The U.S. Senate has rejected its first judicial nominee since Joe Biden took office. On Thursday, Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn’s nomination to the U.S. District Court bench failed to make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Netburn’s nomination was opposed by Republican senators who found her decision to place a transgender child rapist in a women’s prison facility, despite warnings against the move by the Bureau of Prisons, to be disqualifying. The transgender convict subsequently exposed his male genitals to numerous women in the facility.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), a vocal opponent of the judge‘s nomination, highlighted the incident along with others where Netburn put female inmates at risk, seemingly in an effort to push a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda in sentencing.
“Every one of us, every one of us would be horrified if a loved one found out she was the cellmate of a six-foot-two man who was a serial rapist,” Sen. Cruz said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) broke with his fellow Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, siding with Republicans in the 10-11 vote to block the advancement of Netburn’s nomination to a lifetime appointment as a federal district court judge.
Transgender inmates in other women’s prisons have sexually assaulted female prisoners and even impregnated them. An inmate at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey filed a lawsuit last year alleging that guards had refused to take corrective action against a transgender prisoner who had sexually assaulted her.
