Wendy Vitter’s nomination to federal bench expected to get U.S. Senate vote this week

May 15-- May 15--WASHINGTON -- Wendy Vitter's nomination to the federal court bench appears poised for a U.S. Senate vote this week after being briefly derailed last year.

Vitter, the wife of former U.S. Sen. David Vitter, has twice been nominated by President Donald Trump to a federal judicial vacancy in New Orleans. Her nomination never made it to a Senate floor vote last year, so it had to be resubmitted when the new congressional term started in January. Her nomination could finally get its floor vote as soon as Thursday afternoon, based on the current U.S. Senate calendar.

Her nomination is backed by both of Louisiana's Republican U.S. senators, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, who have lauded her qualifications for the life-time judicial appointment.

Republicans hold a 53-seat majority in the Senate and have been whittling away at a long list of Trump judicial nominees.

But Vitter, the current general counsel to the Archdiocese of New Orleans, has proven to be a controversial nomination -- particularly compared to some other Louisiana judicial nominees.

Senate Democrats this week have taken turns speaking out against Vitter's nomination, highlighting her anti-abortion rights record and her refusal in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to say whether the landmark Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended racial segregation in schools was "correctly decided."

Her supporters have noted nominees often avoid such declarations on Supreme Court decisions.

Cassidy again on Wednesday expressed his full support for her nomination.

"Wendy Vitter is extremely qualified and I look forward to voting for her," he said. "It's a shame the liberal left is using fabricated political smears to suppress the voice of a strong conservative woman."

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer included Vitter on his list Wednesday of examples of nominees who are "hard-right ideologues who will do damage to this country for generations."

"We understand the president and Republicans will want conservatives, but hard-right, narrow ideologues who show no understanding or sympathy for people who don't look like them or pray like them or marry like them?" Schumer said on the Senate floor of Vitter.

"She once promoted the idea that contraceptives cause cancer and claimed that Planned Parenthood kills 150,000 women annually," said Schumer, D-New York. "She also refused to acknowledge that Brown v. Board was correctly decided, saying instead the decision was correct with the benefit of hindsight, whatever that means."

"It's not hard. If you need the benefit of hindsight to understand that Brown v. Board of Education, which brought an end to school segregation and led to the end of American apartheid was correctly decided, you shouldn't be a federal judge," Schumer continued.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, also took aim at Vitter's nomination Wednesday, calling it "yet another step extreme politicians are taking to undermine women's rights and access to health care."

Democrats have seized upon Vitter's failure to disclose on a Judiciary Committee questionnaire past public remarks at anti-abortion events and at least one political campaign ad appearance.

"(Vitter) has demonstrated a keen sense of partisanship and poor sense of judgment starting with her initial response to the senate judiciary committee's questionnaire," Murray said. "Mrs. Vitter left out information about her past statements in her response to the committee -- the kind of serious omissions republicans have objected to with other nominees."

"And I'm not talking about innocent, uncontroversial comments -- I am talking about the fear-mongering of an activist who is entirely unfit for the federal bench," Murray added.

Nominees are expected to provide extensive information about past public statements when filling out the questionnaires.

Vitter, a former Orleans Parish assistant district attorney, omitted a 2013 panel she led for Louisiana Right to Life dubbed "Abortion Hurts Women" and a speech she gave at a 2013 protest at the site of a proposed Planned Parenthood clinic in Uptown New Orleans.

"Someone like Wendy Vitter cannot be trusted with a lifetime seat on a federal bench," Murray said.

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