On 3/2/2022, Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy pressed three judicial nominees nominated by President Joe Biden to answer one question at Senate judiciary hearing. The question is straightforward: Does the nominee agree or not with prosecutors refusing to prosecute cases “in the name of social justice?”

Kennedy was questioning three separate nominees: Robert Huie, nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California; Evelyn Padin, nominee for U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey; and Jennifer Rearden, nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Kennedy to Huie: “I’d like to ask your opinion on something. We have a number of prosecutors who have chosen, in the name of social justice, not to prosecute an entire class of cases, despite the fact that their legislature has passed these criminal statutes. Do you think that’s proper?”

Hue replied, “Senator Kennedy, I think I can speak to that issue very broadly in the federal context based on my experience as a prosecutor. To phrase my opinion ‘constitutional terms’ on the federal side, Article II [of U.S. Constitution] directs the President shall take care that the laws of faithfully executed.” Kennedy repeated his question twice more. “Are you afraid to give me an answer?” the senator asked. He then asked the same question to Evelyn Padin and Jennifer Rearden.

“Are you afraid to give me an answer?” Kennedy asked. “No, I think it’s a complicated incident,” Padin said.

Kennedy: “Are you afraid to give me your answer?” “No, senator, I would give you an answer if I had it. I’m doing my best to answer your question,” Rearden said.

The senator said he is “at a loss” that the three nominees could not answer his question. He then asked if they would give him an answer. “I think I got my answer,” Kennedy said, after waiting in dead silence.