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Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Tim Scott torpedoed a conservative nominee to the Ninth Circuit appeals court on Thursday whom even liberals called qualified for the bench, citing college-era political comments, energizing Democrats, and creating a new line of attack against the confirmations of dozens of other judicial picks, including Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. Ryan Bounds, an Oregon federal prosecutor who clerked for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain on the Ninth Circuit, had an impressive array of credentials that impressed people on the left and the right. Even the left-wing American Bar Association (ABA) unanimously voted to rate Bounds as...

….after racially charged article he wrote about 'Uncle Toms' as a student at Stanford emerges ...Bounds has said that the writings are 25-year-old editorials and that he has since grown up, calling them 'poorly-worded', 'ill-conceived' and 'regreetable'. Here are some of the charges leveled by AFJ: Bounds complained about multicultural organizations at the university who 'divide up by race for their feel-good ethnic hoedowns.' Bounds wrote that 'race-focused groups' should not continue on campus, claiming that the 'existence of ethnic organizations is no inevitable prerequisite to maintaining a diverse community—white students, after all, seem to be doing all right without...

In a dramatic move Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell withdrew the nomination of President Donald Trump’s pick for the Ninth Circuit, Ryan Bounds, after reports surfaced that his nomination didn’t have enough votes for confirmation. Bounds, an assistant U.S. attorney in Oregon for the last eight years, was the Trump administration’s first nominee to the Ninth Circuit, named in September to replace Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, for whom Bounds clerked. O’Scannlain took senior status at the end of 2016. Both of Bounds’ home-state senators, Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, opposed his nomination. They withheld their blue slips for Bounds,...

"Prosecutors are seeking extra time for Patrick's leadership role and his possession of a gun on the refuge and a terrorism enhancement for the conspiracy conviction." Maxine Bernstein "Oregon Live" Story 2/14/2018 Sentencing for Jason Patrick is set before US District Judge Anna J. Brown in Portland this morning at 9 am. Jason Patrick was convicted in the second rigged Oregon Standoff trial last year of conspiracy to impede federal workers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. US District Judge Anna J. Brown limited defense lawyers ability to present a case to the jury on felony charges and held a...

Liberal advocacy groups have mobilized in opposition to Ryan Bounds, President Donald Trump’s first nominee to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Though criticisms of his professional record are slim thus far, progressive interest groups claim his undergraduate writings are highly inflammatory, such that his temperament might be questioned. The Alliance for Justice (AFJ), a progressive advocacy organization, reviewed dozens of pieces Bounds wrote as a college student for a conservative weekly called the Stanford Review, that are intensely critical of student activist clubs and campus multiculturalism policies. Taken together, the Alliance says his writings betray an intolerant worldview.

In the ongoing dispute between the state's two U.S. senators and the Trump administration, the White House counsel accuses the lawmakers of failing to consider the administration's pick for a judicial vacancy on a federal appellate court. The White House last week nominated Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Bounds, a young, politically conservative federal prosecutor, for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, want U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez, a Republican, for the vacancy. Wyden and Merkley have vowed to block Bounds' nomination, saying that he wasn't vetted through their bipartisan judicial...

Oregon Sens.Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have announced plans to block President Trump’s nominee for the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In a letter to the White House on Thursday, the two Democratic senators said they do not intend to return blue slips for Ryan Bounds “or any other nominee that has not been selected through our judicial process.” “As you are aware, in May we wrote you to explain Oregon’s long bipartisan tradition of working together to identify the most qualified candidates for judicial vacancies,” they wrote. “As senators charged with the task for advice and consent...