Sarah Netburn, a United States Magistrate Judge nominated by President Joe Biden for a seat in the Southern District of New York, has reportedly stated that she is “unqualified” to define what a woman is. This came in response to a question from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who was referring to Netburn’s earlier ruling which ordered a biological male to be housed in a women’s prison.
Graham asked Netburn about sentence phrasing used in her Factual Background section – ‘At birth, people are typically assigned a gender.’ He queried if it were possible to determine one’s sex by analyzing their chromosomes alone, to which she responded that she was unqualified to answer, having never studied biology.
In her contested ruling, Netburn had detailed the criminal history of the biological male at the center of the case. The individual had pleaded guilty to child molestation and rape, among other crimes, and had been sent back to prison after violating parole.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas had earlier raised concerns about Netburn’s ruling during her confirmation hearing. He underscored the biological male’s history of sex-related offenses and expressed worry about the rights of women in the prison where they were transferred.
It’s worth noting that President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, faced similar queries during her May 2022 confirmation hearings. She likewise claimed that she couldn’t define what a woman is, stating she wasn’t a biologist.