Attorney’s nomination ‘favorable’ in Senate

WASHINGTON — By a 12-10 party line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to confirm Lee Rudofsky as a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

The Bentonville attorney’s nomination was “reported favorably” to the Senate floor. Republicans voted “yes”; Democrats voted “no.”

He now awaits a confirmation vote by the full Senate.

Rudofsky, a New York native, was one of three nominees Thursday who faced united Democratic opposition. Three others were approved by votes of 19-3. The three “no” votes were cast by proxy on behalf of three absent Democratic presidential candidates: U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California.

Afterward, Arkansas Republicans on Capitol Hill welcomed Thursday’s vote.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman of Rogers called Rudofsky “very well-qualified and is highly-respected within legal circles.”

“I am confident that Lee will be a fair and thoughtful jurist who will interpret the laws as they are written. I look forward to voting to confirm him to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas,” Boozman said in a written statement.

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Dardanelle also approved.

“Lee Rudofsky’s strong record of serving Arkansans and fighting corruption makes him an outstanding choice to serve as district court judge,” he said in a written statement. “Now that he’s won the support of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I urge the Senate to move to vote for his final confirmation.”

A Harvard Law School graduate, Rudofsky worked for the Kirkland & Ellis law firm in Washington before moving to Northwest Arkansas in January 2014.

Originally hired by Walmart as an assistant general counsel, Rudofsky joined the staff of Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge in August 2015. After three years as the state’s solicitor general, he returned to Walmart, this time serving as senior director of its global anti-corruption compliance team.

Prior to Thursday’s vote, two Democratic members, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Dick Durbin of Illinois, questioned his fitness to receive a lifetime judicial appointment.

Rudofsky’s record as Arkansas solicitor general is “very concerning,” Feinstein said.

“He argued in favor of a restrictive voter ID law and against a woman’s right to make her own reproductive decisions,” Feinstein added.

Rudofsky had previously defended his handling of the cases, arguing that he was zealously defending laws that had been approved by the people of Arkansas. He emphasized that he would respect U.S. Supreme Court precedent on abortion and other matters.

Thursday, Feinstein also accused Rudofsky of backtracking on same-sex marriage.

“While Mr. Rudofsky had joined two [legal] briefs in his personal capacity, in support of marriage equality, he renounced his prior support on the rights of same-sex couples during his confirmation hearings,” she said.

That disavowal, Feinstein said, “puts him out of step with the Supreme Court.”

During his July 31 confirmation hearing, Rudofsky distanced himself from a February 2013 friend-of-thecourt brief he had signed that challenged California’s Proposition 8, a ballot measure that had stripped gay couples there of the right to marry.