Lawrence VanDyke confirmed to appellate court bench

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted mostly along party lines Wednesday to confirm controversial judicial nominee Lawrence VanDyke, a former Nevada solicitor general, to serve on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Nevada Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen led opposition to VanDyke’s confirmation, which was approved on a narrow 51-44 vote with only one Republican lawmaker voting against the president’s pick for the seat.

President Donald Trump tapped VanDyke, who served as solicitor general under former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, without consulting Cortez Masto and Rosen, who were unable to block the nomination due to procedural changes implemented by Senate Republican leaders.

“It sets some really terrible precedent that the senators from each state don’t have a say in their circuit court judges,” Rosen said.

Cortez Masto said that as a state, “we lose out on getting somebody on the bench from Nevada.”

“It’s a Nevada seat to the 9th Circuit,” said Cortez Masto, who said there were qualified, mainstream candidates in Nevada who would represent the legal interests of the state better than someone with “an ideological bent to him or her.”

VanDyke will replace Judge Jay Bybee of Nevada, who was appointed to the post by President George W. Bush. Bybee and confirmed by the Senate in 2003 on a 74-19 vote.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, during confirmation, praised VanDyke as a well qualified candidate, despite a “not qualified” rating by the American Bar Association.

Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., said the rating and comments by former colleagues that VanDyke was “arrogant” and “lazy” were the result of political animus that stemmed from his failed bid to win a seat on the Montana Supreme Court.

VanDyke previously served as a solicitor general of Montana, and a former Texas assistant solicitor general.

After those posts and the failed Supreme Court campaign, VanDyke moved to Nevada where he was a resident for about four years. He now lives in Washington, D.C. where he is employed as a Justice Department lawyer.

His brief service in Nevada drew “carpetbagging” criticism from Democrats, who also cite previous legal positions and rulings they characterized as homophobic, against reproductive rights and adverse to gun control and environmental protections.

Before the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called VanDyke a “bigot” who was undeserving of a lifetime judicial seat.

VanDyke’s nomination has been one of the most contentious in the Senate since Trump took office.

As such, the vote on his nomination broke along party lines, with only Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine joining Democrats in opposition. Maine independent Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, also voted to reject the VanDyke nomination.

Democrats in the Nevada House delegation signed a letter written by Rep. Susie Lee urging Senate leaders to reject the nomination. But Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., supported the president’s pick, along with the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, the Nevada Trucking Association and numerous former and current state Republican lawmakers and officeholders.

VanDyke’s confirmation gives Trump a record of seeing 50 circuit court judges confirmed since he took office in 2017, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond School of Law professor and former founding faculty at UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law in Las Vegas.

The controversial confirmation of VanDyke also gives the president 10 new appellate judges in the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Tobias said.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.