Mehalchick federal judge nomination narrowly survives; Sen. Lindsey Graham describes her as "one of the worst picks imaginable"

Sep. 14—A Senate panel narrowly voted Thursday to recommend Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick's appointment to a federal district court.

By an 11-10 vote, entirely along partisan lines, the Senate Judiciary Committee moved Mehalchick's nomination to the full Senate for a final vote.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., led the Republican opposition to Mehalchick, whom President Joe Biden nominated in July to a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

"I tend to vote almost unanimously for district court judges," Graham said. "I got my own view of things. I don't expect people to follow my lead, but when I don't vote for a district judge, I think I have a good reason. This is one of the worst picks imaginable. (She's) been overruled constantly based on her decisions as a judge and (she) set aside the conviction of the president of Penn State who was involved in the Sandusky debacle in terms of covering up. ... This is not the person (who) should be promoted."

No Democratic or other Republican senators commented on her nomination before the vote.

In the Penn State case, Mehalchick, 47, overturned former university President Graham Spanier's child endangerment conviction in April 2019 in the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse case, but a federal appeals court reversed the ruling and faulted her for failing to review and analyze the case thoroughly enough.

At her confirmation hearing July 26, Mehalchick, a Clarks Summit resident and chief magistrate judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania since January 2021, defended herself, saying only 2% of her rulings were at least partly reversed. She promised to abide by the appeals court ruling.

Carl W. Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who tracks federal judicial nominations, said Senate Democrats will need to make sure they're all present and stick together when Mehalchick's nomination reaches the Senate floor. The Senate has 49 Republicans, 48 Democrats and three independents. All the independents usually votes with the Democrats.

"But Graham was pretty strong ... and he has a lot of sway with the other (Republican) members," Tobias said. "And so it is likely to be a pretty close vote. But I think she'll get it and it might be like 50-49, or something like that."

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.