President Joe Biden’s judicial nominee for the Chicago-based federal appeals court gained the unusual support of Indiana GOP Sens. Mike Braun and Todd Young on Wednesday as the Senate Judiciary Committee considered her nomination.
Doris Lenea Pryor, an attorney who has served as a U.S. magistrate judge for the Southern District of Indiana, would ascend to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should she be confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate. Both Braun and Young backed Pryor’s nomination, the first Biden appellate court nominee to receive support from a state’s two GOP senators.
“I’m appreciative of the president’s willingness to consult with me and Sen. Braun when this position became available in an effort to appoint a judge who earned the respect and support from all sides of the political aisle,” Young said at Wednesday’s hearing.
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Pryor, who had more than a decade of experience as an assistant U.S. attorney in Indiana and briefly worked as a deputy public defender in Arkansas, expressed her “overwhelming gratitude” for her adoptive Indiana home senators.
But Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), a member of the committee, briefly questioned her regarding a speech she made several years ago during a Constitution Day festival at her child’s school. Pryor said in a speech at that time that the Constitution was a “living document,” prompting questions from the Utah senator.
“Does that mean that the Constitution’s meaning changes over time?” Lee asked.
In response, Pryor said she would uphold Supreme Court precedents, adding, “What’s important about it is that the framers saw the need to be able to have this Constitution be able to apply to circumstances that they might not have thought of.”
The rare display of bipartisanship on Wednesday came just one day after the Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Steve Dettelbach to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after the agency had operated without a Senate-confirmed director since 2015.
Signals of bipartisan support for Biden’s judicial nominees can only bolster his already heightened streak of victories in the federal judiciary. The president has made 112 nominations since taking office, and 69 have been confirmed since January 2021. Still, GOP confidence in a “red wave” during the November midterm elections could stifle his efforts thus far if Democrats lose control of the narrowly divided Senate.
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Pryor, who is a black woman, also adds to the president’s commitment to refine the judiciary with judges who reflect the diversity of the nation. Of Biden’s total appointees, only two are white men as of June 1 despite said demographic making up over 70% of judges on Article III courts.
Additionally, the committee heard testimony from several other diverse nominees, including Roopali H. Desai to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Maria del R. Antongiorgi-Jordan, Gina R. Mendez-Miro, Camille L. Velez-Rive, three contenders for the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
