Lee Rudofsky dis-hon

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AN 11 26

On Friday, it was revealed that a last-minute attempt to jam through a judicial confirmation has pitted President Donald Trump against several Republican senators. According to attorney Mike Davis – who served as Chief Counsel for Nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a clerk for Justice Neil Gorsuch – the senators in question have committed an “unforgivable sin” by opposing Trump and blocking their own party’s nominee.

As Davis notes, Trump has nominated Lee Rudofsky – the current U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas – to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, an appellate court that covers Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. After the midterms, however, which dealt a generational blow against the GOP, eliminating the party’s majority in both the House and Senate, the clock is ticking before Democrats assume control over Congress in January, which will make it virtually impossible for Trump to have nominees like Rudofsky confirmed.

But if the narrow window to act wasn’t obstacle enough, the president is also facing opposition from his own party. According to Davis, “Arkansas' two Republican home-state senators – [John Boozman] and [Tom Cotton] – are blocking Rudofsky, as they wanted someone else.” According to Davis, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-SC) are acting as the public face of the blocking effort, as both are leaving the Senate at the end of the term and therefore can oppose Trump without worrying about drawing his wrath. But regardless of whether the departing senators take the blame, Davis asserts that the effort is an “unforgivable sin for Boozman and Cotton.” If they don’t change their minds fast, notes Davis, “Republicans will lose this key appellate court seat.”

Trump’s judicial appointments may represent his longest-lasting legacy. As Politico explains, “Trump has already, over the course of his two terms, appointed nearly 300 judges who, collectively, will pull the federal bench to the right for a generation. His second-term judges, in particular, have often proven to be outliers even among the conservative judiciary. But the lame-duck president will be able to confirm few, if any, new judges once Democrats formally take over the Senate in January.” What’s more, “Assuming the Senate maintains its longstanding ‘blue slip’ rule giving senators veto power over judicial nominees in their state, newly elected Democrats will have the ability to block appointments in states like Texas, Kansas and South Carolina until 2033 — even if the GOP manages to regain control of the chamber and a Republican keeps the White House in 2029.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Rudofsky is a staunch constitutional originalist who played a key role in gutting the Voting Rights Act when his 2022 decision ruled that private parties can’t sue under the act’s Section 2 anti-discrimination provisions. Then, in 2026, the Supreme Court essentially ended the protections offered by Section 2 altogether.

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Lee Philip Rudofsky (born 1979) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Biography

Rudofsky received aBachelor of Scienceand aMaster of Public AdministrationfromCornell University, and aJuris Doctor from Harvard Law School.After law school, Rudofsky served as a law clerk to JusticeRobert J. Cordyof theMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Courtand to JudgeAndrew Kleinfeldof theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He then became an associate atKirkland & Ellis, before serving as Deputy General Counsel to the**Mitt Romney** 2012 presidential campaign. In 2015, Rudofsky became Solicitor General of Arkansas, and he left that post in 2018 to become senior director for global anti-corruption compliance at**Walmart**.[1][2][3]Rudofsky is Jewish.[4]

Federal judicial service

On July 1, 2019,President Trumpannounced his intent to nominate Rudofsky to serve as a United States District Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Rudofsky was nominated to the seat vacated by JudgeJames Leon Holmes, who tooksenior statuson March 31, 2018. On July 8, 2019, his nomination was sent to theUnited States Senate.[5]SenatorTom Cottonrecommended his nomination.[6]On July 31, 2019, a hearing on his nomination was held before theSenate Judiciary Committee.[7]On October 17, 2019,his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote.[8] On November 6, 2019, the Senate voted 51–41 to invoke cloture on his nomination.[9] On November 7, 2019, his nomination was confirmed by a vote of 51–41.[10]He received his judicial commission on November 8, 2019.

