Trump judicial nominee, Sioux Falls lawyer Jonathan Kobes, wins confirmation

A Sioux Falls lawyer nominated by President Donald Trump to serve on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals won Senate confirmation Tuesday.

Jonathan Kobes won confirmation by the narrowest of margins, with all Democratic senators voting against him as well as outgoing Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, leading to a 50-50 vote split. Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie, casting the decisive vote for Kobes.

Kobes, 44, will replace Judge Roger L. Wollman, who has served on the Eighth Circuit since being appointed to the court by President Ronald Reagan in 1985. Kobes, a Harvard Law School graduate, was a clerk for Wollman after earning his law degree.

The 1996 Dordt College graduate had served as the general counsel to Sen. Mike Rounds since Rounds won his seat in 2014. Previously he was a general counsel to Poet and Raven Industries.

“Jon will be an excellent judge on the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit,” Rounds said in a release. “He has spent his career demonstrating his commitment to justice, the fair application of the law and the betterment of the community by providing pro-bono legal services to those in need. I have the utmost confidence in his ability to protect the Constitution and the rule of law, and I look forward to watching him excel as a federal judge.”

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Trump and Senate Republicans have moved swiftly over the last two years to confirm federal judges. Like Kobes, many have been younger, meaning they stand the chance of remaining on the bench for decades.

Liberal groups opposed his nomination, and the American Bar Association gave him a “not qualified” rating because he didn’t produce enough writing samples to prove that he was capable of performing the work of a an appellate judge.

Vanita Gupta, the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, was among liberal activists who took to social media Tuesday urging the Senate to reject Kobes. She noted on Twitter that Trump had nominated four white men to a court that has only one woman and one person of color.

“Jonathan Kobes is one of those unqualified white men. Senators must reject him today.”

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and an expert on the judicial nomination process, said that the use of social media has become more common by groups opposing or supporting nominees. Tobias credited Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley's support for Kobes as a key to the victory. Kobes is an Iowa native and served as an intern for Grassley.

"I think Grassley’s support was critical to confirmation and the GOP senators do seem to vote in lockstep as do many Democrats these days," Tobias said in an email.

There are 11 active judges on the 8th Circuit and four judges on senior status.

The Eighth Circuit is one of 13 appeals courts in the federal judiciary, which are one step below the U.S. Supreme Court. The Eighth Circuit hears appeals from trial courts in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Arkansas. Once confirmed by the Senate, judges serve lifetime appointments.

Kobes is married and lives in Sioux Falls. They have four children.