Republicans confirm a 36-year-old judicial nominee who has never tried a case
Senate Judiciary Committee confirms an unqualified Trump nominee, Brett J. Talley, for a lifetime appointment
MATTHEW ROZSA11.10.2017•3:53 PM
President Donald Trump's nominee to be a federal judge in Alabama was just approved by every Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee — even though he was unanimously rated "not qualified" by the American Bar Association.
Brett J. Talley is 36 years old, has only practiced law for three years and made a series of partisan comments on his blog in 2016 that would normally be considered unbecoming of a judge, like referring to the Democratic presidential candidate as "Hillary Rotten Clinton,
according to the Los Angeles Times. Although Talley does have degrees from the University of Alabama and Harvard Law School and clerked for two federal judges, he has never argued a motion, making it nearly unprecedented for him to be considered as a candidate for a lifetime appointment.
One of Talley's most controversial statements was a blog post in which he claimed that President Barack Obama was "about to launch the greatest attack on our constitutional freedoms in our lifetime."
He added, "The object of that war is to make guns illegal, in all forms." After a commenter wrote that Americans would "resort to arms when our other rights — of speech, press, assembly, representative government — fail to yield the desired results," Talley said he agreed with him.
When asked about these statements by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Talley said he was merely "trying to generate discussion. I wanted people to be able to use my blog to discuss issues, to come together and find common ground."
The president has directly praised Talley as being an "untold story" that "nobody wants to talk about."
"When you think of it, Mitch [McConnell] and I were saying, that has consequences 40 years out, depending on the age of the judge," Trump said in October. "But 40 years out."
One other factor that may have contributed to Talley's nomination: He was mentored by Sen. Luther Strange of Alabama and worked in the Justice Department office that chooses judicial nominees.
Talley isn't the only Trump judicial nominee who has been the subject of
raised questions. Charles Goodwin, who was nominated to the federal bench in Oklahoma, was the first judicial nominee since 2006 to receive a "not qualified" label from the American Bar Association. Jeff Mateer, who was nominated to the federal bench in Texas, aroused controversy by referring to transgender children as proof of "Satan’s plan" and denounced the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage as "disgusting." John Bush, who was confirmed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote a blog post arguing that slavery and abortion were the "two greatest tragedies in our country."
https://www.salon.com/2017/11/10/re...-judicial-nominee-who-has-never-tried-a-case/
