Senate Republicans Advance Another Trump Court Pick Rated 'Not Qualified'
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance the lifetime federal judgeship nomination of Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who earned an embarrassing “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association.
Every Republican member of the committee voted to send Mizelle’s nomination to the full Senate to be confirmed to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. She got no support from Democrats, in part because they all boycotted the hearing over another of President Donald Trump’s court picks scheduled for a vote ― Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
Mizelle, 33, earned the ABA’s not qualified rating because of her lack of experience. She doesn’t meet the ABA’s requirement that a nominee to a lifetime federal judgeship have at least 12 years of experience practicing law. Mizelle has only been practicing law since 2012, which the ABA notes is “a rather marked departure” from its standard.
She has also never tried a case ― civil or criminal ― as lead attorney or co-counsel.
“She presents as a delightful person and she has many friends who support her nomination. Her integrity and demeanor are not in question,” the ABA’s evaluation concludes. “These attributes however simply do not compensate for the short time she has actually practiced law and her lack of meaningful trial experience.”
During her confirmation hearing in September, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Mizelle to respond to the ABA’s rating. Mizelle talked up her brief stints as counsel to the associate U.S. attorney general from 2017 to 2018, and as a trial attorney in the Tax Division at the Justice Department. Since 2019, she has been an associate at Jones Day, which has been dubbed Trump’s “favorite law firm” because of all the attorneys he’s hired from there into his administration.
“I think it’s my experience as a career federal prosecutor that does make me equipped to do this job effectively,”...
