Trump judge nominee torn apart by Democrats in hearing after top legal body deems him 'not qualified'

A judicial nominee put forward by President Donald Trump, whom the American Bar Association deemed unqualified for the job, has come under sharp questioning in the Senate.

Tabbed by Donald Trump to fill a vacancy on the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Leonard Steven Grasz was dealt a rare rebuke from the ABA. The legal organization voted 14-0 to label Mr Grasz “not qualified”, with one member abstaining.

Democrats were not about to let him forget it.

“I assume you’re keenly aware that you are the first circuit court nominee since 2006 to receive a unanimous not qualified rating”, Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse said.

“That is my understanding, Senator”, Mr Grasz replied, though he said “I do respectfully disagree with the result”.

The ABA gave Mr Grasz a failing grade after interviewing hundreds of lawyers and judges who had interacted with him, according to a lengthy statement from the chair of the organization’s Standing Committee on the Judiciary. There was a recurring theme: they said his political beliefs would make him unable to be impartial.

“They expressed the view that he would be unable to separate his role as an advocate from that of a judge”, the statement said, noting his “deep connection and allegiance to the most powerful politicians in his state” and citing questions about “whether Mr. Grasz would be able to detach himself from his deeply-held social agenda and political loyalty to be able to judge objectively, with compassion and without bias”.

Those biases include a long record of opposing abortion rights, Democratic senators charged, and critics argue Mr. Grasz has fought to stifle LGBT rights. Minnesota Democrat brought up a Mr. Grasz authoring a legal opinion that warned about the “grave danger” of Nebraska recognizing same-sex marriages.

His detractors note that he served on the board of a socially conservative organization, the Nebraska Family Alliance, that questioned same-sex marriage and promoted discredited “gay conversion therapy”. Mr. Grasz deflected senators questions about whether he shared the organization's beliefs, though he acknowledged that “I've never repudiated any of its views”.

Republican senators brushed off the ABA’s skepticism, which Nebraska senator Deb Fischer called “baseless political character association”. Her colleague, Ben Sasse, argued that a judges are adept at discarding their political beliefs when they issue rulings.

“If Steve wanted to advance a policy agenda, I’m confident he would have run for office”, Mr Sasse said.

Some argued that the ABA itself was biased. Mr Whitehouse sought to rebut that point, noting that the organization had deemed qualified 40 of Mr Trump’s 42 judicial nominees so far.

It would be hard for the committee to ascribe the outcome in this case to a general partisanship of the ABA process”, Mr Whitehouse said.