Despite 'smear train,' Ninth Circuit confirmation marks major judicial milestone for Trump

The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media’s Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:

Wednesday afternoon, the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s 50th circuit court nomination to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench, despite what some called a “smear” effort from the American Bar Association.

Lawrence VanDyke — whose nomination made headlines after a controversial “not qualified” rating was issued by the ABA ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing – was confirmed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by a vote of 51-44. Susan Collins was the only Republican Senator to vote against his confirmation.

In response to the news, Judicial Crisis Network chief counsel Carrie Severino said VanDyke was “another victim of left’s tiresome smear train and the ABA’s sham evaluation process” and praised Senate Republicans for bucking the efforts against him.

The news comes days after President Trump’s total number of judicial confirmations hit 170.

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px}

/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.

We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */