THE FEDERALIST/ Nathanael Blake-
Former judicial nominee Michael Bogren may not be an anti-Catholic bigot. On that I am willing to take the word of Margot Cleveland, a cousin of his who has written many fine articles for The Federalist. But he was willing to play the part when the city of East Lansing paid him to, and for that his nomination to the Western District of Michigan deserved to be defeated.
He was derailed by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who grilled Bogren over his comparison of Catholics to the Klu Klux Klan. But the fallout of this episode will linger. Hawley and other conservative senators have made it clear that lawyers who indulge in anti-religious bigotry, whether personally or professionally, should not be nominated as judges, and will be rejected if they are.
Hawley was also sending a message against the business-as-usual, good-old-boy approach to judicial nominees that has produced so many failures and disappointments. The voters who elected Trump and Hawley want originalist judges, not well-connected compromises or amiable squishes. Continue reading…
