President Joe Biden’s nomination of Michael Delaney to the federal bench is expected to be withdrawn after it was clear he lacked the votes to be confirmed, a source familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner.
Democrats have had full attendance and a majority in the Senate Judiciary Committee for a second week after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) returned to the Senate following an extended absence while recovering from shingles. Delaney’s nomination has been repeatedly passed over for a vote in committee; he was listed on the agenda for a panel hearing Thursday, but Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) did not mention him.
The Judiciary Committee did not hold a vote on Delaney’s nomination on Thursday because he lacked the support to be confirmed, according to the source, who also said his nomination is expected to be withdrawn soon.
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Delaney, a lawyer and former prosecutor nominated for the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, has been scrutinized because of his past work defending a school in a civil lawsuit over sexual assault. The plaintiff in the case accused Delaney of filing a threatening motion to expose her identity if she kept making accusations about the school. Recently, the plaintiff wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe arguing Delaney “doesn’t deserve to be a judge.”
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Delaney also came under fire for signing a 2005 brief in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court over a New Hampshire abortion law. The law, passed in 2003 and repealed in 2007, required parents to be notified before a juvenile obtained an abortion.
Several Democrats on the Judiciary Committee were skeptical about supporting his nomination. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also voiced criticisms about Delaney’s nomination earlier this year.
“In other words, Mr. Delaney tried to turn a teenage victim’s privacy into a hostage to help a prep school avoid accountability,” he said, calling on senators to reject the nomination.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had supported Delaney's nomination.