Vice President Mike Pence broke a Senate tie Tuesday afternoon to confirm Jonathan Kobes, 51-50, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, approving the nomination of a congressional lawyer whom a ratings committee deemed “not qualified.”

Kobes, currently general counsel to Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, will be the fourth of Trump's nominees appointed to the Missouri-based appeals court. The lawyer has worked for Rounds in his Sioux Falls office since 2016, previously serving as Rounds' deputy chief of staff and counsel in Washington, D.C.

Kobes' confirmation makes him Trump's second Eighth Circuit appointee who received a “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association's judicial nominations review committee. Kobes follows Leonard Steven Grasz, a fellow Eighth Circuit pick who was deemed “not qualified” over concerns of his judicial temperament.