Judicial Nominees

On Thursday, the Senate confirmed three more district court judges as part of last week's Senate deal to confirm 14 nominees by May 7. The Senate confirmed Ronnie Abrams, for the Southern District of New York, by a 96-2 vote, and Rudolph Contreras, for the District of Columbia, by an unopposed voice vote. David Nuffer, for the District of Utah, received a 96-2 vote and filled a vacancy considered a judicial emergency.

As you may be aware, despite over 80 judicial vacancies (35 of which were judicial emergencies), at the beginning of this week the Senate had only confirmed 7 judges in 2012. Yesterday, the landscape changed somewhat. Precipitated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s filing cloture petitions on 17 district court nominees, Senate leadership agreed to confirm a dozen district court nominees and two circuit court nominees by May 7. The first of those confirmations occurred today, with votes on Gina Groh, nominated to a seat on the Northern District of West Virginia, and Michael Fitzgerald, nominated to a seat on the Central District of California. Judge Groh was confirmed 95-2; Judge Fitzgerald was confirmed 91-6. Read more »

Today, after three months of slow-walking votes on judicial nominations, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to move forward on 14 judicial nominations. Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took the dramatic step of filing cloture petitions on 17 district court nominees. Instead of requiring filibuster votes on these 17 nominations, Senate leadership agreed to schedule yes-or-no votes on 12 district court nominations and 2 circuit court nominations by early May. Read more »

As the Senate is poised to start the first of 17 cloture votes on district court judges, and in the midst of Women’s History Month, we over at NWLC took a mental step back to look at the big picture of women in the federal judiciary. Yes, women make up 50% of the population and, for twenty-five years, nearly 50% of law students. But only 30% of federal judges, even today, are women.

And yes, over the past several years, the number of women on the federal bench has largely stagnated. We clearly have a long way to go before women, especially women of color, are adequately represented on our federal courts. But we should still celebrate when progress is being made.

The White House yesterday released an infographic on President Obama’s judicial nominees. 47% of President Obama’s confirmed judicial nominees have been women, and about 19% have been women of color. In addition, President Obama’s nominees have broken a number of long-overdue gender barriers. For example, there are three women on the Supreme Court for the first time in history (with the nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic Justice and the first Justice with a disability, and Justice Elena Kagan). Five of his district court nominees became the first woman to serve in their district. And one of his pending nominees, Judge Jacqueline Nguyen, would be the first Asian American woman to serve on a federal appellate court. (The infographic has information about other nominees who have added other long-overdue kinds of diversity to the federal courts as well). Read more »

We just recently updated you about how a minority of Senators have continued to block yes-or-no votes for judicial nominees, some who have been waiting for months. Yesterday, in a bold move for justice, Senate Majority Leader Reid filed cloture on 17 nominations, in order to move them one step closer to a yes-or-no vote on the Senate floor. Your Senators need to hear from you to ensure that these nominees receive a yes-or-no vote.

CALL YOUR SENATORS AT 1-866-338-5720 TODAY! Tell them:

• I am your constituent and I live...
• I am calling to urge the Senator to allow yes-or-no votes on all 17 judicial nominees for whom Senate Majority Leader Reid filed cloture petitions.
• With 83 judgeships sitting empty, 35 of which are considered judicial emergencies, the Senate's continued failure to act is unconscionable.
• Americans deserve to have a federal judiciary that is functioning at full capacity.

Last night, Senator Harry Reid took one giant step forward towards clearing the backlog of judicial nominations. As you’ll recall, the Senate’s recent track record on confirming judges is less than stellar: twenty nominees were left waiting for votes at the end of last year, and the Senate has only confirmed 7 judges in 2012. With 83 vacancies in the federal judiciary, 35 of which are judicial emergencies, what possible justification could there be for leaving twenty-two nominees waiting for votes? Just ask Senator Lee of Utah, who has flat-out stated that he is holding up judicial (and executive branch) nominations in retaliation for President Obama’s recess appointments to the Consumer Protection board and the NLRB in January…

But I digress. So what has Senator Reid done to move nominations forward? Yesterday evening, he filed cloture petitions on 17 district court nominations. It will be timely to start voting on the first of these petitions, for the nomination of Gina Groh to a district court seat in West Virginia that has been vacant since 2006, on Wednesday morning. After that, the rest of the 17 will be taken up one at a time.  If the cloture vote is successful, then the Senate will schedule a yes-or-no vote on the nomination.* Read more »

The U.S. Senate has only confirmed a handful of judges in 2012 — despite the fact that over ten percent of judicial seats are vacant and people around the country are waiting for justice. Why? Because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to allow yes-or-no votes on judicial nominees. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently stated that he's ready to take extraordinary steps to move nominees, if a deal isn't reached soon.

We need to make the most of this opportunity: tell your Senators to vote on ALL judicial nominees in March.

Eighteen judicial nominees are currently waiting for a vote, twelve of whom were approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2011. Most of these nominees are individuals who would add sorely needed diversity to the federal bench, including by gender diversity. These are highly qualified nominees with bipartisan support. The only thing standing between them and a yes-or-no vote is a minority of Senators determined to slow down the confirmation process.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Tell your Senators to call on their leadership to schedule votes on judicial nominees this work period. Tell them you expect votes on ALL pending judicial nominees. Read more »

Only 5 judges have been confirmed thus far in 2012 – despite the fact that over ten percent of judicial seats are vacant and people around the country are waiting for justice. In a Politico article today, it was reported that “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is privately warning Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that he may take extraordinary steps to move a laundry list of stalled nominees if the two men can’t reach a deal soon …” Negotiations were reportedly focusing on 14 nominees, and it was reported that, “As of earlier this week, McConnell had offered to give consent on only three of the judges, sources say.” In fact, after the article was posted, the Senate announced that votes on two nominees will take place next Tuesday. But that leaves 12 of those reportedly under discussion still waiting for their votes to be scheduled (and there are 6 more nominees, by the way, who have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee this year).

The 12 remaining nominees reportedly under discussion were approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2011 but have not yet received votes. Eleven of them were voted out of committee with overwhelming bipartisan support – with only one “no” vote among them (the 12^th nominee was approved by the committee along party lines). In addition to their strong qualifications and broad base of support, it should be noted that the confirmation of these nominees would continue to increase the diversity of the federal bench. Of the 12 nominees, 6 are women. Among them: Gina Groh, a nominee to a federal district court seat in West Virginia. Read more »

Despite the fact that there are 84 current judicial vacancies, the Senate has confirmed only five judges in 2012. This glacially slow pace belies not only the vacancy rate (and 34 judicial emergencies) but also the fact that there are 21 nominees ready for votes – including 14 who have been waiting for votes since last year. Case in point? Gina Groh, a state court judge nominated to a seat on the Northern District of West Virginia. She has been nominated to a seat that has been vacant since December 2006 – that’s right, for over five years. Yet a vote on Ms. Groh has, for no apparent reason, been held up since October.

On Tuesday, a number of Senators took to the floor to talk about the need to take action on judicial nominees like Ms. Groh. I was particularly struck by the floor statement made by Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Read more »

Hear what Senators said on the floor yesterday to highlight the importance of moving the nominations process forward in the Senate: