[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 100 (Thursday, June 13, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S4063]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Sarah Netburn

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, soon, the Judiciary Committee will 
consider promoting a magistrate in New York, Sarah Netburn, to the 
district court after a less-than-judicious committee process.
  Judge Netburn's hearing was a contentious affair. You should go watch 
it. My friends the junior Senators from Louisiana and Texas had the 
judge dead to rights on her judicial activism from the bench. She was 
clearly prepared for their line of questioning, but by the end, she 
wilted under the withering fire from my colleagues.
  That is when the acting chairwoman of the committee got involved. 
After Republicans were finished questioning Judge Netburn, she invited 
the nominee to defend herself. Her defense, of course, flatly 
contradicted her written opinion as a judge.
  Committee Republicans rightly objected. It is one thing to give a 
nominee the chance to rehabilitate herself, but giving her the last 
word as she lied to the committee is a different matter entirely. After 
the nominee gave two different explanations for why she had engaged in 
political activism from the bench, committee Democrats blocked further 
questions and closed the hearing.
  It sounds an awful lot like the way another nominee, Adeel Mangi, 
explained his policy views to liberal interest groups only after the 
committee was finished questioning him. Judge Netburn got the last word 
here.
  As the junior Senator from Louisiana said, it looks an awful lot like 
a coverup. Apparently, it is not enough for Senate Democrats to 
rubberstamp radicals to the courts. They desperately don't want the 
American people to even know about it.
  Well, it is not working. The Judiciary Committee has received almost 
100 letters from liberals opposing Judge Netburn's activism. The cat is 
literally out of the bag. So I would urge my colleagues to pay 
attention to what happens in the Judiciary Committee as Judge Netburn's 
nomination moves forward.