Fights over minority judges are nothing new.
When President George W. Bush nominated Miguel Estrada, a highly touted Hispanic lawyer with impeccable legal credentials, for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Democrats launched the first-ever successful partisan filibuster of a judicial nominee.
Analysts said Mr. Estrada was likely being groomed for the Supreme Court and Democrats didn’t want a Republican to name the first Hispanic to the high court.
Their gambit paid off. Mr. Bush ended up appointing two white men to the high court, leaving President Obama the chance to appoint the first Hispanic, Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
“I think they probably have the same concern about Thapar, which is he could become the first Asian-American justice,” said Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice. “I think that was one reason you saw 44 Democrats voted against him.”