At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) questioned Whitney D. Hermandorfer, nominee to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit.
00:00Skipped him in order. I promised him one more question. All right, Senator. This gavel will never come to me again though
00:06If if if you ask more than one question, so we'll hold you to it
00:13This is just in honor of Mike Lee's birthday
00:17His wish was that I got an extra question. I I wanted to just follow up on one of your answers to Senator Durbin
00:24He asked about the necessity of following court orders and you're very specific in your answer and said that if the Supreme Court rules
00:33That you have to then you have to follow the order as it pertains to the parties to the to the case
00:37I want to ask you about a lower court ruling though. You would agree. Would you not that if a district court rules?
00:45Pending appeal or pending any other stay or action by a higher court that
00:50that
00:51The parties covered by that order including the administration need to abide by that order
00:56As I mentioned to ranking member Durbin the normal course if you disagree with the court order is to seek appellate review in the way that you mentioned
01:03Yes, I I do note that my understanding is yesterday. There was some testimony about
01:08You know particular cases
01:10and nuances of that debate that I think are active and
01:15And obviously the interaction of article 3 and article 2 is an actively litigated matter
01:21But absolutely in the normal course the proper way to vindicate your rights is through the appellate process
01:26So thank you. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you sir. No are really John
01:32Let's look at this all order has is dissolving. Okay, go ahead. But that's it. I'm serious. Senator Grassley is gonna come in here
01:38Hit me with this guy. I want to be on be sure I understand
01:40I want to be on be sure I understand
01:41I want to be on be sure I understand
01:45District court rules on the case
01:47You got plaintiff or defendant and defendant
01:51You're representing the plaintiff
01:53Your plaintiff is is is very unhappy
01:57Are there any circumstances under which you would advise your the plaintiff to ignore the federal court order?
02:06So of course as a judicial nominee, I would be trying to
02:10I don't want to split hairs here
02:12The the normal process is to I know what the normal process is
02:17Can you think of any circumstances where you would tell the plaintiffs?
02:22Nope, you don't don't pay attention as federal judge
02:25So the problem with answering it that categorically is that there are potentially some very extraordinary situations you could imagine
02:35That could come before me as a judge
02:37So this is a subject of tremendous
02:41I'd be real careful
02:43All right, senator. All right. All right. I promised you one that was for I think
02:47See what you started Adam
02:50Ms. Hermandorfer. Thank you for your testimony. You are excused
02:55And with that I'll invite the four district court nominees to come forward to the witness table
03:01And we'll take just a moment here and we'll administer the oath and begin the second panel
