Judges

Yesterday the Senate confirmed two women to federal district courts -- Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to the Northern District of California and Sharon Gleason to the District of Alaska. Read more »

Yesterday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals became the third of the four federal appeals courts to consider the issue to turn back a constitutional challenge to the individual responsibility provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Congress has the power to require individuals to obtain health insurance (with subsidies for low- and moderate-income individuals), the court held, as part of its authority under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to regulate commercial markets, including the insurance industry. Those challenging the individual responsibility provision have argued that Congress nevertheless cannot require individuals to participate in the insurance market if they choose not to. But, as we argued in a brief in the case and the D.C. Circuit held, civil rights cases show that such a requirement falls squarely within Congress’s Commerce Clause power. As the D.C. Circuit Court stated, while the individual responsibility’s requirement that people obtain health insurance “is an encroachment on individual liberty, . . .it is no more so than a command that restaurants or hotels are obliged to serve all customers regardless of race.”

But just as notable as the decision itself is who wrote it. Senior Judge Laurence Silberman, the author of the opinion, is an intellectual leader among conservatives.  Read more »

Yesterday evening, the Senate confirmed Cathy Bissoon to the Western District of Pennsylvania by a vote of 82-3. Judge Bissoon will be the first Hispanic woman to sit on this court. She is the ninth woman (and 11th judge) confirmed to the federal bench thus far in October, and the 54th woman confirmed during the Obama Administration.  All of which is terrific news, but news like this needs to keep on coming to make a real difference -- unfortunately, although women make up half the population and, for almost twenty years, close to half of law students, only a third of federal judges are women, and many, many fewer are women of color. We can do better. 

Likewise, it's encouraging that the Senate has taken action on eleven nominees this month, but with the number of judicial vacancies hovering around 90 (for a vacancy rate of almost 11 percent) there is still a long way to go. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service determined that we are in the longest period of historically high vacancy rates in 35 years. And with 33 of the existing vacancies designated "judicial emergencies," more than 188 million people are living in a jurisdiction that has been declared a judicial emergency. Without enough judges to hear cases, people around the country are waiting for justice. As Senator Patrick Leahy said on the floor yesterday evening, the nominees who are currently pending on the floor would, if confirmed, serve about 170 million people in as many as 25 states. Read more »

The end of another week is upon us. It’s been testing at times, that’s for sure, but I promise that within this roundup are some encouraging stories mixed in with the not-so-happy ones. After the jump, more on National Coming Out Day, reflections on Anita Hill, the continued post-H.R. 358 onslaught, changing times in the UK, everyone’s favorite football-playing Homecoming Queen, and some awesome friendship in Congress. Read more »

Today, the Senate confirmed Alison Nathan and Katherine Forrest to be judges on the Southern District of New York, and Susan Owens Hickey to the Western District of Arkansas. That brings the total number of female active district court judges to 183 – or 30%. In addition, Judge Nathan will become the third openly gay judge on the Southern District of New York. We heartily celebrate the addition of these highly qualified women to the federal bench. Read more »

Just wanted to flag an ACS blog post on women in the legal profession, citing an editorial in Tuesday’s New York Times, for anyone who didn’t get their daily dose of depressing yet. To wit:

• Women make up only 30 percent of the federal judiciary (and even fewer state judges are women). ACS notes that this dismal statistic comes thirty years after Justice O’Connor’s appointment as the first woman on the Supreme Court, and I would add that for almost twenty years, women have made up nearly half of law school classes – so there’s no lack of women in the pipeline.
• The Times editorial noted that female lawyers are paid 74% of what male lawyers are paid, and that a shocking 90% of women in the legal profession report experiencing sex discrimination.

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Jane Triche-Milazzo to the Eastern District of Louisiana. At this point, there are 231 women serving as active federal judges, which represents just under 30% of active judges on the federal bench. The Appellate Daily blog recently posted some nifty charts showing that although men make up 49% of the population, they represent 70% of the federal judiciary. In contrast, the representation of women and minorities on the federal bench is significantly lower than their representation in the population.  And unfortunately, some of these percentages haven’t budged for awhile. Read more »

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed six judicial nominees, four of whom were women: Nannette Jolivette Brown to the Eastern District of Louisiana, Nancy Torresen to the District of Maine, Marina Garcia Marmolejo to the Southern District of Texas, and Jennifer Guerin Zipps to the District of Arizona. Not only did the confirmation of these women bring the total number of women confirmed to the federal bench during the Obama Administration to 50 (47% of all confirmed nominees), but two of these nominees broke glass ceilings in their jurisdictions – Judge Brown will be the first African-American woman on the Eastern District of Louisiana, and Judge Torreson will be the first woman to sit on the district court of Maine. Read more »

This time last month, the Senate was about to get back to work after Labor Day, and there were twenty judicial nominees ready for a vote. Clearing those twenty – some of whom had been waiting for Senate action for months – in the month of September seemed like a reasonable goal. The Senate is out of session for the remainder of this week, after it reached a compromise to keep the government funded, so we’re effectively at the end of September, as far as the Senate is concerned. So how’d the Senate do on judges? Read more »

As we’ve mentioned before, President Obama’s nominees to the federal bench demonstrate his concerted effort to increase the diversity of the federal judiciary.  As a number of articles today highlight, almost half of the nominees are women, and significant percentages are African-American or Latino, such that 70 percent of the President’s nominees are “nontraditional”.  In addition, there have been a number of openly gay nominees. Read more »