Sara Hill, a lawyer nominated by President Biden to serve as a federal judge, stumbled as she tried to answer a legal question during a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
Biden announced Hill’s nomination for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma on October 18. In a White House memo, Biden called Hill and John D. Russell, another federal judge nominee for the Northern District of Oklahoma, “extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution.”
During Hill’s nomination hearing, which took place at the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Wednesday, Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, asked Hill what the difference between a stay order and an injunction was.
“A stay order would prohibit a—an injunction would restrain the parties from taking action. A stay order—I’m not sure that I actually can give you that,” Hill said.
A stay order is a court order that suspends some or all of the proceedings in a case proceeding.
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.
Hill served as Attorney General of the Cherokee Nation from 2019 to 2023. A small delegation from the Cherokee Nation attended her nomination hearing. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. told the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper published by Native Americans, that Hill and her fellow nominee Russell are “known for their legal expertise, work ethic and sense of fairness that will make them great additions to the judiciary.”
People on social media were taken aback by Hill’s struggle to answer Senator Kennedy’s question.
Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), a conservative advocacy organization, shared the video on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: “How can an individual who wants to be a federal judge possibly not know this? Senator Durbin even congratulated Hill afterward for ‘passing the Kennedy bar exam’ – talk about grading on a curve!”
Henry Rodgers, the Chief National Correspondent at the Daily Caller, a conservative news outlet, replied to Severino’s post: “Oof…”
“Joe Biden is going for the title of Undisputed Champion Of The World for nominating unqualified judge after unqualified judge,” Steve Guest, who calls himself a conservative communicator, wrote on X.
If Hill is confirmed, she will be the first Native American woman to serve as a federal judge in Oklahoma.
Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, told Hill at her hearing: “You are clearly more than qualified for this role. But this is a milestone that many would consider long overdue…What would it mean to you and the people of Oklahoma if you were to be confirmed?”
Hill replied, in part: “I think that having such a large Native population in the state, I think everybody will feel, I certainly feel like having a federal bench that reflects the community that serves it is a sign that your government is thriving, that the community is thriving, that things are working well.”
“I think that from that point of view, it will be a good thing to see and it’s meaningful to me in that way. It’s an opportunity to reflect the community that is served by the Northern District. And it’s a very humbling thought to be the first,” Hill added.
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Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.