Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tore into Seventh Circuit nominee U.S. District Judge Nancy L. Maldonado on the Senate floor Tuesday, criticizing her case backlog and saying that she has distinguished herself “with sheer incompetence.”
McConnell, R-Ky., said that confirming Judge Maldonado would be essentially “taking a judge who has proven herself incapable of swimming in the shallow end of the pool and throwing her into Lake Michigan.”
“The people and litigants of the Seventh Circuit deserve better,” McConnell said. “And if my colleagues want to see basic competence in their judges, they ought to reject this nominee.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Judge Maldonado, of the Northern District of Illinois, last month despite Republicans questioning a backlog of cases in her court. During a hearing in March, Republicans said she has one of the largest case backlogs among federal district judges and President Joe Biden was wrong in nominating her to the appellate bench.
McConnell echoed many of those criticisms Tuesday, noting that Biden was the one who put in place reforms tracking how many fully briefed motions have been sitting without a decision for at least six months.
