President Joe Biden may have yet another failed nomination on his hands.
Dale Ho, the president’s judicial nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is having a rough go of it before the U.S. Senate.
If he manages to secure the Senate’s approval, it will be by the grace of God. If Ho fails, he’ll have no one to blame but himself, what with his many lunatic public remarks.
The director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s voting rights project is on tape describing the Senate and the Electoral College as “anti-democratic” institutions. Not merely undemocratic, mind you, but quite literally opposed to the principle of democracy itself.
“We had obviously lots of practices that are anti-democratic, that entrench in some ways minority rule in this country, and I’m talking about things like, you know, the Senate, the Electoral College, and the maldistribution of political power that results from those institutions,” Ho remarked in 2018 during an appearance at the National Civic Leadership Training Summit.
There’s an obvious problem with Ho’s line of thinking, especially insofar as his nomination to the federal judiciary is concerned. Federal judges are required to take an oath to uphold the Constitution. The Constitution establishes both the Electoral College and the Senate. If Ho believes these institutions are anti-democratic, wouldn’t it follow, then, that he believes the Constitution, which he would be sworn to uphold, is likewise anti-democratic?
This is to say nothing of the fact that Ho’s complaint isn’t even grounded in reality. He asserts that the Senate and the Electoral College aren’t representational. But they are. They represent the states, as by design. If he wants a government body that represents the electorate by population, there’s a House for that.
This is also to say nothing of the fact that Ho, a supposed defender of pure democracy, is attempting to secure for himself a lifetime appointment to an unelected position in the federal judiciary. You want to talk about institutions that are in no way “democratic”? Let’s talk about the federal judiciary.
Ho’s position on the Electoral College and the Senate isn’t the only thing giving lawmakers heartburn.
In 2015, during an address at an event in Wisconsin, he likened voter ID requirements to chemotherapy.
“Obviously, we all believe that election integrity is important, right?” Ho said.
“Obviously, all of us are against voter fraud, right?” he added. “The question that I think we have to ask ourselves is whether or not the mechanism that we’re using to try to prevent this problem is appropriate to the task. I’m against cancer, but I don’t think everyone in this room should get chemotherapy.”
Lastly, there are Ho’s public tweets, including one in which he claimed the nomination of conservatives to the Supreme Court is part of a larger and more insidious plot by the GOP to cement a permanent hold on power.
“Electoral College, Senate malapportionment, and extreme gerrymandering” are apparently not enough for power-crazed Republicans, he remarked.
Remember, Ho has been nominated to serve as a federal judge. Senators are right to be concerned about his ability to rule impartially from the bench.
Ho faces a rocky confirmation process. It’s not a sure thing one way or the other he’ll make it to the finish line. Should his nomination tank, however, he’ll join Neera Tanden, David Chipman, and Saule Omarova in the heap of Biden appointees whose nominations were too extreme for Senate confirmation.
It’s an inauspicious start for the supposed “norms” president.
