Up for federal bench, MN’s Stras gets Senate hearing
Updated 2:45 p.m.
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras came before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to seek confirmation to the federal bench, treading carefully around questions about how he might come down on pressing issues and promising to keep an open mind on cases that come his way.
Stras needs Senate approval to take a seat on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination by President Trump had been hung up for months amid a standoff between majority Republicans and home-state DFL Sen. Al Franken.
Franken has voiced concern over how Stras was picked and about his conservative judicial views. He made a last minute plea for the committee to respect his objections to the confirmation hearing.
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"When the process works as it should, the White House joins with home-state senators to identify nominees and when the president and senators are of different parties, that should mean identifying consensus candidates," he said.
But last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s chairman, Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa, decided to no longer honor a custom that both home-state senators sign off before a hearing could proceed.
After a polite tussle over that discarded rule, Minnesota’s other senator introduced Stras. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she and Stras might have different views on issues, but they share a foundational belief about the courts.
“I have no doubt that Justice Stras respects an independent judiciary and the critical roles it plays as a check on the executive and legislative branches,” Klobuchar said.
Stras declared himself humbled by the task ahead and committed to impartiality.
“I’m objective and open-minded and I take each case as it comes,” he pledged.
Attempts to pin him down on pressing legal topics largely fizzled.
Franken brought up an affirmative action opinion Justice Clarence Thomas authored when Stras was a clerk for him. Justice Thomas had called a Michigan law school’s policy to achieve diversity a form of “racial discrimination.”
"Do you share his views on affirmative action?” Franken asked.
Stras said he’s thought a lot about the topic, but declined to say much more.
“We have a case called State versus Finch in Minnesota that says judges cannot prejudge issues and in fact it is reversible error for judges to prejudge issues," he said. "And we have a number of cases involving equal protection challenges. Because I haven’t directly been confronted as a judge with one of those cases, I think would come awfully close to crossing the line if I were to answer that question directly.”
Another senator wanted to know whether Stras would base court decisions on personal religious beliefs.
“My oath is to the constitution," Stras said, "In the case of being a Minnesota Supreme Court justice it is to the Minnesota constitution as well. It is not to my own religious beliefs.”
The Kansas-born Stras is Jewish. His grandparents are Holocaust survivors, something he and others noted during the hearing. He came to Minnesota to teach law at the University of Minnesota. He was put on the state Supreme Court in 2010.
This latest appointment for Stras comes at age 43, meaning he could serve in the role for decades.
But North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis had something else in mind as he heaped on the flattery.
“In the preparatory materials for the hearing, some of your positions seem to remind me of someone else who was before us a while back, and that’s Neil Gorsuch," Tillis said. "He’s got a fairly good reputation, so that’s meant as a compliment."
Gorsuch now sits on the U.S. Supreme Court, an early Trump triumph. Stras is among a couple dozen names on an official Trump list of future candidates for the high court.
Not all of the hearing was about dense legal theory. Stras and senators took time to dote on his young children seated behind him. A senator asked if he was active on social media or expressed any views there that could spell trouble.
Stras said he has a Facebook account and hopes to keep it.
“It’s just pictures and things that are going on with my family and friends," he said.
No vote was taken by the panel and one could be weeks away. If he prevails there, the full Senate will have the ultimate say.