Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) voted to confirm double-digit numbers of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees responsible for blocking the Trump administration’s agenda.
The revelations are the latest as the embattled Texas senator’s record is under increasing scrutiny since the March 3 primary, when the incumbent failed to avoid a runoff and finished only a point ahead of his runoff opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, despite Cornyn and his allies outspending the grassroots-favorite Paxton by more than $70 million to a paltry $4 million.
The consequences for the Trump administration are severe.
Biden judges confirmed with cover from Cornyn are blocking President Donald Trump from enforcing immigration law, fighting fraud, even implementing tariffs that had successfully reduced the trade imbalance with Communist China and ensured Mexican collaboration to end the pouring of deadly fentanyl into the United States.
Most of those judges were confirmed during the 117th Congress, when Republicans had leverage due to the Senate’s even partisan split. Yet, due to support from Cornyn and other establishment Republicans, none of those confirmation votes required Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie.
Biden, confident he possessed a reliable block of support for his nominees inside the Senate Republican Conference, likely nominated more radical judges than he might have otherwise.
Cornyn, who previously served as the second-ranking Senate Republican behind Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), often claims on the campaign trail to have retained a position of senior leadership over his Republican colleagues, making the case that influence can be wielded to sway colleagues and benefit Texas.
Yet on these confirmation votes, he chose not to use that influence — if it exists.
No Trump policy priority suffered more from Cornyn and his faux-conservative colleagues’ votes than immigration enforcement — an area where Cornyn has historically clashed with Trump in non-election years.
As Breitbart News previously reported, “The four-term senator has consistently been one of Trump’s greatest critics when it comes to securing the border and building the border wall.” The report continued:
- John Cornyn slammed the idea of Trump’s border wall as “naïve,” stating, “This idea that all you can do is build some obstacle and people won’t go over it, or go under it, or go through it is naive.”
- Cornyn said, “A new, giant wall between the United States and Mexico from sea to shining sea makes no sense whatsoever,” that President Trump’s border wall would rate “very low” among Texans, and that “I don’t think we’re just going to be able to solve border security with a physical barrier because people can come under, around it, and through it.”
- When asked if he thought Donald Trump understood the border issue, Cornyn said, “That’s certainly not my sense.”
Cornyn’s judicial confirmation votes suggest his weakness on immigration and border security influences his preferences for judges.
Cornyn was one of only nine Republicans, including Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), voting to confirm Lindsay Jenkins as a U.S. District Judge in Northern Illinois. In July 2025, Jenkins dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County sanctuary policies, ruling they are protected by the Tenth Amendment.
He also approved of Jerry Edwards, Jr. as U.S. District Judge in Western Louisiana. Edwards granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in August 2025 against Trump’s expanded immigration detention policies in Kostak v. Trump, ordering bond hearing or release for illegal migrants.
The Texas senator likewise voted to confirm Zahid Quraishi as U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey. Quraishi ruled against the Trump administration for detaining over 70 migrants in immigration habeas cases, ordering the immediate release of detainees. Cornyn additionally voted to confirm Regina Rodriguez as U.S. District Judge for the District of Colorado, who ruled that immigrant detention cases could be rolled into a class action lawsuit, causing further trouble for Trump.
He also stamped his approval for the nomination of Samantha Elliott for U.S. District Judge for New Hampshire, who ordered restoration of Chinese doctoral student Xiaotian Liu’s legal immigration records and extended a temporary restraining order against deportation enabling him to continue his research, as well as Patricia Tolliver Giles as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia who ordered the release of a pro-Palestinian student Trump sought to deport.
Another Cornyn confirmation case stands out for its impacts on the Lone Star State. Cornyn voted to confirm Dana Douglas as U.S. Circuit Judge for 5th Circuit. Douglas issued the majority opinion in the case order that the floating barriers as part of Operation Lone Star, in which Texas tried to impede the Biden-ordered foreign migrant invasion, had to be taken down.
Paxton, in a blow to Biden, won the case for the State of Texas on appeal.
Cornyn’s confirmation votes have haunted the Trump administration on other policy issues as well.
He voted to confirm Richard E.N. Federico for U.S. Circuit Judge for the Tenth Circuit. Federico was part of the October 2025 panel blocking Catholic schools from applying their believes on LGBTQIA+ during the admissions process. He also signed off on Lydia K. Griggsby for U.S. District Judge for the District of Maryland, who ruled against Trump’s HHS for defunding radical LGBTQ research.
Cornyn confirmed Arun Subramanian for U.S. District Judge in Southern New York, who issued a January 2026 temporary restraining order blocking Trump’s fraud-fighting freeze of over $10 billion in childcare and social services funds to five Democrat-led states.
He also voted for the confirmation of Tiffany Cunningham as U.S. Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit who ruled that Trump’s tariffs were illegal.
Perhaps most significantly, Cornyn approved of Florence Y. Pan for U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia as well, who ruled against Trump in 2024 on presidential immunity case — a ruling that if not corrected by the Supreme Court could have resulted in Trump going to prison through Democrat lawfare.
Breitbart News reported on Cornyn’s long record refusing to defend Trump against efforts to bankrupt, defeat, and even imprison him, instead attacking Trump and justifying the actions of the radicals engaging in politically motivated lawfare.
Among those twelve judicial nominations, only three Republicans were a constant in voting for each confirmation: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), an avowed moderate; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a notorious neocon; and Cornyn, whose record makes clear the labels of “moderate” or “neocon” stick just as comfortably to him.
Bradley Jaye is Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
