Senate to vote on Jordan at noon

Judge Adalberto Jordán, nominee to sit on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, is finally due to receive his Senate confirmation vote at noon today. The 11th Circuit covers the states of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama.

If confirmed, Jordán will be the first Cuban-born American to sit on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Jordán was nominated on August 2, 2011 to fill the 11th Circuit seat left vacant after Judge Susan H. Black took senior status in February. A sitting federal judge for the Southern District of Florida, Jordán was selected and nominated by President Obama with bipartisan support from both Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on his nomination on September 20, 2011. On October 13, 2011, he was reported out of the committee to the Senate floor without opposition. 

Due to Republican delays of all of President Obama’s judicial nominees, no further action was taken on Jordán's nomination last year.

With across-the-board obstruction still hampering Senate procedure, Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) was forced to file cloture on Jordán's nomination. A Republican filibuster was broken on Monday by an overwhelming vote of 89-5.

Despite the lopsided vote and continued absence of any opposition to Judge Jordán's qualifications or judicial philosophy, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) insisted on invoking a Senate rule to delay the confirmation vote for an additional 30 hours, further obstructing an extremely qualified and broadly supported nominee from receiving his vote and being able to assume his seat on the bench.

Statistics on Judge Jordán’s Nomination

356: Days the seat has been vacant
198: Total days since Judge Jordán was first nominated to fill the 11th Circuit seat
126: Days Judge Jordán has waited for a confirmation vote since being unanimously reported out of committee

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UPDATE

The Senate confirmed Judge Jordan by an overwhelming 94-5 vote.

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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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Judiciary Committee Reports Paul Watford to Senate Floor

This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee reported 9th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Paul Watford to the Senate floor in a vote of 10-6 along party lines, with two Republican senators (Jon Kyl and Lindsey Graham) voting “Present.” 

California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein gave a statement in support of Mr. Watford, praising his legal record and highlighting his bipartisan support. Watford’s nomination is supported by Jeremy Rosen, head of the California Branch of the Federalist Society, conservative Chief Justice of the 9th Circuit Alex Kozinksi, and the CEOs of Verizon, Mattel, and Google. Although several Republican senators voted against Watford, none of them spoke against his nomination at the meeting. 

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is currently faced with four judicial vacancies and a caseload of 557 cases per judge (.pdf download), more cases than any other circuit. Each vacancy in the 9th Circuit has been declared a judicial emergency.

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 Confirms Droney to the Second Circuit

The Senate has confirmed Judge Christopher Droney to the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals by a bipartisan vote of 88-0.

President Obama nominated Droney to the seat on May 4, 2011; on July 21 he was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a unanimous voice vote. From the date of his nomination, he has been waiting 209 days to be confirmed to fill his seat, which has been labeled a judicial emergency by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The Senate’s action leaves 22 other judicial nominees waiting on the floor for their confirmation votes, 20 of whom were reported out of committee either unanimously or with strong bipartisan support.

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Hearing for Three Nominees

The Senate Judiciary Committee today held a hearing on the nomination of Judge Jacqueline Nguyen to the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Nguyen was nominated to the Ninth Circuit by President Obama on September 22, 2011; she was appointed to her current seat on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by President Obama in July 2009, taking her place on the bench in December of that year when the Senate confirmed her with a unanimous vote of 97-0. Judge Nguyen, who was born in Dalat, Vietnam in 1965 and fled that country at the age of nine during the fall of Saigon, is the first Vietnamese American to serve on the federal bench. If confirmed to the Ninth Circuit, she will be the United States’ first Asian Pacific American woman to serve as a federal appellate court judge and one of only two Asian Pacific Americans actively serving in the nation’s federal Courts of Appeals.

Hearings were also held for Gregg Jeffrey Costa and David Campos Guaderrama, to be United States District Judges for the Southern District and the Western District of Texas, respectively.

All three seats are open due to vacancies that have been designated judicial emergencies by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The seat to which Nguyen is nominated has been vacant for 1,016 days since its creation on January 21, 2009. Costa and Guaderrama are being considered for seats vacant for hundreds of days--Costa’s for 510 days, Guaderrama’s for 980—since the prior occupants took senior status.

For the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on judicial nominations see our Judicial Selection Project page.

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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.

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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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Judicial Emergency Declared in Arizona

Due to a shortage of judges, Arizona's chief federal judge has declared a judicial emergency for the entire District of Arizona, which would allow courts to delay criminal trials for up to six months.

Arizona's federal courts were already overburdened by the combination of a 65% increase in criminal cases over the last two years and two unfilled judicial vacancies before Judge John M. Roll was killed in the Jan. 8 attack that also severely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The emergency declaration could delay the trial of Jared Lee Loughner, who entered a not-guilty plea in a Phoenix federal courtroom Monday on charges related to the shooting of Giffords and two of her staffers.

A judicial emergency is a rarely used tool to suspend the demands of the Speedy Trial Act—which requires quick trials in criminal cases—for 30 days. It was last used in the Southern District of New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. On Tuesday, the Judicial Council for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Arizona, took the even rarer step of extending Judge Silver’s emergency declaration for a year, until February 2012.

