By Ramsey Cox - 03-05-14 12:27 PM EST
The Senate voted 47-52 Wednesday to reject controversial nominee Debo Adegbile to lead the Department of Justice's Division of Civil Rights.
Seven Democrats voted against moving forward with President Obama’s nomination of Adegbile, which the Fraternal Order of Police and other groups opposed because of his involvement in the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) switched his vote from "yes" to "no" in a procedural move that allows him to bring the nomination up again for a future vote.
Every Republican voted against the nomination, sending it to defeat. It's the first time a nomination has gone down since Democrats changed the Senate's filibuster rules to require simple majority votes on many procedural motions.
Vice President Biden presided over the vote and would have been available to break a tie, but his vote was not needed.
Along with Reid, the Democratic votes against Adegbile were Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), John Walsh (Mont.), Chris Coons (Del.) and Bob Casey (Pa.).
Several Democrats in tough reelection races this year voted in favor of the nomination. Sens. Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mary Landrieu (La.) and Mark Begich (Alaska) are Republican targets in this year's midterms, but all three voted in favor of moving the nomination forward.
Adegbile was the director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) when it defended Abu-Jamal in an appeals case.
Since the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, Abu-Jamal's case has become a cause célèbre and he a political lightning rod who has successfully petitioned to throw out his death sentence.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Adegbile’s nomination was a “thumb in the eye of our law enforcement officers.”
“The nominee inserted his office in an effort to turn reality on its head, impugn honorable and selfless law enforcement officers, and glorify an unrepentant cop killer,” McConnell said in a statement. “This is not required by our legal system. On the contrary, it is noxious to it.”
Adegbile said he was only doing his job when leading the LDF and that everyone deserves a fair defense in the U.S. court system. Civil rights groups for years have said Abu-Jamal was the victim of a racist criminal justice system.
In a statement, Obama called the Senate’s failure to confirm Adegbile a “travesty,” based on “wildly unfair” character attacks.
“Mr. Adegbile’s qualifications are impeccable. He represents the best of the legal profession, with wide-ranging experience, and the deep respect of those with whom he has worked,” Obama said. “His unwavering dedication to protecting every American’s civil and Constitutional rights under the law — including voting rights — could not be more important right now.”
“As a lawyer, Mr. Adegbile has played by the rules. And now, Washington politics have used the rules against him,” Obama added.
“This is an embarrassment for President Obama and the Democrats who thought it was a good idea to nominate a convicted cop-killer’s most ardent defender to head a DOJ Department and failed,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “Vulnerable Democrats running in 2014 just voted to confirm a radical nominee whose positions on civil rights, religious liberty, voting rights and the second amendment are far outside the mainstream.”
Reid argued that Adegbile was being prosecuted for guilt by association because he didn’t actively defend Abu-Jamal.
“The nominee didn’t step into one court room on behalf of the murderer,” he said.
Reid said Republicans have “distorted this good man’s name” to stop him from working on voting rights issues in the civil rights division of the Justice Department. Reid said that's because Republicans don't want poor people to vote.
Reid and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) brought up the fact that Republicans supported Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts's nomination despite his representation of a murderer who killed eight people, including a teenager.
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