‘Record speed and focus’: Biden’s judicial picks diversify bench
During a hearing on her nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Jennifer Sung hit a speed bump.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy from Louisiana, one of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s more acerbic questioners, had taken issue with a letter Ms. Sung co-signed in 2018 describing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as “morally bankrupt.”
An Oregon labor lawyer who would be the first Asian American and Pacific Islander to serve on the 9th Circuit in Oregon defended the letter but said that if confirmed, “I would absolutely respect the authority of every Supreme Court justice, and all of its precedents, without reservation.”
“See, I don’t believe you,” replied Senator Kennedy. “I think you said a few years ago what you said about Brett Kavanaugh, and I think you believed it.”
Three months later, on Dec. 15, 2021, in a 50-49 party-line vote, the Senate confirmed her, along with another federal district court
