Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) voted with Republicans on Thursday to block the nomination of Judge Sarah Netburn, who garnered significant controversy after ruling a transgender woman convicted of sex crimes should be transferred to a federal women’s prison.
It marked a rare instance of a Democrat breaking with the majority to bottle up one of President Biden’s judicial nominees in committee.
Netburn came under sharp criticism from Republican senators after she told Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, that she didn’t know whether it is possible to determine a person’s sex by analyzing their chromosomes.
When asked about determining sex by chromosomal analysis, the nominee told Graham, “I have never studied biology and therefore I am unqualified to answer this question.”
Carl Tobias, the Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond Law School, said Ossoff’s vote is the only “no” vote cast against a judicial nominee by Democratic senator on the Judiciary Committee since Biden became president.
“I have watched all of the discussions and votes in every Exec. Business Mtg. held by the [Senate Judiciary Committee] in Pres.
Biden’s tenure, and I believe that this is the only no vote cast by a Democrat on Biden’s 200+ judicial nominees,” he said.
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