US judge nominees for California get few questions from committee

Two of President Joe Biden's district court nominees for California drew few questions during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday while senators squabbled over another nominee from New York.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Trina L. Thompson, nominated for a seat on the Northern District bench, and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, nominated for a Central District vacancy, each avoided tough scrutiney.

Thompson was quizzed on her attitude about DNA evidence based on her objections to it in a 1997 case she handled as a criminal defense attorney. She also was questioned by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, about her role on a panel at a Constitution Day event at San Francisco State University in 2018. The title of the seminar, "History of White Supremacy in Constitutional Law," drew the senator's interest.

Thompson said she didn't choose the seminar title and that her role as a judge was to explain major cases such as Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia.

"The cases I discussed was the evolution of the law," she told the panel. "It's an unpleasant history, but it's there."

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked Thompson about a sexual assault case she handled as a criminal defense attorney in which she questioned whether DNA evidence was reliable.

"Prosecutors will be going to you with DNA evidence," Blackburn said. "How are prosecutors going to know you will be fair and impartial on that?"

Thompson pointed out that the case was 25 years ago and that the use of DNA evidence was new at the time. "My duty as a Sixth Amendment lawyer was providing my client all legally available defenses," she said.

But the UC Berkeley School of Law graduate also pointed to her record since then as an Alameda County juvenile court commissioner and, since her election in 2002, as a superior court judge.

"I've been on the bench for 20 years and I've handled some of the most egregious cases you can imagine, many of which have been sexual assault cases," Thompson said.

Garnett, a Harvard Law School graduate who worked for 13 years in the Central District U.S. attorney's office before she was appointed to the superior court, drew only a single question from a Republican senator.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee's ranking member, asked why she wanted to become a federal prosecutor and how that has affected her on the bench.

"I decided to pursue that career because I believe very much in justice and that people are being treated fairly," said Garnett, adding she wanted to add diversity to the U.S. attorney's office and the bench.

Garnett and Thompson are both Black.

Garnett was an assistant U.S. attorney who moved to dismiss charges against a man that he intentionally threatened to kill then-Sen. Barack Obama so he could get mental health treatment. Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked about that.

"Our system of justice is predicated on the idea that everyone is supposed to be treated fairly, and that includes individuals who suffer from mental illness," Garnett said.

She added that she has worked as a judge to make sure individuals who ask to represent themselves are competent to do so.

Most of the questions during the hearing were directed at Nina R. Morrison, an attorney with the Innocence Project whom Biden has nominated as a judge for the Eastern District of New York.