Neomi Rao Judicial Nomination Advances To Senate Floor Despite Judiciary Committee Bruising

As I have covered this week, freshman Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a social conservative and decorated attorney, had raised some substantive questions pertaining to the White House’s nomination of Neomi Rao to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. As I wrote on Monday:

Rao is the current Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — making her the Trump administration’s de facto “regulatory czar” — who is the White House’s official nominee tapped to fill Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s vacated seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The D.C. Circuit, due to its administrative law-heavy docket and its position in the nation’s capital, is often considered to be the second most prestigious court in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to Kavanaugh, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas, and the late Justice Antonin Scalia were all tapped to the Supreme Court from their respective perches on the D.C. Circuit.