The exchange above revealed much about the caliber of judicial nominees President Biden is presenting to the lock-step Democratic Senate majority.
The bio of this one, Quinnipiac University law professor Sarah French Russell, states that she “focuses her research and teaching on sentencing policy”–sentencing policy!!—“juvenile justice, prison conditions, reentry issues, ethics, and the problems of access to justice.” Ethics—when her response to being confronted outright with a letter she signed, advocating outrageous and radical measures, was to tell the assembled Senators that he had no memory of signing it and to deny that the letter said what it said…”Russell was previously Director of the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School and taught in Yale’s Criminal Defense, Prison Legal Services, and Supreme Court clinics. Good old dependable Yale Law School!
Senator Cruz clearly asks her how she could justify recommending the release of “all prisoners,” including “all illegal aliens,” as well as making the legally absurd demand that Connecticut governor should command Federal law enforcement. She couldn’t, of course. Nor could she come up with an articulate, or even coherent explanation for signing such a letter, descending into almost an almost comical (if it were not so disturbing for an alleged law professor sufficiently wise and astute to serve as a federal judge) rendition of Ralph Kramden’s immortal “huminahuminhumina…” respond to being trapped with no escape.
Her signing the letter in question should disqualify her from serving. Her response to Cruz’s questioning should disqualify her from serving. If the President cares as much about judicial competence as he does about ideology, he should feel obligated to pull her nomination. If there are any Democratic Senators with integrity, her nomination should be doomed. As an ethics professor, she should know all of this. Moreover, we should be seeing op-ed across the political spectrum demanding that he withdraw.
I’m betting she’ll be confirmed.
Ethics Alarms 
After a couple of he/she typos, I was starting to wonder Sarah was trans…
On a more serious note, I stumbled on a left wing take on this exchange. Please apply cranial tape before reading. https://ballsandstrikes.org/nominations/sarah-french-russell-confirmation-hearing-ted-cruz-dummy/
That is one of the dumbest articles on federal judges that I have ever read. It talks like the bench is supposed to somehow represent the entire population same way they think everything has to have representation from every particular sector, regardless of qualifications. It’s obvious where the author is coming from, the federal bench is described as being full of district attorneys and corporate attorneys who represent oil spillers, but week on public defenders. It’s weak on public defenders for a reason. That is not a job that attracts the best and the brightest and typically the public defenders it’s been their entire day representing the worst of the worst, who are usually clearly guilty and have criminal records as long as your arm. Nonetheless, they are there to make sure these people get the full benefit of the law. Some do it just to get trial experience that they can’t get anywhere else, but those who spend most of their time in the system as public defenders are somewhat justifiably perceived as people who put criminals first and the rest of society last.
I think one of my law school professors, who for a time was the head of the public defender system in New Jersey, said it best without meaning to say it best. When the Rodney King riots broke out, he was on a golf course playing golf with a general who was the commander of the New Jersey National Guard. Both of them got beeper messages (this is before cell phones) and had to swing into action. The general had to go mobilize the National Guard to actually protect the people of the state, while this other professor had to go mobilize the public defender system to make sure all the people who are going to get arrested while breaking things, smashing things, and setting things on fire would have a chance at avoiding getting locked up.
This woman is even more out there. Unfortunately, she’s probably going to be confirmed simply because she is a Presidential nominee and she is the right gender. There is not a single Democrat in the Senate who is willing to stand up and say “hey, wait a minute. These statements are off the charts.” The same politicians who tried to tear Amy Barrett apart because of her faith and called another nominee a bigot because he dared to belong to the Knights of Columbus have no problem with confirming this woman who wanted to keep murderers on the streets during covid.
That was even worse than I expected after your warning. The professor, aspiring to be a judge, advises releasing all prisoners and not locking up any more in a parody of Wuhan hysteria, and this blogger sees it as a virtuous assertion that criminals are people too? (She entirely missed the fact that this law professor completely botched her Constitutional arguments) Who ARE these people? Who reads that blog? How do they get like that?
I also noticed that she doesn’t allow comments. That’s probably wise.
Would it surprise you that it’s the #3 google response for ‘sarah russell ted cruz’ is that link? Other posts on that blog are maybe a tiny bit better, but you can basically guess what they say if you’ve ever listened to an anti-gun activist.
Oh, and apparently Elie Mystal is one of the contributers.
Wow! Considering Ms. Russell’s credentials to even be sitting in front of the Committee, that’s some serious AFG. Anyone thinking that was any kind of responsible answer has no right to ridicule the response from that Miss Teen USA contestant some years ago.
Maybe they’re the same person…
The universities need to seriously start being held accountable for the faculty they hire and what they teach in class.
Remember, boys and girls, it’s the parents who object to drag burlesque shows for third-graders who are the extremists. Law profs who want to unleash every serial killer in every Supermax prison are just “activists”.
Keep in mind, it’s this kind of person who’s now in senior management at Disney and the New York Times and all the networks and in major corporations, and of course, throughout the academy. It’s terrifying.