Hillman Confirmed to District of Massachusetts

Timothy Hillman was confirmed last night to the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 88-1. 

The only “no” vote came from Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), who has a stated policy of voting “no” on all of the president’s nominees in protest of recess appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board (recess appointments that were necessitated by persistent partisan obstruction of the nominees to those positions).

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) did not appear for the vote; his spokesperson said in an interview that if he could have been there, DeMint would have lodged a protest “no” vote as well.

Timothy Hillman has been serving as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Massachusetts. He will be filling a seat vacated when Judge Nancy Gertner took senior status on May 22, 2011. Nominated to fill the seat on November 30, 2011, it has taken Hillman 188 days to move through the confirmation process, with 89 of those days spent waiting for his final vote before the full Senate.