Senate Confirms Pro-Life State Judge for Federal Judgeship
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Ohio appeals court Judge Matthew R. Byrne, who has a career of pro-life work, to a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
The vote was 52-45.
President Donald Trump nominated Byrne on the recommendation of Ohio’s two Republican senators and Vice President JD Vance. Byrne, a Republican, was elected to Ohio’s Twelfth District Court of Appeals in 2020 after a decade as an employment litigator.
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Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, told the Senate Judiciary Committee in June that Byrne had decided more than 800 appeals and written majority, concurring and dissenting opinions in nearly 250 cases.
“Judge Byrne has earned a distinguished reputation as a hardworking, thoughtful, and fair judge,” Husted said. “He has remained dedicated to upholding the reputation of the court and the rule of law.”
Byrne has been affiliated with Ohio Right to Life, Cincinnati Right to Life, Warren County Right to Life, the Center for Christian Virtue and the Federalist Society. He also served on the board of a pro-life pregnancy center.
In a 2020 Ohio Right to Life PAC survey, completed while Roe v. Wade was still in force, Byrne cited “pro-life efforts throughout my career.” He said he opposed abortion except to protect the life of the mother, with no exceptions for rape or incest, and that “life of the mother” should be “strictly defined so as to avoid creating loopholes.”
Asked this summer by the Judiciary Committee to explain those views, Byrne said it would be “inappropriate for me to opine on this issue as your question asks me to comment on a matter of political controversy.”
After Ohio voters in 2023 approved a state constitutional amendment on abortion, Byrne sat as a visiting judge on the Ohio Supreme Court and was the only member of a seven-judge panel who would not join a December 2023 decision dismissing an appeal involving the Legislature’s six-week abortion ban.
The Senate invoked cloture on the nomination Monday, 47-46, ending debate. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted to advance him while Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., returned to the Capitol and cast his first vote in months to move the nomination forward.
