Conservative groups are rushing to the defense of Neomi Rao, President Trump’s nominee to replace Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the federal appeals court in the District of Columbia, after some Senate Republicans have indicated they may not vote to confirm her.
Americans for Prosperity and Judicial Crisis Network are boosting their efforts to back Rao after Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questioned her views on abortion.
“Neomi Rao is fair, impartial, extremely qualified and has our full support,” AFP President Tim Phillips said in a statement. “The D.C. Circuit is one of the most significant judicial appointments outside of the Supreme Court, and we will be aggressively mobilizing our grassroots to urge every senator to confirm her.”
A Judicial Crisis Network strategist said the group is “engaging in an all-hands-on-deck, coalition-wide effort to demonstrate to Senator Hawley that support for conservative judicial nominees is not negotiable.” The group will be launching a $500,000 ad buy on TV, radio and online in Missouri in support of Rao.
“Sadly, barely a month after moving to Washington, Josh Hawley is already acting like Claire McCaskill when it comes to judges,” Judicial Crisis Network chief counsel Carrie Severino said. “Instead of supporting President Trump’s top judicial nominee, he is spreading the very same kind of rumors and innuendo and character assassination that Republican leaders fought during Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Hawley could be working to confirm her and other extraordinary nominees, but it seems he’d rather be making headlines.”
Rao, 45, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee this month, and faced questions about her college writings about date rape and sexual assault. In one essay, she wrote: “It has always seemed self-evident to me that even if I drank a lot, I would still be responsible for my actions. A man who rapes a drunk girl should be prosecuted. At the same time, a good way to avoid a potential date rape is to stay reasonably sober.”
Rao said she regrets her op-eds and said in the decades since she has “matured as a thinker and a writer.” She also declared sexual assault “in all forms” to be “abhorrent” in a letter sent to the Judiciary Committee’s leaders, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
“No woman or man should be subject to sexual violence, regardless of the clothes they wear or how much alcohol they consume,” Rao wrote. “Non-consensual activity is never appropriate or excusable.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on Rao’s nomination Thursday, but Hawley, a member of the panel, has signaled he’s unsure whether he’ll support her. Rao, he said, “does not have a strong record on life.”
“I just want to make sure we put judges on the bench who respect life, who are going to protect life to the maximum extent they can under this current Supreme Court doctrine,” Hawley told radio host Marc Cox on Monday.
Hawley told Axios on Sunday he “heard directly from at least one individual who said Rao personally told them she was pro-choice.”
The Missouri senator sent Rao a letter Tuesday saying he had questions about her judicial philosophy and approach to constitutional law, and cited prior academic writings that raised concerns.
“I take seriously the Senate’s role in giving advice and consent to the president’s nominations to the judiciary,” Hawley wrote. “Like President Trump, I am committed to confirming judges who will adhere to an original understanding of the Constitution.”
Hawley and Rao are scheduled to meet for a second time Wednesday.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, also warned during Rao’s confirmation hearing that her college writings on date rape “do give me pause.”
But Hawley has faced swift backlash for his remarks, as conservative heavyweights have spoken out in favor of Trump’s judicial nominee.
Former Attorney General Ed Meese said he has “no doubt that she will uphold the rule of law and not legislate from the bench.”
Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed has also reiterated the group’s support for Rao.
“Naomi Rao is eminently qualified and her judicial philosophy is antithetical to federal judges issuing rulings untethered from the enumerated rights found in the Constitution,” Reed said.
Rao currently leads the Office of the Information and Regulatory Affairs and has been a key figure in implementing Trump’s regulatory agenda. She also served as a professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
