role once held by Ohio's late Democratic Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, who in 1987 worked feverishly and successfully to defeat Republican President Ronald Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump tapped Murphy and Readler to fill the seats held by Judges Alice Batchelder and Deborah Cook, who plan to take senior status.