Democrats confront Texas court nominee
Abbott legal adviser nominated to seat on federal appeals court.
Democratic U.S. senators unleashed a flurry of tough questions during Wednesday’s confirmation hearing for Andy Oldham, the top legal adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott nominated to a lifetime seat on a federal appeals court.
Oldham responded with cautious answers and frequently declined to discuss specific controversies, including queries on whether discrimination against voters is a continuing problem and whether racism pervades the criminal justice system, saying it would be improper for a judicial nominee to address political matters.
Oldham also brushed aside questions about legal arguments and speeches he had made as Abbott’s general counsel and, before that, as a lawyer in the Texas attorney general’s office, saying his actions as an advocate would have no impact on his performance as a judge.
The approach frustrated several Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will vote in the coming weeks on Oldham’s nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Approval by the full Senate also is necessary.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., confronted Oldham over a 2016 speech in which he criticized the Environmental Protection Agency, Internal Revenue Service and other parts of
the “administrative state” as illegitimate and enraging.
“Do you think it is reasonable for us to have concerns that you can make a complete firewall, once you put that robe on, between something that personally enrages you, that you consider to be illegitimate, yet treat that illegitimate, enraging entity fairly in your courtroom?” Whitehouse asked.
“All I’m saying,” Oldham replied, “is the positions I’m taking as an advocate have no bearing on my ability to be a jurist.”
“Yeah, you know, people say that,” Whitehouse said. “I very much hope that that is true, but the trajectory of your rhetoric on this subject makes the likelihood of a 180 like that a little improbable.”
Oldham, 39, is President Donald Trump’s fifth nomi- nee to the 5th Circuit Court, giving the Republican leader an opportunity to leave a last- ing impression on a court with 17 active judges. The 5th Circuit — which handles cases from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi — is already considered one of the nation’s most conservative circuit courts.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, served as chairman during Wednesday’s committee hearing and worked to separate Oldham’s responsibilities as a lawyer from his job as a potential judge.
“It’s important to recognize now that Andy’s excel- lent work was on behalf of his client and that he served that client well,” Cornyn said at the start of the hear- ing, noting that Oldham also worked on behalf of an issue opposed by the National Rifle Association and, in a sepa- rate issue, defended state campaign finance laws. “So I hope my colleagues
will listen carefully to Andy’s record and background and not cherry pick when they start talking about his expe- rience,” Cornyn said.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., pressed Oldham about a 2016 radio interview in which the nominee criticized the Supreme Court as dangerous, saying it had created rights that are not in the Consti- tution while failing to protect sacred rights that are contained in the founding document.
Oldham said he was speaking on behalf of Abbott at the time.
“Do you agree with that?” Durbin asked. “Absolutely not,” Old
ham replied. “I would not sit before you as a nominee to an inferior court that would be subject to the rulings and precedent of the Supreme Court of the United States if I did not believe that I could be bound by them.”
Also appearing before the committee Wednesday was Austin lawyer Alan Albright, nominated to be the district judge for Waco, who choked up recalling the death of his father last year and his mother, who died the day before he learned he would be nominated by Trump.
Albright received few confrontational questions, unlike Michael Truncale, nominated to be a district judge in the Eastern District of Texas. Truncale was pressed over statements he made as a Republican congressional candidate in 2012, including a claim that former state Sen. Wendy Davis “wants to kill babies five months
into term.” Truncale said his actions as a candidate for a policymaking job would be different from his actions as a judge. The nominees will have one week to provide additional written answers to the committee, which has not yet scheduled a vote on
their nominations.