US Senate panel advances Trump judicial nominee ABA deemed 'not qualified'

By Nate Raymond

April 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to advance the nominations of four of President Donald Trump's latest picks to serve as federal judges, including the first nominee in his second term to be labeled "not qualified" by the American Bar Association.

The Republican-led panel voted 12-10 along party lines to send to the Senate floor the nomination of Katie Lane, a lawyer at the Republican National Committee deemed by the ABA to have too little legal experience to warrant becoming a federal judge in Montana.

It also voted 12-10 to advance the nomination of White House associate counsel Kara Westercamp to serve on the U.S. Court of International Trade, the same court hearing litigation over Trump's global tariffs, which Westercamp helped advise on.

The panel also advanced the nominations of Nelson Mullins partner Sheria Clarke, who is up for a district court judgeship in South Carolina, and federal prosecutor Evan Rikhye, whom Trump nominated to serve a 10-year term on the U.S. District Court for the District of the Virgin Islands, a territorial court.

In advancing Lane's nomination, Senator Chuck Grassley, the panel's Republican chair from Iowa, accused the ABA of bias against conservatives, a long-standing allegation against the largest national lawyers group, which has vetted federal judicial nominees since 1953.

In Trump's first term, the ABA deemed 10 of his first term judicial nominees "not qualified."

"Once confirmed, I hope Ms. Lane wears her ABA rating as a badge of honor," Grassley said. "Based on the history of stellar judges who have received poor ABA ratings, she's likely to become one of the nation's finest jurists."

The ⁠Trump administration last year moved to limit the group's role in rating his picks by restricting the organization's ability to vet them. Yet the ABA has continued to publish ratings of nominees, even without their participation.

According to a letter from the ABA, a majority of members of its Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary concluded that Lane was not qualified because, while she was viewed as a "talented lawyer," she had less than nine years ⁠of experience as a practicing lawyer, which is below the ABA's typical benchmark of 12.

Lane, who is in her 30s, graduated from George Mason University Antonin ⁠Scalia Law School in 2017. Her resume includes working in the Montana Department of Justice under Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen as deputy ⁠solicitor general from 2021 to 2023.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee's top Democrat, in opposing Lane's nomination noted that the ABA had faulted her for a lack of substantial courtroom and trial experience.

"When you look at the person who has been nominated to serve a lifetime appointment to the federal district court in Montana, you wonder, couldn't the White House find one attorney in Montana to recommend for a lifetime appointment who has actually tried a case before court?" Durbin asked.

Read more:

ABA rates Trump judicial nominee in Montana as 'not qualified'

Trump's nominee to trade court apologizes for past social media posts