The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to endorse President Joe Biden’s (D) nominee for Maine’s U.S. District Court. Stacey Neumann, a Portland-based attorney, will now need to be confirmed for the position by the full Senate.
Members of the Judiciary Committee voted 13-8 in favor of Neumann’s nomination, with support from all eleven Democrats, as well as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).
Among the Democrats who backed Neumann were: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Alex
Padilla (D-CA), Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), and Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA).
Opposing Neumann’s nomination were: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. John Kennedy (R_LA), and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
Sen. Susan Collins (R) announced earlier this summer that she would be supporting Neumann’s nomination because she “possesses the integrity, intellect, and impartiality to serve in this critical position.”
“I will support confirmation of Stacey Neumann to serve as a U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Maine based on her extensive legal experience, including as a prosecutor, her in-depth interview with me, and her hearing and background investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee,” said Sen. Collins in a June press release.
[RELATED: Susan Collins Backs Biden’s Pick for Maine’s U.S. District Court]
According to the Portland Press Herald, Sen. Angus King (I) has also expressed support for Neumann’s nomination, praising her for having a “breadth of experience that you rarely see in a judicial candidate.”
Neumann was selected by President Biden to fill the seat left vacant U.S. District Judge Jon Levy after he announced his retirement this past spring.
Judge Levy was first appointed to the position in 2014 after spending more than a decade on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
Prior to his retirement, Levy oversaw some relatively high-profile cases, including a Maine mom’s lawsuit against a Damariscotta school for allegedly hiding her 13-year-old child’s gender transition.
Levy was also involved with a former University of Southern Maine professor’s lawsuit against the school for allegedly violating her First Amendment rights.
Neumann has served as a litigator at Portland’s Murray, Plumb & Murray since 2013, where she focused on criminal defense, administrative, and civil litigation in state and federal courts and agencies.
Prior to this, Neumann worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine as an Assistant U.S. Attorney representing the federal government in a variety of criminal proceedings.
She attended James Madison University for her undergraduate education before graduating from Cornell Law School in 2005.
As a lawyer in Portland, shouldn’t the descriptor “liberal” be used before her name? And i don’t mean classical liberal.
Chris, she attended Cornell’s law school, a long time font of socialism.
RINOs, Graham and Tillis voted for and Collins endorsed Neumann. What a shocker!
Oh boy, another of the 2% (((supposedly))) “representing” Americans, oy vey
Susan Collins…please step down! You have turned your back on America.
Another Yenta on the bench ,
I guess she “checks enough boxes” to be admissible for service to the Liberals and RINOs who run this state.
NICE!