MN Federal Judge Nominee Stras Gets Last Laugh on Franken

Every once in a while the good guy still wins, even in the the Swamp. On the week Al Franken stepped down from the Senate in accordance with his marching orders from the Democratic Party commissariat, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras took the next step in the confirmation process that will give him the last laugh in the world’s greatest deliberative body just vacated by his former nemesis.

Despite widespread bipartisan support for Stras, Franken held up the jurist’s nomination by abusing the tradition of the “blue slip” senatorial review of nominees. But on Friday the Star Tribune reports, President Trump officially renominated Stras for a federal judgeship, an exclamation point on the week Franken got a pink slip that ended his hyper-partisan Senate career.

A Senate committee is scheduled to vote next week on Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras’ nomination for a federal appellate court seat, a little more than a month after he appeared on Capitol Hill for questioning.

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced Friday that it will vote on Stras and two other federal judge nominees on Thursday.

Franken never relented in his opposition, precisely because Stras is so well qualified to serve on the federal bench.

Stras, who is also still on a Trump shortlist of U.S. Supreme Court considerations, committed to “interpreting and applying the law in an impartial manner” during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination late last year.

The hearing was held over the objections of former Democratic Sen. Al Franken, who in September announced that he would oppose Stras’ nomination. In moving forward with the hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican committee chairman from Iowa, announced that he would not allow home-state senators to wield the traditional “blue-slip” veto over Circuit Court nominees.

There’s no indication on the record that I could find of where Franken’s replacement, Tina Smith, stands on Stras’ nomination. But one thing for sure. Franken will be watching from the sidelines, as Stras’ nomination moves forward on his way to assuming a seat on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.