Grassley Opens Executive Business Meeting on Six District Court Nominees

Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Tuesday, November 10, 2026

Good morning. On today's agenda, we have 18 nominations and one bill. We'll vote on six district court nominees: Daniel Ballou, Richard Bennett, Courtney Coker, Trevor Pemberton, Kyle Reardon and Zachary West.

The remaining nominations and the bill will be held over for future consideration. Before we turn to today's agenda, I'd like to say a few words.

The American Bar Association (ABA) continues to find itself in hot water - and with good reason. Although it claims to be an unbiased organization, it routinely takes public positions on divisive political, legal and social issues.

I won't repeat the laundry list of the ABA's rampant partisan activities. Indeed, I've run through that litany on many occasions this Congress. But I'll remind you that the ABA has repeatedly advanced hostile positions towards the Second Amendment and immigration enforcement, and it has promoted harmful abortion and liberal gender ideologies.

The ABA's political agenda has - of course - tainted its credibility in rating judicial nominees.

It's well documented that - historically, speaking - a poor ABA rating has reflected a bias against conservatism. And there are dozens of examples of that across Republican administrations.

Like a broken clock, the ABA strikes midnight again, baselessly labeling a Republican President's nominees as "minority Not Qualified."

Although the ABA squandered its credibility long ago, I feel compelled to address this issue again because it affects multiple nominees pending before us today and in the coming weeks.

So, let's take a look at a couple of those examples.

Judge Ballou, nominated to the Eastern District of Kentucky. He's been a state judge for nearly a quarter of a century. It's hard to imagine how any nominee could be more qualified for a judgeship than a current judge with that much experience. The ABA provides no justification for its rating of minority Not Qualified. It's the fox guarding the hen house, telling us to trust it.

Now consider Mr. West, nominated to the Eastern District of Oklahoma. He, like many recent nominees, was the Solicitor General of his state. The ABA rated his Solicitor General peers -Judge Divine, Judge LaCour and Judge Flowers - all Well Qualified. Meanwhile, Mr. West gets a minority Not Qualified rating despite having as much - or more - years of legal experience as each of them.

The ABA's ratings lack any transparency. They're illogical, inconsistent and plainly tainted by political bias. I'd say that they should be taken with a grain of salt, but that'd be giving them too much credit.

In spite of the ABA's baseless attempts to discredit recent nominees, the Senate has confirmed nearly 60 highly qualified Article?III judges so far this Congress. I look forward to today's votes so that we can get to work confirming more.

Now I'll turn to Senator Durbin for his remarks.

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