The Senate on Monday evening voted to confirm Andrew Davis to a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. All Democrats who were present, in addition to Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, voted against confirmation — making Davis the first district court nominee during Trump’s second term to be approved with bipartisan opposition.
Collins previously opposed Emil Bove’s confirmation to the Third Circuit. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska opposed Bove’s confirmation in addition to the confirmation of Jennifer Mascott, who is also now serving on the Third Circuit. During Trump’s second term, they have been the only two Republican senators to oppose a judicial nominee.
Senator Collins’ office has not responded to multiple requests for comment since Thursday afternoon, when she also voted against ending debate on Davis’ nomination.
According to his Senate questionnaire, Davis “made phone calls on a volunteer basis to support Susan Collins for Senate” in 2020. He also previously served on the Department of Justice transition team during Trump’s first term and volunteered on Ted Cruz’s Senate campaign in 2012. He served as assistant solicitor general of Texas and as chief counsel for Senator Cruz, in addition to working as a corporate attorney and as a law clerk.
Davis, who is 40 or 41, will now serve as a federal judge for life on the Western District of Texas, where his questionnaire indicates he has never been admitted to practice. He is the 37th lifetime judge confirmed since last year, bringing Trump’s total lifetime judicial confirmations to 271. This figure double counts five jurists who Trump appointed — and then elevated — during his first term, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Andrew Davis is an anti-civil rights Trump loyalist
Davis has a troubling record with respect to civil and human rights, and that is likely — at least partially — why Trump nominated him. A fact sheet published by Alliance for Justice notes that Davis has “spent his legal career weakening corporate accountability, attacking civil rights, fighting workers and consumers, and undermining voting protections and environmental regulations.”
The National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), which also opposed Davis’ nomination, wrote that his “background and experience indicate that he is not a standard conservative nominee; rather, he appears to be a highly specialized architect of the modern conservative legal movement’s most aggressive structural arguments.”
A letter from People For the American Way in opposition to his confirmation states that “Davis has used his abilities as a lawyer to weaken our democracy,” including by representing Fox News in Dominion Voting System’s defamation lawsuit against the network and by defending Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s redistricting plan in Abbott v. Perez.
During Davis’ confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, Senator Richard Blumenthal asked him who won the popular vote in 2020. He responded that, in 2020, “President Biden was certified and served four years as president.” When Senator Blumenthal asked again, he repeated himself. “I am insulted as a member of this body that you simply won’t tell us the truth. And that speaks chillingly of what you will do as a United States district judge if you’re confirmed,” Senator Blumenthal said.
He then turned to the January 6 insurrection and asked the nominees whether the U.S. Capitol was attacked on January 6, 2021. “Senator, any characterization of the events that occurred on January 6 would wade into political waters,” Davis responded. “As a sitting nominee for a federal judicial position, it would be inappropriate, under the canons of judicial conduct, for me to discuss anything that would characterize…”
Blumenthal, cutting him off, asked whether he’d seen video of the attack. When Davis responded in the affirmative and Blumenthal asked what he saw, Davis replied that “the video speaks for itself, and people can draw their own inferences. Anything more than that would be getting into characterizing.” That was not the answer Blumenthal wanted to hear. “You’re not going to be sitting on a case involving the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol. To tell us you won’t answer this question is an insult to our intelligence,” he said.
In written questions for the record, Senator Blumenthal further asked Davis if he was “inside the U.S. Capitol or on the U.S. Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.” Davis responded yes — he “was in Senator Cruz’s personal office in the Russell Senate Office Building pursuant to my duties as Senator Cruz’s Chief Counsel.” He did not disclose this during the hearing when Senator Blumenthal asked him whether the Capitol was attacked and whether he’d seen video of it.
No additional judicial nominees remain pending on the Senate floor, but that will likely change soon. On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet to vote on the nominations of Katie Lane for the District of Montana, Sheria Clarke for the District of South Carolina, Kara Westercamp for the Court of International Trade, and Evan Rikhye for the District of the Virgin Islands.
I previously covered Lane’s disturbing record, Lane’s Not Qualified rating from the ABA, the nominees’ confirmation hearing, and their responses to written questions for the record.
If the committee advances their nominations on Thursday, cloture and confirmation votes on their nominations could begin as soon as next week.