Senate Democrats advanced the nominations of three controversial judges on Thursday with the tie-breaking vote of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Feinstein, 89, returned to the Senate on Wednesday after three months spent at home in San Francisco recovering from a case of shingles. The senator has lingering symptoms associated with her illness but felt pressure to fly back after facing calls to resign from some of her Democratic colleagues.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced more than 20 judicial nominees without her, each with bipartisan support, but a handful of more controversial judges have been held up for weeks with the committee deadlocked in Feinstein’s absence.
The committee voted 11-10 on Thursday to advance three nominees, Charnelle Bjelkengren, Kato Crews, and Marian Gaston, to the Senate floor.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticized Democrats for advancing the judges ahead of their vote, calling them “so beyond the pale that they have no prayer of getting a Republican” vote.
He called Gaston “moonbat crazy” for her comments on sex offender registry laws, comments that Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) said were being “twisted in bad faith.”
The other two nominees struggled to answer questions about case law and the Constitution during their confirmation hearings.
Feinstein’s return has come in fits and starts. She cast her first votes from the Senate floor on Wednesday after missing the first two.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he expected her to attend the panel’s hearing the following day to help move stalled nominees. But she failed to appear for roughly an hour, missing votes on three other judicial nominees who were approved with bipartisan support.
Feinstein received a standing ovation as she finally arrived at the hearing, which Durbin began by expressing his “relief and support” for the senator.
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Feinstein later asked to be recorded as voting “aye” in person for the nominations she initially missed.
Notably, the committee did not advance the nomination of Michael Delaney, President Joe Biden’s nominee who faces Democratic scrutiny for his signature on a 2005 legal brief supporting an abortion restriction in New Hampshire. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has voiced his support for Delaney.
