Neomi Rao, President Trump’s pick for the federal appeals court in the District of Columbia, is facing a fierce campaign from the Left that is reminiscent of the offensive faced by the man who occupied the vacancy — Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Rao, 45, who is Indian-American, currently serves as Trump’s regulatory czar. She weathered questions during a confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her college writings, views on presidential power, and legal experience.
At the same time, liberal advocacy groups took to Twitter to urge senators to #RejectRao. Activists on Capitol Hill donned T-shirts with quotes from Rao’s op-eds from the 1990s about date rape and race.
Kavanaugh faced questions about his high school yearbook. Rao’s opponents seized on op-eds written while she was a student at Yale University about affirmative action, race, and date rape. She’s also come under fire for her argument against a ban on dwarf-tossing.
Her confirmation hearing is high stakes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is considered the country’s second-most powerful court and a springboard to the Supreme Court. There’s buzz that she’ll be added to Trump’s list of Supreme Court candidates.
While Rao’s confirmation hearing lacked the raucous protests and interruptions that dominated Kavanaugh’s appearance before the Judiciary Committee in early September, the reverberations of his contentious confirmation battle were felt Tuesday.
BuzzFeed News published an article last month about Rao’s college-age writings, which were dug up by the liberal Alliance for Justice.
“Neomi Rao’s record of offensive statements about women, sexual assault survivors, LGBTQ people, people of color and the environment is matched only by her track record of advancing federal government policies that are deeply harmful to these same communities and interests,” Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, tweeted Monday.
Several Democratic senators hounded Rao about her op-eds, including one from 1994 in which Rao 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 rate is to stay reasonably sober.”
Rao expressed said her suggestion was meant as “common sense observation.” She added: “To be honest, looking back at some of those writings and rereading them, I cringe at some of the language that I used.”
Rao also said that in the two decades since she authored the op-eds, “I have matured as a thinker and a writer and indeed as a person.”
As head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Rao plays a crucial role in Trump’s regulatory agenda, which has focused on rolling back regulations at a number of federal agencies.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., pressed Rao on whether she would recuse herself from cases involving Trump’s regulatory actions. Rao said she would “look carefully at the statutory standards of recusal” and adhere to the practices of the D.C. Circuit.
Rao’s personal views and legal experience also featured prominently during the hearing. In one exchange, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who is running for president, asked Rao if she ever had an LGBT clerk.
“I’ve not been a judge, so I don’t have any law clerks,” she replied.
Booker then asked whether Rao has ever employed a LGBT person. “To be honest, I don’t know the sexual orientation of my staff,” she said. “I take people as they come irrespective of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation. I treat people as individuals.”
Booker also asked Rao whether she believes gay relationships are “immoral” or a sin. “My personal views on any of these subjects are things I would put to one side, and I would faithfully follow the precedence of the Supreme Court,” she said.
Several Republicans and conservatives have come to Rao’s defense following the resistance she faced from liberal opponents.
“There are some things you can write in college that could disqualify a person from later subsequent service in political life,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said, but “it’s quite obviously not what we’re dealing with her.”
