Here's my reporting from this morning about the ABA's peer evaluation process during Trump 2.0 and why we should be asking what we DON'T know about his lifetime judicial nominees this time around. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/the-abas-m...

UPDATE: Three more ratings are in. Clay Fowlkes (W.D. Arkansas) rated Well Qualified (substantial majority)/Qualified (minority). Nick Ganjei (S.D. Texas) rated Qualified (substantial majority)/Well Qualified (minority).

Aaron Peterson (Alaska) received "No Rating" due to insufficient information.

During Trump 1.0, the Standing Committee rated several nominees Not Qualified because they lacked enough experience to be a judge or because they were “lazy,” “arrogant,” or “gratuitously rude” or had issues related to bias, work ethic, judgment, and professional competence.

What don't we know now?

The chair of the Standing Committee told me via email that, as part of the peer evaluation process, some interviewees were being instructed not to talk to the ABA and that “the lack of direct contact with the nominee and the highly accelerated nominating process have made our job more difficult."

I'll have additional coverage tomorrow afternoon following Rodriguez's confirmation, but here was my preview earlier this week. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/senate-set...

Oof. 11 Dems just voted to advance her nomination. Confirmation vote to come. As @afj.org notes, "Rodriguez’s record is not balanced. Instead, her record reveals a history of shielding corporations, narrowing individual rights, and aligning with partisan movements hostile to fundamental freedoms."

Fourth, unfortunately.

And yet. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/the-white-...

I still, sort of, wrote about it today! Thanks for sharing your written testimony. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/trump-call...

Tomorrow's final vote (& today's cloture vote) will likely be worse, as five committee Democrats voted to advance Susan Courtwright Rodriguez's nomination to the floor. She'll be the first woman to serve as a lifetime judge on the Western District of NC. nominationnotes.substack.com/p/a-woman-ha...

Ted Cruz was set to hold a subcommittee hearing today on impeaching "rogue" judges. As @stevevladeck.bsky.social was prepared to say, it is a "perilous moment" for this hearing "thanks to the ongoing (and unprecedented) attacks on federal district judges from senior executive branch officials.” YEP!