Politics

Republicans, conservatives accuse Senate Dems of ‘pay-for-play’ favor with Jack McConnell judicial nomination cloture vote

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

Former trial lawyer Jack McConnell’s judicial nomination for the U.S. district court of Rhode Island passed Senate cloture vote on Wednesday, 63-33, but many Republicans and conservative groups couldn’t be more vehemently opposed to it. The successful cloture vote ends debate on McConnell’s nomination, paving the way for a simple majority vote to confirm his appointment.

McConnell was first nominated in 2009 and Democrats passed his nomination through the Senate Judiciary Committee on near-party lines three times. Republicans blocked floor votes twice before, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, recently decided to try to get a floor vote via cloture.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced its opposition to McConnell’s nomination in May 2010, marking the first time the Chamber has ever publicly denounced a district court nominee. The Chamber points out concern with McConnell’s history as a trial lawyer. His private practice law firm represented the State of Rhode Island on two major cases, one against tobacco companies and another against lead paint companies, and benefited largely from both. Rhode Island and many other states won their lawsuits against tobacco companies, but McConnell’s law firm procured millions of dollars from the Rhode Island lawsuit instead of passing it onto states and taxpayers.

Rhode Island lost the lawsuit against lead paint companies. But, before the end of the lawsuit, one paint company, DuPont, settled with McConnell’s law firm. It’s unclear the amount McConnell’s firm received in the settlement, but DuPont made a donation to a Massachusetts hospital for the law firm in an amount McConnell had previously agreed to make himself.

The Chamber also questions McConnell’s low American Bar Association Rating. “For a practicing lawyer with 25 years of experience to obtain such a low rating speaks poorly of his legal abilities, and likely means that he generated negative comments from judges before whom he appeared and/or from lawyers who know him,” the Chamber of Commerce wrote. “Mr. McConnell’s ABA rating should come as no surprise given his past statements that raise serious question about whether he will follow precedent and the rule of law.”

National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh told The Daily Caller that McConnell has donated about $700,000 to Democratic party groups and organization and, “that money was the product of what would appear to be a long history of ‘pay-to-play dealings’ in courts around the country.” Walsh also said this nomination and cloture vote “appear[s] to be pay back from politicians like [Rhode Island Democratic Sen.] Sheldon Whitehouse that he has backed over the years.”

“Every Senate Democrat who votes in support of his nomination will have to explain to their constituents why they gave a lifetime appointment to someone of his very questionable caliber and qualifications,” Walsh said in an e-mail to TheDC.

Rhode Island GOP Chairman Ken McKay told TheDC that he’s requested documents and information regarding the DuPont settlement and McConnell’s contracts with Rhode Island’s Attorney General’s office, but has not received any response yet. “The voters have a right to know what went on here,” McKay said, adding that he thinks the Senate shouldn’t try to “ram through” this judicial appointment without presenting all the facts.

Given his history of ‘pay-for-play’ allegations, Republicans expect McConnell to practice judicial activism, or using his power as a judge to further an ideological agenda. In a Washington Times op-ed Wednesday morning, Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, questioned McConnell’s ability to remain fair and impartial.

“I do not believe that all parties who come before him would receive a fair and impartial trial,” Cornyn wrote. “Especially worrisome is his anti-business bias, summed up by his view that some businesses would only do the right thing ‘when they’re sued and forced to by a jury.’”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed that charge in remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday.

“His legal career has been marked by a pervasive and persistent hostility to American job creators,” Mitch McConnell said. “This bias against one part of American society is fundamentally antithetical to the rule of law, and it has led him to take a series of troubling actions that show his unfitness for a lifetime position as a fair and impartial judicial officer.”

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel