Collins casts deciding vote appointing ‘unqualified,’ extreme judge to lifetime post

Lost amid the uproar over Senator Susan Collins’ support for the GOP’s tax plan was another highly controversial vote cast by the Republican lawmaker this week.

On Tuesday, Collins voted to confirm Leonard Steven Grasz, one of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees and an opponent of abortion rights and laws protecting LGBT Americans, to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.

Collins, a supposed pro-choice moderate, cast her vote for Grasz despite the fact that a committee appointed by the American Bar Association (ABA) unanimously determined him to be “unqualified,” largely due to the fact that the conservative Grasz appeared unable to detach himself from his “deeply-held social agenda and political loyalty to be able to judge objectively.”

Among those who voted for Grasz: pro-choice GOPers Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. Grasz has said lower courts should be able to overrule SCOTUS decisions on abortion rights b/c “abortion jurisprudence is … a word game.” https://t.co/jlBwwgpmxp — Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) December 12, 2017

No Democrat in the Senate voted for his confirmation and many hoped that either Collins or Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska would cast a deciding vote against him. However, all present Republicans voted unanimously for his appointment.

Before the vote, members of the ABA interviewed more than 200 lawyers and judges experienced with Grasz. According to the report, not only did many express an “unusual fear of adverse consequences …based on the nominee’s deep connection and allegiance to the most powerful politicians in his state,” but many shared the opinion that he was not “free from bias” and that his conduct on the bench was often “gratuitously rude.”

In a statement condemning Collins’ vote, Maine Democratic Party chair Phil Bartlett, said: “Donald Trump is inflicting lasting damage on our judiciary system with his right-wing nominees, and rather than stand up for the interests of the nation, Senator Collins seems to be content with helping the President advance his backward agenda by quietly rubber-stamping the majority of his nominees – even the most unqualified and radical ones.”