Posted on 06/15/2019 2:30:06 AM PDT by cotton1706
This will be a weekly post.
Count is now at 119 judges confirmed.
76 District Court judges
41 Circuit Court judges
2 Supreme Court justices
The Senate also confirmed two Court of Claims (Article I) judges, who serve for a term of 15 years.
Also this week Michael Bogren withdrew his nomination to be a district judge after senators Hawley, Cruz and (trying to be MAGA) Tllis said they'd vote no in committee. Bogren was a liberal "republican" nominee recommended by Debbie Stabenow. We'll now he'll be just a lawyer.
And this week the President nominated Halil Ozerden to be a 5th Circuit judge. For some reason the Establishment wants this guy on 5th Circuit but I have my suspicions that he's a bad pick and hope Hawley does his research on him.
Is this accurate?
Total Vacancies:131
Total Nominees Pending:60
https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies/current-judicial-vacancies
Probably. In general I’ve never seen a nominee for EVERY vacancy.
The executive knows the Senate doesn’t move that fast.
As an aside though, I looked it up this week, and at this point in his presidency, Obama has only 19 Circuit judges confirmed and 69 District judges confirmed.
Always important to look at the voting.
Seven District Judges....
Only one - Corey L. Maze - received significant opposition from the Democrats - 34 “NO” votes.
The other six got between 20-40 Democrat “YES” votes.
Since those six judges were all nominated for relatively Conservative states (OH-VA-FL-GA-AL), that level of Democrat support is very discouraging news.
A friend of mine was confirmed this week for Virginia, Rossie Alston. He has been on the state court of appeals for years and has been solid on criminal law matters. He replaces a Clinton semi lefty so he should be a big improvement.
I disagree. The democrats aren’t going to mobilize against district judges. They’re not going to review their college writings, etc. like they would for a Circuit judge. District judges are trial judges, and so not worth the fight. There’s too many of them.
And also, district judges are frequently part of deals. Schumer asks for something so McConnell says don’t put up a fight for these particular people - that sort of thing.
Your point on Circuit judges though, is valid.
The person who updates the online list was more successful this week however the June 11th Judicial Nominees are not listed. (Ozerden 5th Circuit, Kness N.Illinois, Roumel- Federal Claims
The site omits the 2nd Court Appellate Seat opening 6/30/19 in the tally you posted but also lists it as a future vacancy on the Future Vacancy page.
This modifies the tallies slightly to 63 Nominees and 131 vacancies. There are 5 add’l vacancies scheduled by mid July.
I just think most Senators give district court judges a pass unless they have a specific reason to vote no. The knives don’t come out until we are talking about Circuit Court nominees. I wouldn’t take Democrat votes for district judge nominees as a negative.
Re: District judges are trial judges, and so not worth the fight.
I strongly disagree.
Trial judges write new Common Law and create new Precedents every day.
The idea that voting “NO” requires some kind of fight does not make sense.
I mean, is a Hard Left Senator going to go home and tell his constituents he votes “YES” for Conservative judges because it’s not worth the fight?
The reason they elected him is because he PROMISED to fight.
As far as Circuit Court judges, Trump went off the rails for most of 2018.
But, for the last six months, almost every one of his Circuit nominations has received massive Democrat opposition - which is very encouraging.
Appellate court judges are usually selected from a list of district court judges. The rulings that a district court judge makes indicate the type of appellate judge they would be.
Agree with your opinions. Monday June 17 cloture on 4 district judges should occur. 2 hours of ripening per judge, that 8 hours gets us to late Tuesday. Senate vote occurs Wednesday.
Ordered further, That following disposition of the Cairncross nomination, the Senate vote on the
pending cloture motions on the Kacsmaryk, Winsor, Cain, and Guidry nominations in the order listed; that if
cloture is invoked, the confirmation votes occur on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 at a time to be determined by the
Majority Leader in consultation with the Democratic Leader. (Jun. 13, 2019.
If the Senate works on Thursday then hope they can do 4 more judges, following this set of judges by a day. Thursday Senate vote will net us another 4. Non-judicial nominations and votes also going on. This may be the cause of the confirmation slowdown.
A hangup on Circuit Court judge Daniel Bress nomination, still stuck in Judiciary Committee. Went to college and law school and private practice outside of California. Feinstein complains he is a Virginia resident.
Suspect Graham needs to move him to 4th Circuit. Two GOP confirmed judges born in 1940 and 1944. One needs to be nudged into Senior status to get the Bress thing to work I guess.
I was speaking historically. Neither side has put uo much of a fight on district judges. Large numbers were frequently confirmed en masse by voice vote at the end of a session, for example.
But you are correct, and that’s how we get hatebrained decisions from a single district judge blocking this or that across the board.
Yep! Need to cut down that crap...
2020 may find it hard to push through circuit and supreme court judges in a presidential election year. Looking like the summer will be district judges.
Known circuit vacancies 2nd->2, 3rd->1, 5th->1, 9th->3.
80+ yr GOP judges to Senior 4th->1, 7th->3, 8th->1, 11th->1.
That is 13 judges with one per week cloture to floor vote. That is mid Nov. Lots of judges in 70’s. Some DEM judges in 80’s.
McConnell and Graham need to start earning their pay and move these judges. Cannot assume Trump and a McConnell led Senate will be there in 2021.
Judge who said being transgender is a ‘delusion’ nearing confirmation
Democratic senators and LGBT advocates have voiced concerns over one of Trump’s most controversial nominees
Democratic senators and LGBT advocates want to stop the confirmation of one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial judicial nominees this week, but the fight underscores just how powerless they are to do so without help from Republicans.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scheduled floor votes starting Tuesday afternoon for a slate of appointments including Matthew Kacsmaryk to be a judge for the Northern District of Texas. The Kentucky Republican has used a 53-47 majority and streamlined floor rules to quickly confirm 34 judicial nominees this year.
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