Petersen Was “Among Many Unfit” Nominees

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 18 – In response to reports that Matthew Petersen, President Trump’s nominee for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has withdrawn his name from consideration, AFJ Legal Director Daniel Goldberg released the following statement:

“Matthew Petersen was totally unqualified to be a federal judge, as was painfully obvious to the entire country when video of his humiliating performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee went viral. But Petersen is hardly unique. Along with Brett Talley and Jeff Mateer, whose nominations were also just sidelined, Petersen was among many unfit judicial nominees put forward by this administration. It took the nomination of some egregiously underqualified people to make Senate Republicans begin to push back, but this GOP-led Senate has been rubber-stamping unfit judicial nominees for months now. It’s time for that irresponsible behavior to stop, and also time for the White House to stop sending up the kind of nominees we’re seeing: individuals with inadequate credentials, open hostility to the rights of fellow Americans, or both.”