Time for the Republicans to burn the rubber stamp.
President Barack Obama has not been able to move his Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, through the Senate but Republicans continue to advance the president’s lower court nominees.
The chamber on Monday is set to take up the nomination of Paula Xinis, a partner and senior trial attorney at Murphy, Falcon & Murphy—the Baltimore law firm that secured a $6.4 million settlement from the city of Baltimore in September in the wrongful death case of Freddie Gray.
If confirmed as a U.S. District Court judge for Maryland, Xinis, 47, could serve for life.
In April 2015, after being arrested for possessing an illegal switchblade, Gray, 25, received a spinal cord injury in the back of a police van and died a week later. Gray had a lengthy criminal record.
A medical examiner ruled Gray’s death a homicide. His death drew national attention after sparking riots, arson, and vandalism in West Baltimore as well as peaceful protests. Charges are pending for some of the officers involved.
Though Senate Republican leadership has vowed to stop any Supreme Court nominees, they’ve promised to evaluate each of Obama’s picks for federal circuit and district courts.
Xinis would be the second lower court nominee confirmed since Senate Republicans began their blockade of Supreme Court candidates after the Feb. 13 death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative.
Five months earlier, on Sept. 17, the Judiciary Committee by voice vote approved Obama’s nomination of her to the District Court seat in Greenbelt, Md.
The vote on Xinis by the full Senate coincides with the beginning of National Police Week. Xinis served as a complaint examiner for the District of Columbia’s Office of Police Complaints. From 2005 to 2011, Xinis issued six opinions, ruling against the accused officer in each case.
One case involved an arrest for disorderly conduct in 2011. After ignoring a police order to move along, a District man began cursing at officers outside a local supermarket. A witness reported that the man “became verbally abusive.” But Xinis upheld a charge of harassment against the officer, ruling that “the arrest was baseless.”