Obama Nominates Four to Fill Judicial Vacancies

Thursday evening, President Obama sent four new names to the Senate to fill judicial vacancies.

He nominated Jill A. Pryor to a seat on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. A graduate of the College of William and Mary and of Yale Law School, and a former clerk for 11th Circuit Judge J.L. Edmondson, Pryor is currently a partner at the law firm of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, LLP, in Atlanta, Georgia. If confirmed, she will be the fourth woman to serve on the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The seat to which Pryor has been nominated has been vacant since August 2010 and has been declared a “judicial emergency” by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Nominated to United States District Court seats were Judge Elissa Cadish to the District of Nevada, Judge Paul William Grimm to the District of Maryland, and Judge Mark E. Walker to the Northern District of Florida.

Judge Cadish, who currently serves as a district court judge on the 8th Judicial District Court of Nevada, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and of the University of Virginia School of Law. Following law school, she clerked for Judge Philip Pro of the District of Nevada; it is his seat, also an emergency vacancy, that she will fill if confirmed.

Judge Grimm, who has been nominated to fill a future vacancy that will open up when incumbent judge Benson Legg takes senior status in June, is a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Maryland and, since 2006, has served as the Chief United States Magistrate Judge. A former member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps with the United States Army, Grimm received his B.A. from the University of California at Davis and his J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law.

Judge Walker is currently a Florida Circuit Judge in Tallahassee. In addition to a decade in private practice, he served as an Assistant Public Defender for Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit from 1997-1999 and clerked for a Florida state court judge, a United States District Court Judge in the Northern District of Florida, and a judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.  He received both his B.A. and his J.D. from the University of Florida.

For the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on judicial nominations, see the Alliance for Justice’s Judicial Selection Project webpage.

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Senate Judiciary Committee Reports Four Nominees to the Floor, Holds Hearing on Four Nominees

This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee reported four United States District Court nominees to the Senate floor, where they now await their final confirmation votes.

The nominations of John Lee to the Northern District of Illinois, John Tharp, Jr. to the Northern District of Illinois, George Russell III to the District of Maryland, and Kristine Baker to the Eastern District of Arkansas were reported out on a voice vote with overwhelming bipartisan support from the committee members. Only Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) -- who has pledged knee-jerk opposition to every single nominee -- opposed the nominations. Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA), the only Republican in attendance, announced that Senator Lee opposed the nominees “for reasons unrelated to the qualifications of the candidates,” voting no as a means of expressing an opinion on an unrelated matter.

Three of the four vacancies these nominees will fill vacancies that the Administrative Office of the U. S. Courts has declared to be “judicial emergencies.”

As has become usual practice for Republicans during the Obama presidency, Senator Grassley invoked a committee rule to delay consideration of Andrew Hurwitz for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals until the next committee meeting. Since the Senate will be in recess next week, it will be at least two weeks before action can be taken to move his nomination forward to the full Senate. The vacancy Hurwitz has been nominated to fill is also a judicial emergency.

Earlier this week, the Judiciary Committee held hearings on four nominees: Patty Shwartz to a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals; Mary Lewis to a seat in the District of South Carolina; Jeffrey Helmick to a seat in the Northern District of Ohio, and Timothy Hillman to a seat in the District of Massachusetts.

For the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on judicial nominations, see the Alliance for Justice’s Judicial Selection Project webpage.

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4 Nominees Scheduled for Consideration Today

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider 4 District Court nominees today:

• Kristine Baker (Eastern District of Arkansas)
• John Lee (Northern District of Illinois)
• John Tharp, Jr. (Northern District of Illinois)
• George Russell (District of Maryland)

During the Obama presidency, it has been the habit of Republican senators on the judiciary committee to automatically delay every first-time consideration of nominees by one week, so it is likely that the committee will not be permitted to hold votes on these four nominees today.

Lee, Tharp, and Russell have all been nominated to seats that are considered to be judicial emergencies.

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Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing for Five Nominees

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing last Thursday for Andrew Hurwitz to the United States Circuit Court for the Ninth Circuit and for Kristine Baker, John Lee, John Tharp, Jr., and George Russell III to United States District Court seats in the Eastern District of Arkansas, the Northern District of Illinois, the Northern District of Illinois, and the District of Maryland, respectively.

Senator Durbin (D-IL) chaired the hearing and Senator Kyl (R-AZ) attended as well. The hearing was uneventful, with Senators Durbin and Kyl both congratulating the nominees on their nominations and wishing them well.

Four of the five seats which the nominees will fill if confirmed have been deemed judicial emergencies by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

For the most accurate, up-to-date information on the judicial selection process, visit the Alliance for Justice’s Judicial Selection page.

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Senate Returns Next Week - Nominees on the Agenda

When the Senate returns from its recess next week, the Judiciary Committee will hold an Executive Business Meeting and a Nominations Hearing.

On Thursday morning, the committee will hold an Executive Business Meeting at which Republicans will most likely delay a vote on Paul Watford, who has been nominated to fill a judicial emergency vacancy on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Thursday afternoon, the committee will hold hearing on the nominations of Andrew David Hurwitz, also nominated to fill a seat on the Ninth Circuit, and of four district court nominees: Kristine Gerhard Baker, nominated to the Eastern District of Arkansas; John Z. Lee and John J. Tharp, both nominated to the Northern District of Illinois; and George Levi Russell III, nominated to the District of Maryland.

The seats Hurwitz, Lee, Tharp, and Russell would be filling have all been deemed emergency vacancies by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

With 103 current and future vacancies on the federal bench, the Senate needs to act quickly confirm all 37 pending nominees.

For the most accurate, up-to-date information on the judicial selection process, visit AFJ's Judicial Selection page.

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