Lawrence VanDyke testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 30.

The Senate has voted to confirm Lawrence VanDyke to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, making him the 10th of President Donald Trump's nominees on the nation's largest appellate court and the president's 50th circuit court appointee.

In a 51-44 vote, the Senate on Wednesday confirmed VanDyke, whose nomination had been the source of bitter partisan debate.

VanDyke is set to fill the seat of Nevada-based Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, who announced last year that he would take on senior status as soon as his replacement was confirmed. Nevada's Democratic senators, however, opposed VanDyke's nomination, maintaining that his four-year stint as the state's solicitor general didn't demonstrate sufficient ties to the state. VanDyke, they pointed out, didn't go to school in Nevada, didn't grow up there and hasn't visited the state in the past year, as he's worked in Washington, D.C., as deputy assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources division at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Democratic opposition to VanDyke's nomination was bolstered by a "not qualified" rating he received from judicial vetters at the American Bar Association in October. The ABA vetters' asserted in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that VanDyke "is arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice including procedural rules." The letter also said that VanDyke "would not say affirmatively that he would be fair to any litigant before him, notably members of the LGBTQ community."

Republican members of the Senate Judiciary criticized the ABA's rating process as biased against conservative lawyers at a hearing on VanDyke's nomination in October. VanDyke, at the hearing, broke down in tears when asked about the ABA's assessment of his ability to be fair to LGBTQ parties. After composing himself, VanDyke said, "I didn't say that. I don't believe that. It is a fundamental belief of mine that all people are created in the image of God, and they should all be treated with dignity and respect."

The vote on VanDyke comes a day after the Senate confirmed Southern California prosecutor Patrick Bumatay in a 53-40 vote, making him the first openly gay appellate judge and the first of Filipino descent appointed by Trump.

Prior to a party-line vote on VanDyke's nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, committee chairman Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, noted that VanDyke and Bumatay shared the witness table at their confirmation hearing and that Bumatay said he would be comfortable with VanDyke as a judge or a colleague. Graham said at the hearing that if VanDyke's four years representing Nevada as solicitor general didn't show significant enough ties to the state, he didn't know what would. "This was a tough hearing," Graham said of VanDyke's confirmation hearing. "His reaction to me told me a lot about who he is." Graham said that VanDyke's appearance before the committee showed that "though he's a social conservative National Rifle Association member that he can actually do his job" as a federal appellate judge.

Read more:

SoCal Prosecutor Patrick Bumatay Confirmed to Ninth Circuit Seat

Senate Judiciary Moves Ninth Circuit Nominations Forward in Party-Line Vote

Ignored or Attacked, ABA Committee Persists in Ranking Judicial Nominees

ABA 'Not Qualified' Rating and Blue Slips Dominate Hearing for Ninth Circuit Nominees