Jorge Gomez • 4 min read
The Biden administration keeps putting forth judicial nominees who hold extreme views and espouse outlandish legal theories.
Noel Wise—nominated for a federal district court in California—argues that laws that lay out a clear difference between two genders supposedly violate “separation of Church and State.”
In 2017, Wise published an article for Time magazine titled “Gender Laws Are at Odds with Science.” She wrote that “legislators blur the lines of church and state” when they “enact laws that permit or prohibit conduct based on biologic gender as only male or female.”
She argued that thinking about gender as only “two tidy boxes” makes it “virtually impossible for judges to consistently apply a law that permits or prohibits conduct based on whether someone is a man or a woman.”
During her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Wise faced intense questions from senators regarding her controversial statements.
“The idea that laws that would say women’s locker rooms are protected from biological men, that those are impermissible, that’s insane, but that’s what you say in this article,” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said.
“The idea that laws based on the distinction between male and female are in violation of Church and State is insane—totally insane,” Hawley added. “I can’t believe you have been nominated.”
This crazy judicial nominee thinks saying women and men are different is a First Amendment violation! Insane pic.twitter.com/GycO579Yt7
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 10, 2024
Wise’s nomination also raises concerns about whether religious Americans would be treated fairly in her courtroom. Wise wrote an article for The Atlantic in 2020 criticizing the race, gender and religious identity of judicial nominees during the Trump administration. Noel said it was a problem that many nominees were “White men” who “were raised or currently identify as Christian.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham made it clear he opposed Wise’s nomination. The South Carolina senator wasn’t convinced when Wise denied that she’d made a political statement in her 2020 Atlantic piece.
“You’re a zealous advocate who wants to be a judge and an advocate at the same time,” Graham said. “You ought to get into politics and not be promoted as a judge.”
With all of the work Biden’s judicial nominee Noel Wise did to push her political agenda while serving on the bench, she ought to get into politics, not get promoted. pic.twitter.com/ug9KKgJK9R
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) July 10, 2024
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana also blasted Wise for rejecting the idea that people are either male or female.
Noel Wise rejects the idea that people are either male or female. She says that “sex has countless natural permutations.”
Pres. Biden wants to give her a lifetime perch on the federal bench.
What could go wrong? pic.twitter.com/ie2s8nqnsX
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) July 10, 2024
Nominees who criticize the religious identity of others in news articles are more likely to engage in religious discrimination in courtrooms. And judicial candidates who make specious claims about the First Amendment in magazines may do the same in judicial opinions.
Simply put, many Biden nominees do not inspire confidence that they’ll be impartial arbiters of the law or treat all Americans equally. Instead, their records suggest they could be hostile to religious liberty and unconstitutionally advance their own policy agendas from the federal bench.
Learn More:
The Daily Caller: ‘These Positions Are Insane’: Josh Hawley Puts ‘Crazy’ Biden Judicial Nom On Blast For Bizarre First Amendment Claim
Courthouse News: Federal court nominee faces partisan grilling over magazine articles on gender
San Francisco Chronicle: ‘I can’t believe you have been nominated’: Republican senators grill Bay Area judicial nominee
Senate Judiciary Committee Rejects Controversial Nominee
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee recently voted 11-10 to reject the nomination of Sarah Netburn, picked by the Biden administration to fill a district court seat in New York.
Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia broke party lines and voted with Republicans last week to block Netburn’s nomination from advancing to the full floor. This is the first time during Biden’s presidency that the Judiciary Committee had ever voted to reject one of his nominees. Some prior nominations were stalled out or blocked before the committee could consider them, but never voted down.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee rightly rejected the nomination of Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn to be a U.S. District Court Judge in the Southern District of New York,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who’s also the Ranking Member on the committee. “This was the first bipartisan rejection by committee vote of a radical judge sent to the committee by the Biden Administration.”
Netburn faced intense questioning during her confirmation hearing. She came under scrutiny for a 2022 recommendation that a biological male prisoner, identifying as a woman, be housed in a women’s prison.
The inmate had been convicted of raping two children: a 17-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy. The inmate was also convicted of distributing child-sex-abuse material. Upon Netburn’s recommendation, a district court judge directed the Bureau of Prisons to “transfer [the prisoner] to a female facility as soon as possible.”
Regarding her transfer decision, Sen. Graham asked Netburn: “Is it possible to determine a person’s sex by only analyzing their chromosomes?”
“I have never studied biology,” Judge Netburn responded, “and therefore I am unqualified to answer this question.”
Americans confront increasing attacks on their religious liberty rights. Now, more than ever, our federal courts need judges who are committed the Constitution and the rule of law—who will rule according to principle and not political ideology. First Liberty will continue to monitor judicial nominees and to provide the facts about those with a radical or unacceptable record.
Learn More:
First Liberty: Biden Judicial Nominee Can’t Define What a Woman Is
Fox News: Dem senator helps block Biden judicial nominee amid controversy over transgender inmate
The Hill: Ossoff votes with Republicans to block controversial Biden nominee
Reuters: In a first, US Senate panel rejects Biden judicial nominee in New York
Courthouse News: NYC federal court nominee falters after Dem defection
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