Steven Menashi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Sept. 11, 2019. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced the nomination of Steven Menashi for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, despite the backlash the White House lawyer faced after a testy nomination hearing last month.

The committee's vote came nearly a day after The New York Times reported on a legal memo Menashi wrote while he was acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education. That memo outlined a plan to use Social Security data to deny students debt relief, a legal strategy that was ultimately rejected by a federal judge.

Democrats seized on that report to add on to their criticism of Menashi, while Republicans ultimately said it would be wrong to criticize a nominee for providing legal advice one party disagrees with.

President Donald Trump tapped Menashi, a White House lawyer and special adviser to the president, in August for the Second Circuit spot.

However, Menashi faced backlash for past writings, particularly a 2010 law review article where he criticized "ethnically heterogeneous societies." He defended the piece at his nomination hearing, saying it was about Israel and not the United States.

And the nominee exasperated both Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary panel during his nomination hearing in September, as he repeatedly refused to answer questions about what topics he offered legal guidance for the White House.

Democrats warned on Thursday that allowing a nomination to advance despite ignoring questions from both sides of the aisle would set a bad example.

"This is a nominee is in a class of his own in evading and avoiding questions," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, said. "Not even tough questions, all questions. That is what has struck a number of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle."

There were rumblings that Menashi could face rare GOP opposition after the hearing: Republican Sen. John Kennedy said last week that he was "not feeling good" about Menashi but that he didn't know how he would vote on the nominee.

"I just want him to answer my questions and not dodge, bob, weave. This isn't a game," Kennedy said weeks ago. "He may be Oliver Wendell Scalia, but I can't tell, because he won't answer my questions."

On Thursday, Kennedy said he liked Menashi's legal reasoning and would support his nomination but criticized the White House's strategy in handling the nomination process.

"I think they're overcoached," Kennedy said. "The first time we had a nominee say 'I can't give you an opinion about Brown v. Board of Education, I was appalled. And I hope it gets better."

Democrats also raised concerns about Menashi's potential role in White House counsel's handling of records of a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A whistleblower complaint alleged that White House attorneys directed efforts to cover up the call. Senate Judiciary Democrats sent a letter to Menashi asking him if he was involved in the alleged actions, but the nominee did not respond.

Menashi, 40, previously served as acting general counsel at the Education Department. He is a former partner for Kirkland & Ellis, and clerked for Justice Samuel Alito and for Judge Douglas Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

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