In a recent vote, the Senate approved the nomination of voting rights lawyer Dale E. Ho to a post as federal judge in the Southern District of New York, an often prominent jurisdiction. It’s there, for instance, that Trump’s recent civil trial on allegations of sexual misconduct and defamation was held.
Ho has a history of work with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and his career as a lawyer has also involved multiple appearances before the Supreme Court. Among other highlights, he was also involved in preparing the case for the ill-fated arguments in the 2013 dispute in which the Supreme Court eventually turned the clock back on key provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Those provisions established a system by which federal authorities would need to approve many changes to the handling of elections before those updates were implemented. The idea was to stop voter suppression before it started, and there have recently been proposals to reestablish such a sweeping system. The idea has support from Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The final vote on Ho’s nomination came well over a year after the president choosing him was originally unveiled, and the results were close. Fifty Senators — all Democrats or Democratic Party-aligned members — voted to put Ho on the bench, while 49 Senators opposed. Those in opposition included most Republicans and Joe Manchin. South Carolina’s Tim Scott, who recently announced an extremely longshot bid for president, didn’t participate in the vote.
Ho was previously recommended to the White House by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. Ho’s time with the ACLU has included leadership of its Voting Rights Project, and he has also previously spent professional time with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. There was a Senate hearing on his nomination in late 2021, so his confirmation has been a long time coming. The lawyer has faced criticism for some of his political speech and predictably antagonistic advertising campaigns from right-wing interests like an organization called JCN.
