Murkowski and Sullivan split on Biden judicial nominees

WASHINGTON — As President Joe Biden races to install federal judges, Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan are taking vastly different approaches.

Of Biden’s 84 federal judge appointees, Murkowski has voted in favor of 64. Sullivan has voted for none.

Biden is rapidly nominating judges to counterbalance Trump’s volume of appointees to the federal bench. At this point in his presidency, Biden is on par with Trump’s fast pace. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scrambling to approve more judges before the next congressional term, when the balance may shift in favor of Republicans.

The judicial process has become increasingly polarized in recent years, and like most Senate Republicans, Sullivan tends to vote the party line. Murkowski represents a rare exception of a senator willing to routinely break with her party on judicial votes. While she has said she rejects what she has called the “corrosive politicization” of the confirmation process, during Biden’s time in office, Murkowski has become a key vote to watch on judicial nominees.

Murkowski and Sullivan both voted for nearly all of former President Donald Trump’s over 230 federal judicial appointments — with a notable exception for Murkowski in the case of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, something her Republican election challenger Kelly Tshibaka has criticized her for.

Murkowski and Sullivan did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

“I think they just have different philosophies,” said legal expert and former federal prosecutor David Lat, who writes a newsletter called Original Jurisdiction. “They both understand that judges are important, but Sen. Murkowski has a philosophy that is more focused on just professional qualifications, while Sen. Sullivan seems to also take into account ideology.”

Murkowski is the second most frequent GOP supporter of Biden’s nominees, and was one of just three Republican senators to vote to confirm Biden Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

After voting to confirm Jackson earlier this year, Murkowski said that the Supreme Court review process “on both sides of the aisle, is growing worse and more detached from reality by the year.”

Before announcing support for Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett in 2020 Murkowski said she had concerns about “the public perception of political influence on the court,” adding that she “would hope that we all recognize that public confidence in our courts must be an imperative.”

But these days, Brookings Institution judicial expert Russell Wheeler said, “almost all Republican senators are voting unthinkingly against the nominee. The Democrats did that to a large degree under the Trump administration, too.”

Murkowski’s willingness to vote for Biden’s nominees gives Senate Democrats breathing room on narrow confirmation votes, according to Wheeler.

“They’re very grateful whenever they don’t have to get all 50 Democrats in place to vote in order to confirm a nominee,” Wheeler said.

Though Sullivan is a reliable Republican “no” vote on Biden’s nominees, he has gone out of his way to speak with several of them. As a part of his consideration for federal judges, Sullivan has made it his mission to meet with every 9th Circuit, D.C. Circuit and Supreme Court nominee personally — a habit that is exceedingly uncommon, according to Senate Judiciary Committee Democratic aides.

The 9th Circuit has jurisdiction over Alaska cases, but only one of its 29 active judgeships is from Alaska. In meetings with 9th Circuit nominees, Sullivan has said that he raises Alaska-specific laws like the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

Sullivan demanded conversations with three of Biden’s 9th Circuit nominees in Dec. 2021 after he said he was denied meetings. He asked the candidates to call him directly in a Senate floor speech so he could review Alaska-related cases with them.

“I am ready to meet and talk to you anytime before the vote,” he said, addressing the judges. “You know this is the right thing to do, judges. You have read the Constitution. Heck, if our meeting goes well, I might even vote for you.”

After joining 46 Republicans in voting against Jackson, Sullivan said in a statement that the most important quality he looks for in a nominee “is a record and judicial philosophy that understands and emphasizes limits on federal judiciary and federal agency powers.”

Judges confirmed to the Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals and U.S. District Courts address disputes filed under federal statutes which can involve important issues like environmental policy, labor policy, abortion, and gun rights.

“The federal judiciary is a critical part of our government,” said Lat. “These judges are enormously important and influential and they have the final word on so many issues of the day.”