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Chief Justice Roberts Calls for Ending the Blocking of Judicial Confirmations

In his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary, Chief Justice Roberts called for increased judicial confirmations, writing that a "persistent problem" in confirming judges has caused some courts to become "burdened with extraordinary caseloads." Though he did not cite any statistics in his report, Chief Justice Roberts was referring to the fact that there are currently 110 vacancies for lifetime federal judgeships, 44 of which are considered "judicial emergencies" by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

These numbers are all the more striking because they have more than doubled since the beginning of President Obama's term in office, when there were only 55 vacancies and 20 judicial emergencies. Obama's experience stands in stark contrast to Presidents Bush and Clinton, both of whom were able to significantly reduce the number of judicial vacancies that they inherited by the end of their first two years in office.

For the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on judicial nominations, visit Alliance for Justice's Judicial Selection Project website.

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AFJ signs letter with over 50 groups calling for immediate votes on judicial nominees

AFJ today joined with over 50 other organizations in sending a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calling for immediate action on President Obama’s stalled judicial nominations. With the clock running out on the 111th Congress, the groups demanded an end to the Republican tactic of blocking all nominees, even those with bipartisan support, and that votes are called on all of the two dozen pending nominees.

The letter reminded the leadership that, “The obstruction of many of President Obama’s nominees through filibuster threats and anonymous ‘holds’ is hindering the important work of our judicial branch, particularly in the many areas of our nation that now face judicial emergencies due to unfilled vacancies on the bench.”

As AFJ has pointed out before, the unprecedented tactics of delay and obstruction used by Republicans have wreaked havoc in the court system by preventing judges from taking their seats. The letter makes that case that “Due to arcane floor procedures that allow a single member to impede the important business of the Senate, our judicial branch has reached a state of crisis. Out of 872 federal judgeships, 106 are currently vacant, with 50 of those vacancies now characterized as “judicial emergencies” in which courts are being overwhelmed by filings that cannot be considered. As a result, a growing number of Americans, from all walks of life and across all economic strata, are finding it increasingly more difficult to assert their legal rights and to have their fair day in court.”

AFJ’s position is clear: Enough is enough. It’s time to vote.
To view the letter, go here: http://www.judgingtheenvironment.org/library/letters/End-backlog-groups-11-17-10-JUDICIAL-NOMINATIONS-letter.pdf.

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Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit calls on Senate to "Act on Judicial Nominees Without Delay"

The Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit has drafted a powerful letter calling on the Senate to "act on judicial nominees without delay." The signatories include the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit, five other prominent circuit judges, and the Chief Judges of the district courts in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. These leading jurists, appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents, wrote "to emphasize [their] desperate need for judges," stating that courts "cannot do their work if authorized judicial positions remain vacant."

Two nominees to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals--Goodwin Liu and Mary Murguia--and three district court nominees--including Ed Chen, nominee to the Northern District of California--are awaiting final confirmation votes in the Senate. Liu, Murguia, and Chen would fill seats considered to be "judicial emergencies" by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The full letter is available at: http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/111510-letter-from-9th-circuit.pdf

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Dramatic Disparity in Record of Senate Action on Judicial Nominees for Clinton, Bush, and Obama in First Two Years

As we reach the two-year mark of his presidency, President Barack Obama has faced unprecedented obstruction of his judicial nominees in the U.S. Senate and has fared far worse than his immediate predecessors both in having nominees approved and in relieving the federal courts of the burden of “judicial emergencies.”

With the clock ticking in the current lame-duck session of Congress, AFJ has released a report entitled, Judicial Nominations in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Administrations: Which One of These is Not Like the Others? The conclusions are stark:

• The number of vacancies in the federal judiciary has nearly doubled, from 55 to 107, since President Obama took office.


• Officially designated “judicial emergencies” have risen from 20 to 50, affecting courts in 30 states.


• Both Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had large numbers of vacancies and emergencies in their administrations, but were able to significantly reduce them by the end of their second year in office. In contrast, due to Republican tactics of obstruction during the first two years of the Obama Administration, both vacancies and emergencies have dramatically increased since January 2009. The federal courts are in worse shape than when the Obama term started. The opposite was true for Clinton and Bush.


• Precedent exists to use the lame duck session to approve large numbers of judicial nominees. In the 2002 lame-duck Congress, a closely divided Senate confirmed 20 of President Bush’s judges, all but one on a voice vote.

AFJ believes there is no excuse for not using the remainder of this congressional term to vote on President Obama’s nominees to the federal bench. The Senate’s constitutional obligation to fully staff the courts does not stop just because the calendar is crowded and time is short. The final votes on all the nominees currently being held hostage by Republican obstruction could be dealt with expeditiously, exactly as they were in 2002 for President Bush’s nominees in similar circumstances. The ability of our courts to deliver justice to the American people is at stake, and there is no more time to waste.

A copy of the report can be found here: http://www.afj.org/judicial-selection/obama-judicial-nominations-obstruction-vs-recent-presidents.pdf.

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