Senator accuses lesbian judicial nominee of being a secret Marxist

Senator accuses lesbian judicial nominee of being a secret Marxist

Judicial Nominee Faces Marxism Allegations During Senate Hearing

This week, a judicial nominee openly identifying as a lesbian was accused of being a Marxist during her Senate confirmation hearing.

n a recent development, President Joe Biden nominated state Judge Melissa DuBose for a position on the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island bench last month. Her confirmation would mark a historic moment as she would become the first LGBTQ+ individual and the first woman of color on that court. During her confirmation hearing, the focus of Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) was on probing DuBose about potential secret Marxist beliefs. “Are you still a Marxist?” Kennedy inquired.

“I am not, nor have ever been, a Marxist,” DuBose firmly stated in response.

Kennedy then referenced a decades-old article from a publication he termed “the feminist press.” The exact name of this publication remains uncertain, yet the Boston Globe identified the piece as being authored by a college student in 2000, during the period DuBose was teaching in a public school, prior to attending law school.

Kennedy highlighted a passage from the interview where DuBose recounted her days working in a coffee shop while in college: “The kids would come into the cafe all the time, we’d talk about what they’re doing, we’d talk about their classes, and I was in my Marxist phase.”

Challenging DuBose, Kennedy pressed, “So you used to be a Marxist but you’re not now?”

Despite several interruptions from Kennedy, DuBose managed to clarify that her academic pursuits as a political science major led her to explore a wide array of political ideologies. “I immersed myself in a ton of political theory,” she explained, detailing her study of prominent thinkers such as Hobbs, Locke, Rousseau, and Marx, alongside an interest in Eastern religions and their texts.

Kennedy persisted, emphasizing the specificity of her earlier statement: “You didn’t say, ‘I’m in my Hobbs phase.’ You didn’t say, second, ‘I’m in my Locke phase,’ you didn’t say, ‘I’m in my Rousseau phase.’ You said, ‘I was in my Marxist phase.’ My question is real simple: Are you still a Marxist?”

“Senator, I’ve never been a Marxist,” she reiterated.

Before her nomination, DuBose had a diverse career, initially teaching history and civics in Providence, Rhode Island, for a decade. Following this, she pursued a legal career, working as a prosecutor in the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office and later in private sector contract law. She was appointed to the Rhode Island District Court in 2019.

DuBose disclosed to the Boston Globe that she was unaware of the publication of the article until just before the Senate hearing.

In a lighter exchange, Kennedy queried DuBose on her familiarity with federal jury trials broadcasted on television. After she noted the lack of televised federal jury trials, confirming she had not watched one, Kennedy inquired if she had viewed any trial on television, to which DuBose reminded him of her current judicial position.