Two Judges Confirmed Last Week

Last week, the Senate confirmed two district court judges by overwhelming margins – Shelly Dick was confirmed to the Middle District of Louisiana by voice vote, and Nelson Roman was confirmed to the Southern District of New York by a vote of 97-0. Judge Dick was originally nominated last April, but was blocked by Senator David Vitter until after the 2012 presidential election. After being approved by the Judiciary Committee on February 28, Judge Dick only (!) had to wait two and a half months for a floor vote. Judge Roman, who was originally nominated last September, was voted out of committee the same day. Notably, Judge Dick is the first woman to sit on the bench in the Middle District of Louisiana.

Compared to nominees like Cailtin Halligan, who did not receive a floor vote more than two years after she was first nominated, or Rosemary Marquez, who was nominated to a judicial emergency seat on the District of Arizona in June 23 but has not even yet received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Dick and Judge Roman are lucky. The fact that these highly qualified, consensus nominees had to wait as long as they did stands in stark contrast to the speed of the process during the last Administration [PDF]. If the time between the Committee vote and the floor vote for the rest of the pending nominees were as short, we might have a fair shot at making a serious dent in the sky-high judicial vacancy rate. Only time will tell whether the determined minority in the Senate will repent of its obstructionist ways and do so.