2nd pick for court said ‘not qualified’

For the second time this year, the American Bar Association committee that vets federal judicial nominees has come out publicly against a Trump administration choice for a judgeship, declaring Leonard Steven Grasz “not qualified” to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.

The ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary said it had serious questions about Grasz’s temperament and his ability “to separate his role as an advocate from that of a judge.”

Grasz is an Omaha lawyer with Husch Blackwell LLP. He served as chief deputy attorney general of Nebraska for 11 years, defending, among other things, a prohibition on “partial birth abortion.”

Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, a backer of Grasz’s nomination, blasted the ABA’s judgment. “It’s sad that the ABA would contort their ratings process to try to tarnish Steve’s professional reputation in order to drive a political agenda,” he said in a statement.

Grasz’s Senate nomination hearing is scheduled for this morning.

The ABA’s ratings once carried significant weight with the U.S. Senate and could doom a nomination. Over time, however, they have lost some influence, with Republicans essentially ignoring them as politically tinged.

The two rebukes are relatively rare for the ABA. According to the ABA Journal, of the 58 Trump nominees for the bench, 28 have been rated “well qualified,” 13 “qualified” and now two “not qualified.”