The following is the statement of Committee for Justice president Curt Levey on President Trumps' nomination Thursday of nine judicial candidates: four for the Fifth Circuit, three for U.S. District Court seats, and two for other federal courts:
Like President Trump's previous rounds of judicial nominations – starting with his selection of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court – the nine nominees announced yesterday remind Americans of the wisdom of one of their foremost reasons for electing this president: his commitment to strengthening constitutionalism and the rule of law in the federal judiciary.
We urge Senate Democrats to put aside partisan politics long enough to swiftly confirm each of these nominees.
The nine nominees all have the qualities necessary to achieve President Trump's commitment to improving the judiciary: impressive intellects, stellar accomplishments in their legal careers, upstanding characters, and a demonstrated commitment to following the law where it leads, rather than construing the law in light of their personal policy preferences.
Put another way, all nine can be counted on to take a jurisprudentially conservative approach to the law – that is, an objective, textualist interpretation of the Constitution, statutes, and regulations – regardless of whether the outcome pleases various political constituencies.
In the case of two of the Fifth Circuit nominees – Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett and former Texas Solicitor General James Ho – I can add an additional reason to support their speedy confirmation, based on having known them personally for a long time.
I have only personally known a small number of attorneys whose intellect, legal reasoning, and character scream out "The federal judiciary needs people like this." Jim and Don are two of them.