Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday criticized one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees for blanking on basic questions about the U.S. Constitution in her confirmation hearing last week.
Charnelle Bjelkengren, a county superior court judge in Washington and former assistant state attorney general nominated to a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, couldn’t answer when quizzed by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) about Article II and Article V of the Constitution, and about a judicial philosophy known as “purposivism.”
Article II sets up the presidency and the executive branch, while Article V outlines the process for amending the Constitution. Bjelkengren said she couldn’t recall what either of them did as she sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Wednesday.
“Goodness gracious,” McConnell said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “Is this the caliber of legal expert with which President Biden is filling…
