美国国家公共电台 NPR Senators Grill Trump Judicial Nominees On Provocative Blog Posts

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

There are more than 130 vacancies¹ on the U.S. federal courts. And now, President Trump² has started to fill some of those jobs. The number is unusually large because in the last years of the Obama administration, Republicans blocked dozens of Obama appointments. Now, the Trump nominees⁴ to fill those same judicial⁵ seats are coming before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And there are some surprising results. Here's NPR's Nina Totenberg.

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE⁶: You might call this week's group of nominees the bloviating bloggers. At their confirmation⁷ hearing, 2 of the 3 nominees found themselves trying to explain hundreds of what they admitted were often intemperate⁸ and very political blog posts, posts that range from the radical⁹ rant¹⁰ to those full of conspiracy¹¹ theories and false allegations.

The two bloggers took different approaches in their testimony¹². John Bush, a Kentucky lawyer nominated for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, said he regretted some of his 400-plus blog posts all under a fake name. And he maintained that the beliefs he expressed there would not carry over to his conduct as a judge.

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JOHN BUSH: Blogging is a political activity. It is not appropriate to bring politics to the bench. And if I'm fortunate enough to be confirmed, I will not bring politics to the bench.

TOTENBERG: Among the posts Bush said he now regrets is one that equated¹³ the Supreme¹⁴ Court's 1857 decision upholding slavery with the court's 1973 abortion¹⁵ decision Roe¹⁶ v. Wade¹⁷. Questioned by a skeptical¹⁸ Senator Dianne Feinstein, Bush said this.

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BUSH: I would follow Roe v. Wade and all the decisions that have come after that.

DIANNE FEINSTEIN: You're under oath.

BUSH: I am. I understand that.

FEINSTEIN: Correct.

BUSH: My role as a circuit judge is to apply the law of the Supreme Court.

TOTENBERG: Democrat¹⁹ Al Franken asked Bush about a variety of his posts that cited alt-right reports containing conspiracy theories and false information, such as the claim that President Obama was not born in the United States. Franken repeatedly asked Bush how he decided²⁰ which sources to rely on for information, pointing to one source which Franken called a, quote, "white nationalist propaganda organ filled with hate speech."

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AL FRANKEN: How did you decide that World News Daily is a credible²¹ source?

BUSH: I don't know whether I decided that or not. I just really cannot remember that particular...

FRANKEN: So you were free - you felt free to put posts out that cite sources that you knew were not credible?

BUSH: No, Senator, I'm not saying that.

FRANKEN: What are you saying?

BUSH: I'm saying that as a blogger, I was making political statements.

TOTENBERG: Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana seemed unpersuaded.

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JOHN KENNEDY: Mr. Bush, I've read your blogs. I'm not impressed.

TOTENBERG: While Bush adopted an apologetic tone, a second nominee³, Damien Schiff, was far more confrontational²². Schiff, named to the Court of Federal Claims, has a very conservative record, challenging everything from environmental regulations to health and safety rules and gay rights laws.

In one of his many blog posts, Schiff called Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy a judicial prostitute. He said that Kennedy, who often casts the fifth and deciding vote in closely divided cases, is, quote, "selling his vote to four other justices in exchange for the high that comes from aggrandizement²³ of power and influence and the blandishments of the fawning²⁴ media." Schiff only marginally backed away from those words yesterday.

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DAMIEN SCHIFF: I'd also like to clarify that the point of that blog post was not to impugn²⁵ or malign²⁶ any person but rather to attack a certain style of judging that is frequently applauded in the media.

TOTENBERG: That seemed to satisfy the committee's Republicans except for Louisiana's Kennedy, who looked disgusted at the end of the hearing but said he'd not decided how he'll vote. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.