The U.S. Senate voted today to confirm Edward Chen to the federal district bench in the Northern District of California, ending a debate that had revolved around Chen’s past work on polarizing civil liberties cases.
Chen, a federal magistrate judge in San Francisco, had waited since 2009 for a confirmation vote. Republicans stalled his nomination at several turns because of his 16 years as a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) accused Chen of having an “ACLU chromosome.”
Democrats, including California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, defended Chen, saying the views of his past ACLU clients shouldn’t be attributed to him. They also said he had an unblemished record as a magistrate since 2001.
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