Judges

It used to be fairly routine for the Senate to confirm handfuls of judicial nominees – especially district court nominees – at a time. Indeed, Senator Patrick Leahy recently recounted that the Senate confirmed 18 of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees in one day. The Senate could have equaled this impressive feat on Monday, when a total of 18 nominees were ready for a vote, and time was scheduled on the calendar for a confirmation vote. But instead, just as it has for the last two weeks, the Senate confirmed one district court nominee. One!

And it's not as though the nomination required extended debate, or that the outcome was seriously in question – Kevin McNulty, nominated to the district court in New Jersey, was confirmed on Monday by a vote of 91-3. So why wouldn't the Senate just vote on all 18 – or 14 (the total number of district court judges ready for votes), or seven (the total number of nominees approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee through April 19, the day now-Judge McNulty was voted out of committee), or six (the number of judicial emergencies among those nominees), or even two (there is another nominee from New Jersey, voted out of committee the same day as Judge McNulty) nominees?

Well, simply stated: obstruction.

It's no secret that unprecedented obstruction in the Senate has slowed the accomplishment of the people's business to a crawl. And the judicial confirmation process has been no exception. Read more »

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Mary Geiger Lewis to a seat on the District Court of  South Carolina by a vote of 64-27. Upon her confirmation, Judge Lewis becomes the third female judge (of ten judges total) on this court, and the 63rd woman confirmed to a district court seat during the Obama Administration. Her confirmation is good news, coming on the heels of a CRS report that concluded both that the number of district court vacancies has increased rather than decreased since the beginning of President Obama's administration, and that "fewer Obama district court nominees have been confirmed by the Senate than were confirmed during the first terms of the four preceding Presidents." Read more »

This week the Senate confirmed Timothy Hillman to the district court in Massachusetts by a vote of 88-1 (with Senator Lee the only no vote, in continued protest of President Obama's recess appointments to the NLRB and consumer protection bureau back in January). In addition, the Senate will vote this afternoon on the nomination of Jeffrey Helmick to a seat on the Northern District of Ohio. After today's vote, there will be 14 nominees, including one female circuit court nominee and two female district court nominees, waiting for a floor vote. (Incidentally, click on the links for news coverage of the investitures of Stephanie Thacker, the first Fourth Circuit female judge from West Virginia, and Morgan Christen, the first Ninth Circuit female judge from Alaska). Read more »

Last week, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage for all purposes under federal law as between one man and one woman, violates the U.S. Constitution. And yesterday, the Ninth Circuit announced that it would not review en banc the panel decision in Perry v. Brown, which held that California's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage violates the federal Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. The First Circuit's decision last week paired with the Ninth Circuit's decision not to further review Perry raises the possibility that the Supreme Court may weigh in on questions of marriage equality under the Constitution sooner rather than later.

The First Circuit's decision is the first time a federal court of appeals has held that DOMA is unconstitutional. (The National Women's Law Center joined a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that DOMA violated the Equal Protection Clause.) The First Circuit's ruling was issued in two consolidated cases. In Gill v. Massachusetts, same-sex couples married under state law argued that Section 3 of DOMA violated the Equal Protection Clause by preventing same-sex spouses of federal employees from receiving the same spousal benefits as opposite-sex spouses; and in Massachusetts v. Department of Health and Human Services, the commonwealth of Massachusetts argued that this section of DOMA was invalid under the Tenth Amendment and the Spending Clause because federal funding for specific programs was premised on denying benefits to same-sex married couples. In 2010, a Massachusetts district court had ruled that Section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutional in both cases. Read more »

Along with 150 other people from 27 different states, today I attended a briefing on the judicial vacancy crisis. Attorney General Eric Holder, White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler, and other key Administration staff spoke about the importance of filling vacancies on the federal judiciary, the President's commitment to increasing the diversity of the federal bench, and ways to end the confirmation logjam in the Senate. The audience's passion for this issue was palpable, and there was a spirited dialogue. Read more »

The handful of Senators hell-bent on obstruction of judicial nominees is at it again: they have refused to consent to a yes-or-note vote on a nominee to a district court seat on the Southern District of New York, Jesse Furman. As a result, Senator Reid has filed a cloture petition on the nomination, with a vote expected tomorrow morning or early afternoon. Read more »

If a vote to filibuster an appellate court judicial nominee fails 89-5, but Senator Rand Paul insists on 30 hours of debate before a yes-or-no confirmation vote, does that count as beating a filibuster? Read more »

Yesterday it was reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will bring a package of judicial and/or executive branch nominees for a Senate vote at the end of next week, before the Senate’s week-long President’s Day recess begins. Why is this such big news? Well, the Senate has only confirmed one judicial nominee in 2012. This, despite the fact that there are 86 judicial vacancies, of which 33 have been deemed judicial emergencies. And there are 19 nominees who are waiting for a Senate vote, some who have been cooling their heels for months. Read more »

Even for the most dedicated political nerd, the twists and turns of Senate process can be opaque. When is a failed cloture petition a filibuster? Who objected to the unanimous consent request? Why did everyone agree to two hours of debate when they’re just going to fill them up with quorum calls? And don’t get me started on secret holds.

In contrast, Utah Senator Mike Lee has forthrightly owned up to his recent decision to block all judicial and executive branch nominations. Senator Lee said, flat-out, last week, “I find myself duty-bound to resist the consideration and approval of additional nominations.” (Senator Lee made clear that this blockade is in protest of President Obama’s recess appointments of Richard Cordray and three NLRB commissioners).

Unfortunately, the action that Senator Lee is helpfully owning up to is one of devastating scope and wide-ranging impact. Read more »

As you might have gathered by now, we at NWLC care deeply about increasing women’s representation in the judiciary. So we wanted to make sure that women lawyers in Maryland know about an event that will educate them about the judicial selection process.

The National Association of Women Judges and the Maryland lawyer chapter of ACS are offering a training today in Baltimore. Details are below. To register, email District 4 NAWJ Director Claudia Barber at claudiaabarber@aol.com and/or call (202) 724-5474.

The Maryland Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society and the National Association of Women Judges present:

Training Women Lawyers About the Judicial Selection Process