High-powered attorney Miguel Estrada, who is rumored to be in the running to become President Donald Trump's solicitor general, said this week he will refuse any nomination if he has to be "civil" to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.).
Estrada told the National Law Journal that he will not accept any nomination from the White House that requires Senate confirmation and the need to be "civil to Chuck Schumer," the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.
Schumer filibustered Estrada's nomination in 2001 to become a justice on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seven times. The New York Democrat called Estrada "a stealth missile—with a nose cone—coming out of the right wing's deepest silo," according to the Examiner.
Senate Democrats argued at the time that they needed to view confidential Justice Department records on Estrada, a Harvard graduate who won multiple arguments in front of the Supreme Court, to review his record. Seven former solicitor generals wrote that the Democrats' request would hinder the Justice Department's ability to carry out its necessary duties.
Leaked emails later revealed that Democrats were actually concerned about the prospect of a Hispanic conservative being named to the Supreme Court, the Examiner noted. A message from one of Sen. Dick Durbin's (D., Ill.) aides showed concern over Estrada's ethnicity.
The aide said that strategists "identified Miguel Estrada (D.C. Circuit) as especially dangerous, he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment."
Estrada is from Honduras.
Estrada eventually withdrew his name after 28 months of Democratic filibusters. The George W. Bush administration called Schumer's efforts "shameful politics."