Philip Wegmann / May 16, 2016 / The Daily Signal

Senator Orrin Hatch voted to confirm  Obama’s judicial nominee opposed by conservatives and over 20,000 police. Even John McCain voted against this one. – Editor’s note

The Senate confirmed Paula Xinis, 53-34, to a federal judgeship in Baltimore Monday over the protests of outside conservative and local police advocacy groups.

Xinis, a partner and senior trial attorney at the law firm representing the family of Freddie Gray, will serve in a lifetime position as a judge for the U.S. District Court of Maryland.

Monday’s vote was according to relatively tight margins. If three more senators had voted against Xinis, her nomination would have failed.

The 10 GOP senators who did not vote were: Tom Cotton, Ark., Ted Cruz,Texas, Michael Enzi, Wyo., Jeff Flake, Ariz., Ron Johnson, Wis., Jerry Moran, Kan., Pat Roberts, Kan., Dan Sullivan, Alaska, Pat Toomey, Pa., and David Vitter, La.

The president of Maryland’s Fraternal Order of Police, Ismael Canales, wrote to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., urging him and his fellow senators to oppose the nomination on behalf of “over 20,000 active and retired law enforcement professionals.”

“Based on prior and recent experiences,” Canales wrote, “Ms. Xinis has shown a clear bias towards law enforcement which began in her position as a complaint examiner…and culminated with her involvement in the civil suit surrounding the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore.”

In her capacity as a complaint examiner for the District of Columbia’s Office of Police Complaints, Xinis ruled against the accused officer in all six cases that came before her.

That record was interpreted as “obvious disdain for the law enforcement profession,” in a letter written to each member of the U.S. Senate by the City of Baltimore’s local Fraternal Order of Police.

Xinis is the second lower court nominee confirmed since Senate Republicans began their blockade of Supreme Court candidates after the Feb. 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of The Heritage Foundation, opposed Xinis, writing in a statement Monday afternoon that her nomination “is an affront to our hard working law enforcement agencies all over the country.”

Below is the roll call vote for Xinis.