Four Trump judicial picks advanced as Sen. Thom Tills (R-N.C.) re-upped his threat to disrupt business on future nominees unless homeland security officials answer his questions about an ICE crackdown in his state.
The Republican-led Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted along party lines to send the nominees to the full Senate for consideration. They include Andrew Davis and Christopher Wolfe for the Western District of Texas, John Shepherd to the Western District of Arkansas, and Anna St. John to the Eastern District of Louisiana.
The 12-10 committee votes replenished the pipeline of judicial nominees on the floor where action to fill court seats has slowed this year with fewer judges stepping aside for President Donald Trump to replace. The last confirmation was Feb. 5.
Before the vote, Tills clarified his plans to procedurally disrupt nominees in groups on the Senate floor as well as the regular order of business in the Judiciary Committee and other panels that he sits on unless DHS satisfies his request for information about the recent immigration operation in Charlotte.
“You know this pains me for this committee, in particular, because I’m proud of being one of the members that make quorum here and get markups done,” Tillis said, restating his blistering criticism of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s management of the agency.
“I will deny quorum and markups for any committees I’m on until I get the information I’ve requested or she resigns or gets fired, whichever comes first,” he said of that effort to begin March 19.
Tillis, who’s retiring after this term and has previously called for Noem to resign, used his leverage earlier this year to delay committee votes on judicial nominees over a dispute with the Armed Services Committee.
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