The Senate confirmed Quinnipiac Law School professor Sarah Russell’s nomination to a federal judgeship late Tuesday afternoon over opposition from Republicans trying to block the outgoing Biden administration’s lame duck appointees as they prepare to assume the majority in the chamber.
Russell was approved by a 50-44 party line vote, She was shepherded through a difficult confirmation process by Connecticut’s senior U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who recommended her to the White House.
Russell was a target for Republican complaints about what incoming president Donald J. Trump called “radical, liberal judges” because of a 2020 letter she signed with hundreds of others calling on Gov. Ned Lamont to release thousands of state prison and jail inmates at the start of the COVID pandemic and to “declare a moratorium on incarceration” during it.
The letter said prisons and jails are “detrimental to human rights and disproportionately harm marginalized communities, including Black, brown, Indigenous and other communities of color; immigrants; people with mental illness; people with disabilities; people in the LGBTQ+ community; people who use drugs; people engaged in sex work and street economies; and people experiencing houselessness [sic] and poverty.”
Republicans complained that Russell’s call for at least a temporary halt to the incarceration of criminals showed bias. They accused her of intentionally trying to conceal the letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which screens nominees. Russell delivered thousands of pages of her writings to the committee, as all judicial nominees are expected to do, but failed to include the 2020 letter, something she called an oversight.
Blumenthal, a member of the committee, defended Russell, saying she disavowed the letter’s views and now believes signing it was a mistake.
After the confirmation vote Blumenthal said pushing the Russell nomination through the Senate “took some additional time, but it was well worth it.”
“I am thrilled.” he said “I am absolutely exultant. Sarah Russell will continue to be a champion of justice in this new role as she has been as an advocate and teacher, fighting to vindicate legal rights, often for the most vulnerable and voiceless.”
Carl Tobias, a law professor who tracks federal judicial nominations at the University of Richmond, called Republican criticism of Russell “brutal,” but said she enjoyed strong support during the confirmation from Blumenthal, fellow U.S. senator and Democrat Chris Murphy and the Biden White House.
“She will bring experiential and gender diversity to the Connecticut federal bench,” Tobias said. “GOP senators grilled the nominee in her confirmation hearing with numerous politicized, partisan, and unfair questions that she comprehensively and clearly answered, displaying intelligence, independence, patience, and balanced temperament.”
Russell will fill the seat on the U.S. District Court formerly held by Judge Sarah A.L. Merriman, a former aide to Murphy, who has been elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Her nomination was supported by groups that include The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which has her “significant experience rooting out disparities in the criminal-legal system and protecting the rights of all people — including her critical work as a public defender — will greatly benefit the District of Connecticut and add incredibly valuable perspectives to the judiciary.”
Russell is a law professor at Quinnipiac University, who has taught at Yale University and worked as a public defender in federal court. She is part of the cohort of federal judges nominated by Biden, who called on the senate at the start of his term to confirm federal judges that diversity the court by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and professional background.
