Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) voted with Republicans on Thursday to block the nomination of Judge Sarah Netburn, who garnered significant controversy after ruling a transgender woman convicted of sex crimes should be transferred to a federal women's prison.
It marked a rare instance of a Democrat breaking with the majority to bottle up one of President Biden’s judicial nominees in committee.
Netburn came under sharp criticism from Republican senators after she told Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, that she didn’t know whether it is possible to determine a person’s sex by analyzing their chromosomes.
When asked about determining sex by chromosomal analysis, the nominee told Graham, “I have never studied biology and therefore I am unqualified to answer this question."
Republicans criticized Netburn’s handling of the transfer request of July Justine Shelby, who was sentenced to a 15-year term at the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution, a men's prison.
Netburn, a magistrate judge, recommended that Shelby, who began publicly identifying as a woman at the age of 51, be transferred to a federal women’s prison, despite the objections of the Bureau of Prisons.
“Putting political ideology over justice and reality, magistrate Judge Netburn recommended that Shelby be transferred immediately to a woman’s facility,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said before the vote.
“This judge is ruling the Constitution requires that biological men who wake up one day and say I’m a woman have to be housed with female prisoners. This judge also ruled in effect that female prisoners have no rights,” Cruz added.
