Washington • The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of a controversial nominee to serve on Utah’s federal bench on Thursday as Republicans moved to install a slew of President Donald Trump’s picks against Democratic pushback.
The GOP-led committee voted along party lines 12-10 to move Howard Nielson Jr.'s nomination to the full Senate as part of a package of judicial nominees, some of whom have come under fire from Democrats for their past statements or actions.
Nielson, who attended Brigham Young University and is now a lawyer in Washington, faced opposition for his previous legal work to end same-sex marriage in California and for a memo he wrote while at the Justice Department arguing that the Geneva Conventions only protected civilians in enemy custody held on U.