The State Department (finally) has a new legal adviser. Harold Koh was confirmed by the Senate this afternoon by a vote of 62-35.
That’s actually a slightly narrower margin than he received on the cloture vote that ended the filibuster on his nomination. That vote was 65-31, indicating that a small handful of senators didn’t support the filibuster, but then voted against confirmation. We’ll track down who those senators are once the roll call goes live. Their precedent is one that supporters of Justice Department nominee Dawn Johnsen have been hoping for for months. But at least for the time being it seems as if very few of her opponents are willing to at least support giving her an up or down vote.
Late update: Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Judd Gregg (R-NH) voted to end the filibuster on Koh, and then voted against his confirmation.
