Senator Hardy’s remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, before the vote on two nominees to the Vermont Supreme Court. You can view the recordings of these sessions here and here.
As a member of the Judicial Retention Committee, over the past seven years I have reviewed dozens of judicial applications and interviewed the vast majority of the sitting judges in Vermont. None of you will be surprised to hear that I relish the opportunity to ask judges tough questions, hold them accountable, and hear them reflect on how they could do their jobs better.
I am particularly focused on how judges craft an argument and reach a decision based on the evidence before them and the laws we write. How they show up with empathy and respect for the Vermonters who work in or show up in their courtroom. And, how they recognize their own privilege and bias when presiding over a process that can determine the future paths of so many people.
I dug into the task of assessing Christina Nolan and Mike Drescher in the same manner I’ve been judging judges for the past seven years. There’s never been a more important time to choose justices who truly live up to the title “justice,” and who bring faith in our judiciary to the People of Vermont, through their actions, experiences, decisions, and values. Now more than ever, we need a strong court that will uphold the constitution and rule of law for everyone who finds themselves in Vermont.
Christina Nolan. After a deep dive into her record, reviewing the testimony, and conducting two interviews with her, I believe Christina Nolan will be strong addition to the Vermont Supreme Court. While it’s likely that I won’t agree with all of her decisions, I believe that she has a curious and sharp
legal mind that will deliver well-reasoned and well-written legal decisions, grounded in our laws and constitution. She has a diverse legal background that provides her with a foundation that many judges lack, in both civil & criminal law and both prosecutor & defender perspectives. The fact that
she would come to the Court without previous experience on the bench would allow a fresh perspective on a court that is otherwise filled with senior judges. Nolan’s managerial experience in the US Attorney’s Office would also benefit a court that is tasked with overseeing the full judicial branch.
At only 45-years-old, Nolan is young for a Supreme Court Justice, so she could have a generational impact on the legal system in Vermont. While some are concerned that she may swing the Court to the right, I think rather that she’ll help keep the Court grounded in admirable values. I found
Nolan to have a strong moral compass and the ability to allow her beliefs to evolve. She’s not afraid to admit she was wrong or that she doesn’t know something. She knows when she’s made a mistake and does the work to learn from it. She allows new evidence, research, and experiences to change her beliefs and perspectives over time.
As a lesbian woman, Nolan has known the sting of discrimination and would bring this valuable perspective to the Court. Her writing and work demonstrate a degree of empathy that is born out of personal experience and so desperately needed in our judicial system right now. When she talked about her clients and the people she’s impacted as a prosecutor, she demonstrated a genuine care and concern for their welfare. One of her sample briefs highlighted a case about a man in Middlebury who she’s helped turn his life around. Finally, I was impressed by her awe and dedication to public service and her strong desire to serve the state she loves. These are characteristics that will not only serve her well on the Court, but will serve Vermonters well too. I firmly support Christina Nolan’s nomination to the Vermont Supreme Court, and I hope you will join me in voting for her confirmation.
Michael Drescher. I spent a considerable amount of time reviewing Drescher’s file and testimony, interviewing him, reading relevant court proceedings, and talking with his colleagues and supporters. Like many of you, I also heard from hundreds of Vermonters who are dismayed at the prospect of Mr. Drescher becoming a Supreme Court Justice.
As we all know, Mr. Drescher served as the federal government’s attorney in the cases related to the detainment of Mohsen Mahdawi and Rümeysa Öztürk, who were both arrested by ICE for protesting against and writing critically about the war in Gaza. These cases were internationally prominent and hugely significant for many people in Vermont and the broader United States. They were some of the first high profile cases of the federal Administration aggressively arresting legal immigrants under questionable circumstances.
The actions and arguments that the federal government made in these and other cases have significantly escalated over the past 10 months to the point where the federal government is now using deadly force against Americans who are seeking to protect their neighbors. Vermonters are scared for our democracy and many have lost trust in the institutions of government.
Mr. Drescher did not ask for these cases and he has said that he took them to protect others in his office from the controversial spotlight. He says he kept his arguments narrow and did his best to move the cases along. He has said that he was “just doing his job.” While many have argued he should have resigned, he has argued that doing so would have delayed the cases or left them in the hands of someone more zealous.
All of this may be true. He may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the fact is that he still argued against the release of Mahdawi and Öztürk. Not only was he in the wrong place, he was on the wrong side of two hugely important human rights cases in our state. And one month later, he applied to become a Vermont Supreme Court Justice.
It is possible for me to understand why he stayed in his job and made the decision to take these cases, but what I cannot understand is how he could think that these actions should earn him, or at least not be used to deny him, a seat on the Vermont Supreme Court. He seems to have been so blinded by his ambition to be a judge that he has failed to understand the impact of his decisions on so many Vermonters, the very people he seeks to serve on our state’s highest court.
When I met with Drescher, I asked him twice why he wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice. He was so busy explaining in great detail why he should not be faulted for doing his job that he could not tell me why he wanted this new one. He seemed so busy complaining about his detractors that he failed to see that many Vermonters don’t want him on the Court because he took the side of a government that is actively doing harm to people in America.
This lack of empathy and self-awareness, or ability to perceive his own biases, are of great concern for me. Rather than understand that his actions in two hugely important cases have consequences, he has sought a seat on the Vermont Supreme Court with a sense of entitlement.
Nobody is entitled to a seat on the Supreme Court.
And while many factors go into deciding who should be on our Supreme Court, public opinion should not be ignored, especially now when trust in our public institutions is so low and our democracy is so fragile. We need a strong Supreme Court that Vermonters trust to uphold their rights and the
rights of their neighbors too. I cannot support Mike Drescher for a seat on the Vermont Supreme Court. I ask you to join me in voting no.
Ruth for Vermont 