Notable cases

In 2022, Rudofsky held that American citizens could not bring suit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, instead concluding that provision could only be enforced by lawsuits filed directly by the Attorney General of the United States.[11] His decision was widely criticized*[by whom?*] as standing in opposition to decades of Supreme Court precedent which had permitted private enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, effectively "gutting" the VRA and rendering it "largely unenforceable".[12][13][14]

Memberships

He has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2002.[15]

References

^ "President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees and United States Marshal Nominee". whitehouse.gov. July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019 – via National Archives. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
^ "Lee Rudofsky as Solicitor General | Arkansas Attorney General". arkansasag.gov.
^ "Rutledge Names Nicholas Bronni as Solicitor General | Arkansas Attorney General". arkansasag.gov.
^ https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Lee%20Rudofsky%20SJQ%20-%20PUBLIC.pdf
^ "Four Nominations Sent to the Senate", White House, July 8, 2019
^ "Cotton Applauds Nomination of Lee Rudofsky for District Court Judge for Eastern District of Arkansas" (Press release). July 1, 2019. Lee Rudofsky is an outstanding choice to serve as district court judge. Lee is an exceptionally qualified attorney and has served honorably as the Solicitor General of Arkansas as well as a Senior Director of Walmart's Global Anti-Corruption Compliance program. Lee understands that the proper role for a judge is to interpret the Constitution and the laws as written, and I look forward to his confirmation.
^ United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Nominations for July 31, 2019
^ Results of Executive Business Meeting – October 17, 2019, Senate Judiciary Committee
^ "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture Lee Philip Rudofsky to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas)". United States Senate. November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
^ "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Lee Philip Rudofsky, of Arkansas, to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas)". United States Senate. November 7, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
^ "Judge to toss Arkansas redistricting case unless DOJ joins". Politico. February 17, 2022.
^ Stern, Mark Joseph (February 18, 2022). "Thursday Was One of the Most Radical Days for the Federal Courts in Years". Slate.
^ Millhiser, Ian (February 18, 2022). "A Trump judge's new decision would undo more than 50 years of voting rights law". Vox.
^Marcus, Ruth (February 18, 2022). "We now see stark evidence of Trump's toxic judicial legacy". Washington Post.
^ United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees: Lee Rudofsky

External links

Lee Rudofsky at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Legal offices	Legal offices	Legal offices
New office	Solicitor General of Arkansas 2015–2018	Succeeded by Nicholas Bronni
Preceded by James Leon Holmes	Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas 2019–present	Incumbent

Legal offices

New office

Solicitor General of Arkansas

2015–2018

Succeeded by

Nicholas Bronni

Preceded by

James Leon Holmes

Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas

2019–present

Incumbent

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Active district judges of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals

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Active district judges of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals

Categories:

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Right-wing federal judges have grown increasingly hostile to voting rights: report

Alex Henderson February 25, 2022

Although considerable animosity now exists between former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, both of them helped bring an abundance of right-wing judges to the federal judiciary — not only the three U.S. Supreme Court justices that Trump nominated and appointed (Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett), but also, lower federal court judges. Trump nominated them; McConnell signed off on them.

Now, with voting rights under attack by far-right MAGA Republicans all over the United States, voter suppression has plenty of allies in the federal judiciary. National Public Radio reporter Carrie Johnson takes a look at their actions in an article published by NPR’s website on February 25.

“The nation's premier tool to protect voting rights is in mortal danger, threatened on multiple fronts by the Supreme Court and lower-ranking federal judges, scholars and civil rights advocates say,” Johnson reports. “The latest blow to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 came this week in Arkansas, where a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump dismissed a case over new statehouse maps. The NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the maps diluted the power of Black voters. But thejudge, (Lee Rudofsky), said he found no way for the outside advocates to proceed.”

The ACLU has vowed to appeal Rudofsky’s ruling.

Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, told NPR, “This ruling was so radical that there was no choice but to appeal. Private individuals have brought cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to protect their right to vote for generations.”

Johnson notes that Gorsuch, in a different case, “expressed doubts about private rights to sue” under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And Guy-Uriel Charles, a Harvard Law School professor, told NPR, “They are teeing up statutory and constitutional questions for the Court with the justifiable belief that the Court will welcome the narrow interpretation and the opportunity to further narrow the statute.”

Charles isn’t optimistic where the Supreme Court and voting rights are concerned.

The Harvard professor told NPR, “I would be very surprised if the Court does not interpret the statute in such a way as to take away the authority of states to draw majority-minority districts under the (Voting Rights) Act, except in cases in which the states have engaged in blatantly clear racial discrimination.”

United States district court judges appointed by Donald Trump

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