GOP senators withhold opposition to Sinema-backed judicial nominee

(Reuters) - Senate Republicans on Thursday held back on opposing appellate court nominee Roopali Desai, championed by Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, despite conservative attacks on Desai's advocacy on behalf of progressive causes and defense of the 2020 presidential election.

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Arizona lawyer Desai's nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a voice vote, marking only the second time during President Joe Biden's tenure that the panel has moved a nominee out of committee without taking a roll call of its members.

Such roll call votes are the usual practice, and most of the committee's 11 Republicans typically vote against sending Biden's judicial nominees to the full Senate for the Democratic-controlled chamber's consideration.

The timing was also unusual, as Thursday was the first time a vote on Desai had appeared on the panel's agenda. Republicans typically take advantage of their right under committee rules to have first-timers held over until the next hearing, delaying votes.

Expected votes on other nominees, including 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pick Rachel Bloomekatz, were delayed until next week after the panel's chairman, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, tested positive for COVID-19 and could not attend.

But Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the committee's ranking Republican, said the GOP had agreed to allow a voice vote on Desai, whom Sinema, a key centrist who has resisted eliminating the filibuster, backed.

"I want people to know, though, that I am still studying her record to a greater extent and will be reviewing that before I decide how I am going to vote on the floor of the Senate," Grassley said.

Sinema in a statement called Desai, a partner at the law firm Coppersmith Brockelman, a "trusted legal expert highly regarded by Arizonans on both sides of the aisle."

While she advanced on a voice vote, four Republicans nonetheless asked to be recorded as opposing her: Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Desai has served as a campaign attorney for Sinema and also represented Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, in defending against multiple cases unsuccessfully seeking to overturn former President Donald Trump's 2020 electoral loss.

Republican senators grilled Desai during a July 13 hearing about those cases and others she pursued on behalf of progressive or Democratic clients, such as in litigation opposing school vouchers.

Desai acknowledged "some of my clients have been affiliated with Democratic causes." But she stressed her work also encompassed representing large and small corporations.

Read more:

Biden's seven new judicial nominees include first Latino for D.C. Circuit

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.