Senate Republican leadership today withdrew the nomination of Ryan Bounds for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bounds is a former Hermiston resident and the son of Roger and Karen Bounds. He was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill a seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
He came under some fire from Democrats for controversial writings from the 1990s when he was at Stanford University that belittled campus diversity groups and the college’s handling of sexual assault suspects. He earlier apologized to the committee for the tone of the writing, calling it “overheated” and “high-handed.”
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said he couldn’t support Bounds.
Scott, who is African American, pointed to concerns about racially intemperate opinion pieces Bounds wrote while an undergraduate at Stanford.
Bounds, a Hermiston High School graduate, serves as an assistant United States attorney for the District of Oregon, where he prosecutes criminal cases on behalf of the United States. Previously, he was a special assistant United States attorney for the District of Columbia. Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Bounds served as special assistant to the president for domestic policy, acting as the White House’s primary policy expert on criminal and civil justice issues.
