Judge Sarah Netburn, nominated by President Biden, to one of the largest US courts Prestigious federal courts The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday passed up two opportunities to advance her elevation to become the country’s top female prosecutor, saying the road ahead is difficult for her. The apparent delay came after Republicans highlighted her decision to send a transgender man, who is also a sex offender, to a women’s prison.
Biden nominated Netburn to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, one of the most prestigious and busiest federal courts in the country.
During his speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, the Senate Minority Leader said, Mitch McConnellR-KY, said the Judiciary Committee has received “nearly a hundred letters from liberals opposing Judge Netburn’s activism!”
“Apparently it’s not enough for Senate Democrats to rubber-stamp radicals’ decisions to send them to the courts. They absolutely do not want the American people to know about this,” Kennedy said. “The cat is out of the bag.”
Netburn ordered inmate July Justine Shelby, who was incarcerated under the name William McClain, transferred to the women’s prison, against the recommendation of Bureau of Prisons officials.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., criticized Netburn during a May hearing, labeling him a “political activist.”
Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Senate Judiciary Committee)
Questioning Netburn before the House Judiciary Committee last month, Kennedy said Shelby, who was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, had also been convicted of molesting a nine-year-old boy and raping a 17-year-old girl, as well as another case. sending child porn For other sex offenders.
“I issued a report and recommendation to the district judge recommending that the district judge transfer the petitioner to a women’s facility,” Netburn said during the hearing. “My recommendation was that the petitioner’s serious medical needs were not being met by placing her in a men’s facility.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accused Netburn of being “willing to violate the rights of individuals to satisfy his own political ideology.”
Cruz pressed Netburn on whether other women in prison didn’t have the right not to have a 6-foot-2-inch “serial child rapist with male genitalia” as their cellmate.
During her nomination hearing, Netburn was repeatedly questioned about her 2022 recommendation that Shelby “should be immediately transferred to a women’s facility,” despite the objections of the Bureau of Prisons.
Judge Anne Hwang, Judge Sarah Netburn, Judges Michelle Court, Stacey Newman, and Judge Cynthia Valenzuela at a Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing. (Senate Judiciary Committee)
Ranking Member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked, ,In your Report and Recommendation, you open your ‘Factual Background’ section by stating: ‘At birth, people are typically assigned a sex.’ … Is it possible to determine a person’s sex by simply analyzing their chromosomes?”
Netburn responded, “I have never studied biology, and so I am unqualified to answer this question.”
McConnell, in his remarks on the Senate floor on Thursday, criticized Democrats’ acrimonious handling of last month’s confirmation hearings.
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“Soon the Judiciary Committee will consider promoting Magistrate Sarah Netburn of New York to the District Court, which will make the committee’s process less equitable,” McConnell said. “Judge Netburn’s hearing was a controversial case. You should look at it. My friends, the junior senators from Louisiana and Texas, gave the judge a thorough hearing about her judicial activism from the bench.”
“She was clearly prepared for their questions. But in the end, she succumbed to the sharp criticism of my colleagues,” he added. “That’s when the committee’s acting chairwoman intervened. After the Republicans had finished asking Judge Netburn questions, she invited the nominee to defend himself. Of course, his defense was in stark contrast to his written opinions as a judge.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, criticized Biden’s nominee, Judge Sarah Netburn, during remarks on the Senate floor Thursday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“Republicans on the committee rightly objected. It’s one thing to give a candidate a chance to reinvent himself, but it’s an entirely different matter to give him the last word because he lied to the committee,” McConnell added. “When the candidate gave two different explanations for his involvement in political activism from the bench, Democrats on the committee halted further questions and closed the hearing.”
“This sounds an awful lot like another nominee, Adeel Mangi“As the junior senator from Louisiana said, this sounds very much like a cover-up,” McConnell said, referring to Kennedy’s comments.
The Senate Judiciary Committee was expected to vote on Netburn’s nomination on Thursday.
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If it is approved, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would then have to decide when or whether he would bring the nomination up for a vote on the House floor — a move that would put vulnerable Democrats in a quandary.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a business meeting Thursday to discuss pending nominations, but lawmakers did not raise the issue of Netburn at all, suggesting the matter is being handled behind the scenes.
Netburn has served as a magistrate judge for 12 years.
Fox News’ Louis Casciano contributed to this report.
