In a 52-45 vote, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Los Angeles Jenner & Block partner Kenneth Lee to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit despite the opposition of his home state California senators.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris announced their opposition to Lee earlier this year, declining to return so-called blue slips to indicate their signoff on his nomination while it was before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where both senators sit in the minority. They cited Lee’s failure to hand over “controversial writings” from his college days to their home-state screening committee and his initial failure to disclose the writings to the Senate Judiciary Committee.