President Trump’s judicial nominees were grilled by Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy about basic courtroom skills as well as more obscure areas of law.
Matthew Spencer Petersen was asked to serve lifetime appointments at federal courts.
When asked: ‘Have any of you not tried a case to verdict in a courtroom?’ When Petersen answered in the negative, Kennedy drilled him about his legal background.
‘Have you ever tried a jury trial?’
‘I have not,’ Petersen, nominated to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia responded.
Sen. John Kenned calmly and deliberately grilled a Trump judicial nominee on his familiarity and experience with courtroom procedure
‘Civil?’ Kennedy asked, in his low-key drawl. Petersen had not.
‘Criminal?’ Kennedy asked. ‘No,’ Petersen said.
The Republican’s grilling was so brutal that Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat, tweeted out ‘Hoo-boy.’
Two days after the White House said it was pulling back from two other nominations after Republican Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley spoke to the administration about them.
Petersen was at a loss to answer some of Sen. Kennedy’s questions
Kennedy first asked whether Petersen had ever tried a case (he hadn’t)
THIS WASN’T ON THE LSAT: Then he moved onto legal terms such as the ‘Daubert standard’ and ‘motion in limine’
The nominations ‘will not be moving forward in the U.S. Senate,’ the White House said.
Brett Talley, one of those nominees, was reported as having posted online sympathetic comments about the early history of the Ku Klux Klan and he failed to disclose his wife works in the White House Counsel’s office, which oversees judicial nominations, and reports to White House Counsel Don McGahn.
Jeff Mateer, to a federal judgeship in Texas, ran into when he made a speech in 2015 where he referred to transgender children as being part of ‘Satan’s plans.’
The brutal testimony went viral after Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island tweeted it
Even when he learned of Petersen’s lack of court experience, Sen. Kennedy, who practiced law in Baton Rouge before entering politics, did not let up.
‘As a trial judge, you’re obviously going to have witnesses. Can you tell me what the Daubert standard is?’ he asked, in reference to expert witness testimony.
‘Sen. Kennedy, I don’t have that readily at my disposal but I would be happy to take a closer look at that. That is not something I’ve had to contend with,’ he responded.
Kennedy then asked him: ‘Do you know what a motion in limine is?’
Petersen served as an associate at a prominent law firm out of law school before joining the Federal Elections Commission, responded: ‘Yes… I haven’t, I’m, again, my background is not in litigation as when I was replying to Chairman Grassley, I haven’t had to um, again, do a deep dive,’ he said.
‘A “motion in limine” — that’s just a basic, that’s the meat and potatoes of what a trial judge does,’ Dane Ciolino, a Loyola University in New Orleans law professor told the Baton Rouge Advocate, regarding a way to exclude evidence from proceedings. ‘That’s like a surgeon not knowing what a scalpel is, it’s that basic.’
At a loss to answer the questions, Petersen doesn’t have fluff on his resume. He did attend the University of Virginia School of Law, like some of the attorneys grilling him. He served as counsel to the Senate Rules Committee as well as chaired the Federal Elections Commission.
If you know someone who might like this, please click “Share!”