Senate Confirms Prominent Abortion-Rights Lawyer To Be A Federal Judge
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The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Julie Rikelman to a lifetime federal judgeship, overcoming opposition from conservatives and anti-abortion groups angry about her long record of advocating for women’s reproductive rights.
Rikelman, 51, was confirmed 51 to 43 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, based in Boston. Every Democrat present voted for her, along with two Republicans: Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), both of whom identify as pro-choice.
Rikelman has been the litigation director for the Center for Reproductive Rights since 2011, and is well known for representing abortion providers in federal court challenges. Most recently, she argued for a Mississippi clinic in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the landmark 2022 Supreme Court case that led to Roe v. Wade being overturned.
President Joe Biden nominated Rikelman for a judgeship one month after the Supreme Court ruled in the Dobbs case ― a sign of his efforts to strengthen the federal bench with legal experts on reproductive rights at a time when more than half of the states in the country are banning or further restricting abortions.
“Few lawyers have fought harder, smarter, and more effectively to protect women’s rights in America than Ms. Rikelman,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday. “On the bench, I am confident she will serve with excellence to uphold the Constitution.”
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) recommended Rikelman to the White House for a judgeship. They hailed her confirmation Tuesday night, saying her professional and personal background will contribute to her being an excellent judge.
Rikelman was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and fled to the U.S. in 1979. She went on to graduate from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
“Rikelman has a deep and unwavering commitment to the rule of law and our Constitution, informed by her own personal experience fleeing religious persecution with her family and moving to the United States,” the senators said in a joint statement. “We were proud to recommend Rikelman as a candidate for the First Circuit, and we applaud President Biden for his commitment to building a federal judiciary with exceptional legal minds who bring diverse professional and personal experiences to the bench.”
Julie Rikelman, considered one of the best abortion rights lawyers in the country, will now serve in a lifetime seat on a U.S. appeals court in Massachusetts.
Hard-line anti-abortion groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Family Research Council had been trying to tank Rikelman’s nomination for months, as several GOP senators tried to cast her as an extremist.
During her Senate confirmation hearing in September, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called her support for “radical pro-abortion laws … very, very troubling.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accused her of being “an extreme zealot” advocating for abortion rights, and then bizarrely asked her if she knew who leaked the Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs case before it was official. (She said no.)
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) pressed Rikelman on whether she stood by her previous claim that the Supreme Court’s decision to gut Roe v. Wade may signal the beginning of “the biggest public health care crisis we have ever seen in decades.”
Rikelman didn’t shy away from her record during her hearing, standing by her years of advocacy for “women to be able to make their own personal medical decisions.” She told Lee that she made her previous comments on the Dobbs case in her role as an advocate, and that as a federal judge she would “absolutely” follow all precedents set by the Supreme Court ― including in Dobbs.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who recommended Rikelman to the White House for a judgeship, greets Rikelman ahead of her Senate confirmation hearing.
Abortion rights groups thanked Biden for nominating Rikelman in the first place.
Rikelman’s confirmation “is a step towards restoring some trust in our judicial system,” Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement.
“Julie Rikelman is a highly qualified, competent legal expert with a demonstrable record of protecting reproductive freedom and other fundamental rights,” said Timmaraju. “We look forward to continuing our work with the Senate and the Biden administration to advance reproductive freedom for all.”
Rakim Brooks, president of Alliance for Justice, a progressive judicial advocacy group, noted the significance of the timing of Rikelman’s confirmation: Almost exactly one year to the day the Supreme Court gutted Roe v. Wade.
“As we mark a year since the devastating Dobbs decision, we continue fighting back with every tool at our disposal. Today, it was confirming an unapologetic defender of civil and human rights, particularly reproductive freedom,” Brooks said in a statement. “Julie Rikelman is precisely the kind of judge we need on the federal bench.”
Rikelman is the latest in a series of recent judicial confirmations who have long been priorities for progressives. Two of Biden’s other high-profile court picks, voting rights attorney Dale Ho and civil rights attorney Nusrat Choudhury, were confirmed last week.
