Progressive political groups are celebrating President Joe Biden’s nomination of a former Biden-Harris campaign state counsel to a conservative-leaning federal court.
Biden earned praise from pro-abortion and environmentalist groups for his release on Wednesday of his 18th slate of judicial nominees, which included a nomination for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“These choices also continue to fulfill the President’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country — both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds,” the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.
Biden’s choice for the Sixth Circuit was Rachel Bloomekatz, a state counsel for the Biden-Harris campaign in Ohio in 2020. Her bio also says that she has “represented progressive candidates in Ohio, including serving as Senator Sherrod Brown’s legal director for his 2012 reelection campaign.”
Bloomekatz is a practitioner at Bloomekatz Law in Columbus, Ohio, and has clerked for outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, as well as being an assistant attorney general in Boston, Massachusetts.
In her own practice, Bloomekatz has worked with a group challenging the “stand your ground” law in Ohio, including the Ohio NAACP. She also received the Progressive Young Leadership Award from the Columbus chapter of the American Constitution Society.
After news of her nomination broke, progressive groups like Demand Justice, Earthjustice, and the Alliance for Justice all praised Biden for his judicial picks.
Earthjustice, an environmentalist organization, celebrated Bloomekatz’s nomination, saying she would be “the first public interest environmental lawyer nominated to the federal bench.”
“At this critical moment where so many of our fundamental rights are at stake, we need judges in her mold who understand the difference between science and politics and will make decisions based on the law and settled precedent,” Earthjustice Legislative Director of the Access to Justice Program Coby Dolan said.
Demand Justice, an organization that wants to expand the Supreme Court, tweeted that Bloomekatz “would bring much-needed experience representing consumers and workers to a judiciary dominated by corporate lawyers.”
The progressive group Alliance for Justice, which urges people to “act now to save abortion rights,” applauded Biden’s judicial nominations, including that of Bloomekatz.
“Once again, the White House has identified three highly-qualified women to serve on our courts of appeal,” AFJ President Rakim H.D. Brooks said in a statement. “Ms. Bloomekatz’s experience fighting for economic justice, in particular, will be invaluable to the Sixth Circuit as it considers cases impacting consumers and workers.”
Bloomekatz appears to have made several political donations to Democratic candidates over the years. A Rachel Bloomekatz in Columbus, Ohio, working at Gupta Wessler (where Bloomekatz worked from 2016-2019) donated to Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in 2017 and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2020, according to data from Open Secrets.
Furthermore, a lawyer named Rachel Bloomekatz with the same Columbus-area Ohio zip code (43201) as Bloomekatz Law gave $750 to then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 and a total of $1,750 to Joe Biden during the 2020 election.
The Daily Wire has reached out to Bloomekatz to confirm whether the donations were from her or not.
According to NPR, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals where Bloomekatz was nominated “is known to lean conservative.” Former President Donald Trump appointed six justices to the Cincinnati-based court while George W. Bush put on five.
Biden has now nominated three justices to the Sixth Circuit, with two pending nominations and one, Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis, being confirmed earlier this week.