Conservative group launches advertising campaign to save Trump's Dump court choice

Leading Conservative Legal Group Prepares Expensive Room to Save Circuit Court Candidate Neomi Rao, whose path to confirmation has become increasingly uncertain due to new concerns about her abortion case .

Judicial Crisis Network to Launch $ 500,000 Purchase on Missouri Television, Radio and Digital Platforms Next Week to Pressure Republican National Josh Hawley to Support Rao, a Former Prosecutor, President Donald Trump called to occupy the seat of the mighty DC Circuit that Brett Kavanaugh left when he joined the Supreme Court. A person familiar with this effort stated that Hawley, who publicly stated that he had reservations about Rao's judicial philosophy, needed to feel the heat in his own garden.

History continues below

"We are part of a widespread coalition-wide effort to demonstrate to Senator Hawley that support for Conservative judges is not negotiable," said the person.

Hawley committed "a big rookie mistake" by revealing his concerns about Rao, added a Republican strategist close to the effort. The newly elected senator said in an interview with Axios on Sunday that he had trouble finding evidence in Rao's scholarly works and writings that it would protect the efforts of the state and the state. population to restrict the right to abortion and "would not extend the doctrine of Roe v. Wade and Casey [v. Planned Parenthood], "Which he described as" profoundly incompatible with the Constitution ".

"I heard directly from at least one person who said that Rao had personally told them that she was pro-choice. I do not know if that's right, but that's why we're doing due diligence, "he added.

Feedback from Hawley's comments in the Conservative Legal Network was quick. Several personalities published damning statements just hours after the publication of his concerns. Among them was Ralph Reed, president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, whose group targeted Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill for her vote against Kavanaugh's confirmation last September, in the middle of a race against Hawley.

"Neomi Rao is eminently qualified and her judicial philosophy is antithetical to federal judges who make decisions independent of the rights enumerated in the Constitution," Reed said in a statement to POLITICO, adding that his group "strongly supported his appointment and urged the Senate to confirm it quickly. "

David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, said Hawley and his Republican Senate colleagues "should not be confused by rumors and insinuations, but should rather support President Trump to support this candidate." McIntosh, who has known Rao for years, calls him "a true Constitutionalist."

In addition to the buyout of the Judicial Crisis Network, the Americans for Prosperity group, backed by the Koch brothers, is planning a digital and aggressive campaign to pressure Democratic and Republican senators to support Rao's confirmation, according to AFP President Tim Phillips.

Hawley's spokesman, Kelli Ford, told POLITICO that the Missouri senator "has only one goal in mind and focuses solely on the representation of Conservative voters of common sense Missouri."

"No threat from any group in Washington on both sides of the aisle concerns him," Ford said.

In the last six months, Rao is the second federal court candidate Trump to face major hurdles to confirmation by the Senate Republican Conference. Senator Tim Scott (CS) effectively canceled Thomas Farr's nomination last November after announcing he would oppose the president's candidacy for a seat in the East Carolina District. of the North for reasons related to its role in previous efforts to suppress voters. Trump has yet to rename Farr, as conservative heavyweights, like former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese, continued to defend in letters to Scott.

A former associate professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, Rao was widely seen from the outset of her confirmation as a candidate for future election for a possible seat on the Supreme Court. Her name was even announced in some conservative legal circles as a possible replacement for Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg when POLITICO reported early in the year that the White House was preparing an emergency plan in case the justice, 85 years old, would not find her place following a diagnosis of lung cancer.

But things got complicated for Rao after his academic writings on sexual assault were published just weeks before his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In an article from his years at Yale, Rao wrote that if a woman raped by the date was drinking "to the point where [she could] no longer choosing, well, getting to this point was part of his choice. "

She subsequently apologized in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), A member of the committee, who stated that She had not recognized the harm that a survivor of such crimes would cause. "
The Senate had already voted 54-41 in July 2017 to confirm Rao as the Tsar of Trump administration regulation, a position she held just over a year before Trump announced her appointment abruptly. at the DC circuit last fall.