Ashley Moody Questions Judicial Nominee About The Importance Of Separation Of Powers

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) questioned Whitney D. Hermandorfer, nominee to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, about the separation of powers.

Transcript

00:00100 appellate cases. That sounds like quite a bit of experience to me. Senator Moody.

00:05Thank you, Senator Hawley, and thank you for running such an efficient hearing today

00:09as our chairperson. Appreciate your prior service to your state, ultimately I believe to this

00:17country. Thank you for being here today and standing willing to answer some really tough

00:22questions. I will note there's been a lot of attention brought to the ABA and whether or not

00:29every senator on the Judiciary Committee or every senator for that matter who will have an ultimate

00:34vote, considers or should consider any recommendations and you know if that were

00:39important to the ABA over the many years that people have been pointing out they are becoming

00:45and perceived more and more and more as a partisan group, you would think they would stop doing things

00:50like awarding a progressive prosecutor who ultimately said that they would not prosecute

00:58laws that they didn't agree with politically and that a governor had to remove from office

01:04after they were removed from office giving them an ABA award would seem to be inappropriate and so

01:11I think that organization should probably take to heart everything that has been said today because

01:17that's the kind of things that they are still doing and if they want to be taken credible by

01:22the United States Senate in determining who would make good judges maybe when a judge is removed for

01:30saying they would not enforce or follow laws they don't agree with or excuse me a prosecutor was removed

01:35because they would not enforce laws they don't agree with that might be something that would undercut the

01:40credibility of the ABA. You have gotten questions about your lack of experience in the trial court.

01:50Some of that may be related from the fact that you are serving over just over a decade as a lawyer

01:56and now you're going on to a very important appellate position. I think you'll be a great appellate judge.

02:04I am overwhelmed and really impressed by your background. I wonder if you're the predecessor in

02:10your role had clerked for three Supreme Court justices at the time that they were nominated.

02:16I doubt it. I was a young judge when I became a judge. I served over a decade before I became the

02:21Attorney General and now a United States Senator. To some extent I think that can bring a quality

02:29and a certain tenacity to move cases and a docket and deliver expediency in the judicial system for the

02:36American people that is much needed. In your opinion how important is efficiency of a docket to being a good judge?

02:46So as a party who's often seeking relief from courts efficiency of the docket goes to the heart of

02:54the fairness and integrity of our judicial system because everyone's heard the saying justice delayed

03:00is justice denied and I do think that is where my recent years of practice and the pace again I mean

03:05there have been weeks when I filed there was a day I filed a Supreme Court brief and a District Court

03:10brief on summary judgment the same day in the same case. That's how fast our cases move and the volume

03:17of that and the pace of that is something that I think would suit me well to do my best to hit the

03:23ground running and contribute to my colleagues to the best of my abilities. And right now more than ever

03:30at this moment in time we have a president in office that is desperately trying to clean up a lot of

03:40mess that was created and and I believe I was the Attorney General fighting against a lot of unlawful

03:45policies from the last administration and so in doing so is having to make really hard decisions at a

03:51fast pace as an executive to deliver safety and security for the American people. That is just a fact

03:57and what we are seeing now every day are nationwide injunctions another stay another order that is

04:05in some way stymieing this executive from doing its job and that is causing a lot of concern from the

04:12American public who wants to just feel safe and have some sort of order and stability in this country

04:17again. Whoever becomes a judge an appellate judge or even a district court judge is going to have

04:24very critical matters and issues come before them dealing with separation of powers and

04:33it is so important that we have judges that understand the importance of that and can can rule

04:39on it quickly so that an executive's hands aren't tied for four years and they can't do what they have

04:46promised to do for the American people when it is within the law to do so.

04:50In your experience what have you done to fight for the separation of powers you know we're more and

04:59more involving into what feels like a separation of parties which is undermining the stability of this

05:05constitutional form of government instead of a separation of powers and what are cases that you

05:10could highlight for this committee where as an attorney you fought for the respect of separation of powers.

05:16So I've litigated dozens of cases involving the attempt by the federal government to through

05:24rulemaking for example impose a rule onto states and onto state citizens that did not ever go through

05:33Congress that includes the Title IX case that includes cases like our challenge to the section 1557 rule which

05:42both of those involved gender identity based rules being applied to states through the executive branch

05:51and not through Congress other cases many other such cases our office is litigated and all those cases

06:00reflect our the importance of our dual sovereign system and the importance of allowing states to govern

06:05themselves through their political processes absent proper lawmaking by the federal branches.

06:13Thank you so much and Chairman Holly I owe you a minute.

06:17That's right I was so generous with your time Senator. I'd like to enter into the record here a letter from 18

06:22appellate attorneys including the former Solicitor General of the United States Paul Clement all endorsing

06:28Ms. Hermandorfer talking about her experience talking about her expertise talking about her outstanding record.

06:33Here's a representative quote. Ms. Hermandorfer has a brilliant legal mind an outstanding work ethic a

06:38strong sense of fairness and justice a collegial manner which we're seeing today and an extraordinary

06:43record of academic and legal achievement based on our experience with Ms. Hermandorfer and her

06:48distinguished career in private practice and public service we are confident that she possesses the

06:52character temperament and intellect to make her an asset to our nation's judiciary and without objection.

Category

Transcript

Recommended