For the second week in a row, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday postponed a vote on one of President Joe Biden’s nominees to Colorado’s federal trial court, as the absence of a senior Democratic senator has left the committee evenly divided.

U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews appeared on the committee’s agenda for an intended vote on April 27 and May 4. Both times, the committee held Crews’ nomination over for action at a future meeting.

The White House selected Crews earlier this year to succeed U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore, a Barack Obama appointee who is stepping down from active service in little over six weeks.

Currently, Democrats have a one-vote majority on the Judiciary Committee, but 89-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been absent for several months with no definite timetable for her return. Moreover, Senate Republicans have signaled they will not provide the votes to confirm Crews. On April 18, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pointed to Crews as one of four nominees who are “not on track to get bipartisan support.”

While he did not mention Crews by name, McConnell said that one languishing nominee “didn’t know what a Brady motion is.”

McConnell was referring to an exchange at Crews’ confirmation hearing in March during which Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., asked if Crews knew “what a Brady motion is.”

The U.S. Supreme Court decision Brady v. Maryland held that prosecutors must turn over favorable evidence to defendants that is relevant to their guilt or punishment. A Brady motion would seek to compel that exchange of evidence.

Crews could not recall the holding of Brady under questioning, although he clarified that federal magistrate judges in Colorado do not handle Brady-related evidence disputes.

Thomas L. Dybdahl, a former public defender in the District of Columbia whose book on Brady v. Maryland was published earlier this year, indicated to Colorado Politics he did not consider Crews’ botched answer about Brady motions to be disqualifying.

“It’s not surprising he probably never dealt with Brady issues or heard much about it after he left law school if he were in private practice in a firm that didn’t do criminal work. And even as a magistrate judge, he wouldn’t really deal with Brady,” said Dybdahl, who now lives in Boulder. “It would be nice if he knew every legal concept, but it’s understandable it’s not one that’s very common in his work.”

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who tracks federal judicial nominations, said it was unclear whether Crews could win confirmation from the Senate before the vacancy arises in June, assuming Feinstein cannot return to work.

“Crews will be confirmed but it may be a while,” he said.

Also on Thursday, Feinstein’s office issued a press release purporting to debunk the notion that she is the reason for a slowdown in judicial confirmations.