President Donald Trump's nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday repudiated comments by a senior district judge in that circuit who criticized a group of former law clerks who are advocating for steps to address sexual harassment in the judiciary.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on six nominations, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, put nominee Jonathan Kobes on the spot by asking him if he agreed with comments by U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf of the District of Nebraska.

Kopf in July tweeted: “[All female] Law Clerks for Workplace Accountability launches a website, a Twitter account, and issues its 'Response to the Judiciary Workplace Accountability Working Group's Report.' A new Spanish Inquisition by SJWs? Thanks goodness for Article III.”

Hirono asked Kobes, general counsel to U.S. Sen. Michael Rounds, R-South Dakota, if he agreed with Kopf.

“I have not read those comments,” Kobes began, but Hirono interjected, “I just read them to you. Do you agree with them?”

Kobes responded: “I do not. I think it's well established that sexual harassment occurs in a variety of places. I would support efforts to address those issues aggressively. Those are not words I would ever use in a personal or professional context.”

Proposed reforms in the federal judiciary—spurred by the resignation of disgraced Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit—address “power disparities” in the courts. Circuit courts around the country are taking steps to implement proposals to protect employees from workplace harassment and make it easier to report harassment.

Kobes received the most extensive questioning of the six nominees who appeared Wednesday in the Senate. Some Democrats, including Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, used the hearing to vent frustration over their stymied access to U.S. Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh's records as staff secretary to former President George W. Bush.

Hirono, referring to recent court actions involving Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, announced she was canceling a meeting with Kavanaugh. Cohen, a former Trump lawyer, pleaded guilty Tuesday in a hush-money scheme in which he implicated the president. Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, was found guilty Tuesday on bank and tax fraud charges in Virginia federal court.

“This president, who is an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal matter, does not deserve the courtesy of a meeting with his nominee—purposely selected to protect, as we say in Hawaii, his own okole,” Hirono said.

Appearing with Kobes were five trial court nominees, including U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Rowland, named to a seat on the district court in Chicago. The former civil rights litigator is the Trump administration's first LGBT judicial nominee. In introducing her family and friends who attended the hearing, Rowland gave a shoutout to federal public defenders “who do tough, important work all over the country.”

Judge Mary M. Rowland appearing Wednesday at her confirmation hearing Wednesday. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / NLJ

Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, asked Rowland what U.S. Supreme Court decision other than Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade had the greatest impact on American society. Rowland pointed to Marbury v. Madison because, she said, “it established the pre-eminence of the court and it was early on when the founding documents were signed. At that point, it was important to establish that principle.”

Kobes and Kenneth Bell, tapped for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina and currently partner at McGuireWoods in Charlotte, North Carolina, were questioned about earlier positions and writings reflecting hostility towards abortion. Both men promised to faithfully apply Supreme Court precedent.

Two former clerks to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas also appeared Wednesday for their confirmation hearings: Carl Nichols, vice chair of the government and regulatory litigation team at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Washington, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and Martha Pacold, deputy general counsel to the U.S. Treasury Department, who was picked for the district court in the Northern District of Illinois.

The committee also heard from Steven Seeger, senior trial counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Chicago, also nominated to the district court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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