Trump’s latest judicial nominee says rape victims are partly responsible if they have been drinking

'If she drinks to the point where she can no longer choose, well, getting to that point was part of her choice,' conservative nominee writes in college essay

Donald Trump’s judicial nominee for a lifelong appointment to one of the nation’s most powerful courts, has stirred controversy over her apparent views surrounding sexual assault victims, among other legal issues.

Neomi Rao, who would replace Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the US Circuity Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, has never been a judge, though she previously worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee and currently serves the White House as the administrator of the office of information and regulatory affairs at the office of management and budget.

A series of writings the conservative penned while attending Yale University, have since revealed her apparent attitudes towards issues such as rape, race and LGBTQ equality after being unearthed in a BuzzFeed News report published on Monday.

In one of her more controversial columns from 1994 published in the Yale Herald, Ms Rao argued against the defence that a woman could become too inebriated to consent to sex.

“A good way to avoid a potential date rape is to stay reasonably sober," she wrote. “And if she drinks to the point where she can no longer choose, well, getting to that point was part of her choice.”

“Implying that a drunk woman has no control of her actions, but that a drunk man does strips women of all moral responsibility,” she continued.

The conservative legal scholar also appeared to undermine the need for LGBTQ protections, writing in a separate 1994 column: “Trendy political movements have only recently added sexuality to the standard checklist of traits requiring tolerance.”

She has also referred to the issue of race as a “hot, money-making issue”, and claimed “multiculturalists” were seeking “to undermine American culture”.

The Justice Department defended the president’s choice to replace Mr Kavanaugh on what’s seen as the second most powerful court in the country, saying in a statement Ms Rao’s writings were “intentional provocative”.

“Neomi Rao is a renowned constitutional and administrative law expert. That is why the president nominated her to the DC Circuit. The views she expressed a quarter century ago as a college student writing for her student newspaper were intentionally provocative, designed to raise questions and push back against liberal elitism that dominated her campus at the time,” a spokesperson for the department said. “More than two decades later, her views can be found in her numerous academic articles and speeches. We are confident Ms. Rao will make an exemplary judge on the D.C Circuit.”

Ms Rao, who has reportedly been considered for a potential Supreme Court nominee if another seat were to open under Mr Trump’s presidency, has been a key official in the White House’s deregulations efforts.

She was selected by the president to fill Mr Kavanaugh’s role in November, though her official nomination was returned to the White House with the close of the last Congress in early January. Ms Rao is hardly the first of Mr Trump's judicial nominees to stir controversy; a slate of his picks have withdrawn after questions arose surrounding their compotency and stances on issues like race and equality.

The president is expected to re-nominate her and dozens of other judicial nominees in the coming weeks, setting the stage for a contentious confirmation battle.