This Week in Judicial Nominations

This week, the Senate incrementally moved forward with its responsibility of confirming appointees to the federal bench in the midst of a judicial vacancy crisis that has left 1 in 10 seats empty. Three District Court nominees had their Senate Judiciary hearings, three were reported out of committee to await their confirmation votes on the Senate floor, and two were confirmed as part of the deal on confirmation votes struck earlier this month between Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to confirm United States District Court nominees Miranda Du to serve the District of Nevada by a vote of 59-39 and Susie Morgan to serve the Eastern District of Louisiana by a vote of 96-1.  It took 147 days for Du, and 140 days for Morgan, to receive their confirmation votes after being reported out of the Judiciary Committee.  Two hundred and forty days passed from the date of Du’s nomination to her confirmation to fill an emergency judicial vacancy; the time was even longer for Morgan, who was in the Senate process for 296 days.

Earlier that day, hearings were held for District Court nominees Michael Shea, Gonzalo Curiel, and Robert Shelby nominated to the District of Connecticut, the Southern District of California, and the District of Utah, respectively.  The hearing was chaired by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT); Ranking Member Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) were also in attendance.  President Obama appointed Curiel and Shelby on November 10 and November 30 last year, respectively; Shea was appointed on February 2 of this year.  The hearing was non-controversial.  Now, they await consideration by the Committee and a vote to report them to the Senate floor, where the waiting process for a confirmation vote will begin.  While Shea, who was nominated on February 2 of this year, had to wait 56 days from nomination to the time of his hearing, both Curiel and Shelby had to wait twice as long to take the next step forward in the confirmation process.  Curiel, nominated on November 10, 2011, waited 140 days for his hearing.  Shelby, nominated on November 30, waited 120 days.

The Judiciary Committee reported three nominees – Richard Taranto, Robin Rosenbaum, and Gershwin Drain – to the Senate floor on Thursday.  They join 15 other judicial nominees who are awaiting confirmation by the Senate before they can assume their seats and being to serve people by dispensing justice in our nation’s federal court system.  As the Senate is leaving town for a two-week recess, no further action will take place to confirm judges until April 16, when a vote on the nomination of Stephanie Dawn Thacker to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to take place.

By the Numbers
3 District Court nominees had hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee

3 nominees reported out of Committee to the Senate floor: 1 Circuit Court nominee, 2 District Court nominees
2 District Court nominees confirmed

The week comes to a close with:

97 total judicial vacancies, including 33 judicial emergency vacancies
80 current vacancies; 17 future vacancies
17 circuit court vacancies; 80 district court vacancies
34 pending nominees; 63 vacancies without nominees
16 nominees pending in committee; 18 pending in the Senate

For the most comprehensive, up-to-date information on judicial nominations, visit the Judicial Selection Project website.

Read more »

Confirmations for District Court Judges in Utah, New York, and D.C.

This afternoon, the Senate confirmed Judge David Nuffer to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Utah, and Ronnie Abrams to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, both by overwhelmingly bipartisan votes of 96-2.  Additionally, Rudolph Contreras was confirmed to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by an unopposed voice vote.

Nuffer, who since 2003 has been serving full time as a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Utah, was nominated to the District Court on June 29, 2011. On October 13, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported his nomination to the full Senate on a unanimous voice vote. Utah's junior senator, Mike Lee, expressed no opposition to Nuffer's nomination during the judiciary committee's deliberation or committee vote. Lee nonetheless continued his political campaign against President Obama by voting against his home state's judge on the Senate floor.

Nuffer waited 162 days following his committee vote for the full Senate to consider his nomination; 268 days have passed since he was nominated to fill the seat, which had been declared a "judicial emergency."

Abrams, who has served as Special Counsel for Pro Bono at Davis Polk & Wardwell since 2008, was nominated on July 28, 2011. Abrams was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a unanimous voice vote on November 3, 2011, but was still forced to wait 141 more days for the Senate to confirm her; her wait time from nomination to confirmation was 239 days.

Contreras, who has served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the past seventeen years, was nominated on July 28, 2011 and reported out of committee on November 3, 2011 on a voice vote without opposition.  Like Abrams, he had to wait 141 days for the Senate to vote on his confirmation, and 239 days passed from the time he was first nominated.

The votes took place as part of a Senate deal to hold confirmation votes on 14 judicial nominees by May 7. Notwithstanding the current trickle of confirmation votes, the Senate is still far behind the pace it needs to maintain to address the 98 current and future vacancies on the federal bench, vacancies that stand in the way of everyday Americans being able to access justice through our federal courts.

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

Read more »

Thirty Nominees Awaiting Final Senate Votes

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee voted five judicial nominees out of committee, moving them forward to the full Senate for confirmation, bringing the total number of nominees awaiting floor votes to 30.  

Adalberto José Jordán, nominee to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit, and three United States District Court nominees: Mary Elizabeth Phillips to the Western District of Missouri, Thomas Owen Rice to the Eastern District of Washington, and David Nuffer to the  District of Utah were reported out on a unanimous, en banc voice vote. John M. Gerrard to the District of Nebraska, was reported out on a bipartisan voice vote, with only one senator voting no.

Both Jordán and Nuffer have been appointed to fill vacancies designated as “judicial emergencies” by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Currently there are 32 judicial emergency vacancies, with 20 persons nominated to fill the seats. 

Responding to the strain being placed on our justice system by the lack of judges in the courts, the Committee also reported out S.1014, the Emergency Judicial Relief Act on a vote of 15-3, with Senators Grassley (R-IA), Sessions (R-AL), and Coburn (R-OK) voting no. The bill would establish ten new judgeships in parts of the country where courts are overloaded because the bench is woefully understaffed.

Holding swift votes on the 30 nominees pending on the Senate floor, all but 1 of whom came out of Committee with little or token opposition, is one way the Senate can take direct, immediate action to ease the burden on our judiciary and ensure that the American people have access to justice.

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

Read more »