Judiciary Committee still processing nominees; Senate still moving too slowly

Judge Kevin McNulty
(District of New Jersey)

On Monday, the Senate confirmed Kevin McNulty to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey by a vote of 91-3 (with Senators Lee, DeMint, and Vitter voting as a continuing protest of President Obama’s recess appointments of executive nominees in January). Despite facing no substantive opposition, Judge McNulty waited for over seven months for his confirmation vote.  

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out four district court nominees (on voice votes, with Senator Lee as the only opposition):

• Frank Paul Geraci, Jr., nominee to the Western District of New York
• Fernando M. Olguin, nominee to the Central District of California
• Malachy Edward Mannion and Matthew W. Brann, nominees to the Middle District of Pennsylvania.  

There are now 21 nominees awaiting final confirmation votes on the Senate floor, 10 of whom would fill seats that have been declared to be judicial emergencies by the nonpartisan Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The number of nominees awaiting confirmation votes has grown recently, as the Senate has only confirmed 4 judicial nominees in the last month. With approximately 3 new vacancies arising each month so far this year, the Senate’s current confirmation pace is simply not fast enough to significantly reduce the number of existing vacancies in our courts.

There are currently 77 vacancies across the country, and another 13 seats will soon be vacant. Given that the president began his term in office with 55 vacancies, the Senate could go a long way toward getting back to that point by moving quickly to confirm the pending nominees who are only waiting for their final votes -- almost all of whom have strong bipartisan support -- before the upcoming August recess.

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Groh, Fitzgerald Confirmed to District Court Seats

Yesterday the Senate confirmed Judge Gina Marie Groh to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 95 to 2 and Michael Fitzgerald to a seat on the United States District Court for the Central District of California by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 91-6.

Groh, who since 2006 has been serving as a judge on the 23rd Judicial Circuit Court of West Virginia, was nominated to the District Court on May 19, 2011. On October 6, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported her nomination to the full Senate on a unanimous voice vote.  Groh waited 162 days following her committee vote for the full Senate to consider her nomination; 302 days have passed since she was nominated to fill the seat.

Fitzgerald, a partner at Corbin, Fitzgerald & Athey LLP in Los Angeles, was nominated on July 20, 2011.  He is the third openly gay Obama judicial appointee to be confirmed to serve on the federal bench.  Fitzgerald was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a unanimous voice vote on November 3, 2011, but was still forced to wait 134 more days for the Senate to confirm him to fill his emergency vacancy seat; his wait time from nomination to confirmation was 240 days.

Yesterday's votes were the first two in a Senate deal struck to hold confirmation votes on 14 judicial nominees by May 7.  With 100 current and future judicial vacancies on the federal bench, it is vital that the Senate continue to take action to confirm judges and ensure Americans access to a fully staffed judiciary when they turn to the courts seeking justice.

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

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Judiciary Committee Reports Five Judicial Nominees to the Floor

This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee reported five judicial nominees to the Senate floor. Four nominees were reported on a unanimous voice vote: Stephanie Dawn Thacker, Michael Walker Fitzgerald, Ronnie Abrams, and Rudolph Contreras, nominees to the Fourth Circuit, the Central District of California, the Southern District of New York, and the District of Columbia, respectively.

Miranda Du, nominee to the District of Nevada, was reported out on a 10-8 party-line vote.

Fitzgerald and Du have been appointed to vacant seats that have been designated as judicial emergencies by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The committee also held over until its next meeting a vote on Susie Morgan, nominee to the Eastern District of Louisiana.

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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Hearings on Five Nominees, Two to Fill Judicial Emergencies

The Senate Judiciary Committee today held hearings on the nominations of Stephanie Dawn Thacker to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and of Michael Walter Fitzgerald, Ronnie Abrams, Rudolph Contreras, and Miranda Du to serve as United States District Judges in the Central District of California, the Southern District of New York, the District of Columbia, and the District of Nevada, respectively.

If confirmed, Fitzgerald and Du will both be filling vacancies that have been deemed “judicial emergencies” by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) presided over the hearings; also in attendance were committee members Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Senator Chris Coons (D-MD).

With 108 vacancies in our federal courts, 32 of them judicial emergencies, the Senate should move swiftly to put these well-qualified nominees on the federal bench.

For the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on judicial nominations, download the Alliance for Justice’s Judicial Selection Snapshot and The State of the Judiciary May–August 2011: Judicial Nominations in the 112th Congress.

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