Posted on 09/20/2019 10:24:02 AM PDT by Steely Tom
WASHINGTON (CN) – President Donald Trump announced six new judicial nominees on Friday, including two to seats on the once reliably liberal Ninth Circuit and four to federal courts in California.
One of the nominees to the Ninth Circuit will be familiar to senators, as Trump has now three times chosen Patrick Bumatay for a federal judgeship. Trump first chose Bumatay, a prosecutor in the Southern District of California, for a seat on the Ninth Circuit in 2018, but the Senate never took action on the nomination.
Trump tapped him for a judgeship again earlier this year, this time for a position on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
Bumatay, who is openly gay, currently leads the appellate and narcotics sections of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, and worked as counselor to the attorney general in 2018, advising on opioid strategy and other issues.
California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both Democrats who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised concerns about Bumatay’s lack of judicial experience during his first pass at the Ninth Circuit position. Neither senator immediately commented Friday on his renomination.
A member of the conservative Federalist Society, Bumatay drew praise from conservatives after Trump announced he will again put him forward to sit on the Ninth Circuit.
“Patrick Bumatay will make a terrific judge on the Ninth Circuit,” former Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “He has dedicated his career to upholding the rule of law. Patrick’s many fine qualities, including his integrity, intellect and collegiality, make him exceedingly worthy of this position.”
Alongside Bumatay, Trump chose former Nevada Solicitor General Lawrence VanDyke to fill a Ninth Circuit vacancy. VanDyke serves as deputy assistant attorney general at the environment and natural resources division of the Justice Department.
While the tope appellate lawyer in Nevada, VanDyke fought the Obama administration’s Waters of the United States regulation, which the Trump administration repealed last week. He also signed onto briefs challenging Obama immigration and employment law regulations, litigation that will likely draw scrutiny from Democrats.
Another Federalist Society member, VanDyke also worked as assistant solicitor general of Texas and as the solicitor general of Montana. He previously spent time as an associate at the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Nevada Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, both Democrats, criticized the nominations and accused the White House of ignoring “the broad, consensus-based opinion of Nevadans.”
“Instead, the White House has chosen to move forward on their extreme judicial agenda,” Rosen and Cortez Masto said in a joint statement. “While we will review the full record of this nominee, we are disappointed that the White House has chosen to nominate a candidate with a concerning record of ideological legal work.”
The remaining nominees Trump announced Friday are up for seats on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
Michelle Pettit, one of the Southern District of California nominees, has worked as a federal prosecutor in the district since 2007 and before that was senior trial counsel for the U.S. Navy in San Diego.
Her fellow nominee, Knut Johnson, is in private practice in San Diego, where he focuses on criminal defense, including white collar crime and regulatory offenses.
Steve Kim, up for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, is currently a magistrate judge on the same court, having taken the position after working as managing director at the firm Stroz Friedberg, where he worked on cybersecurity compliance and data privacy issues. Kim has also served as a federal prosecutor.
John Holcomb, nominated to a seat on the same court, focuses on intellectual property and bankruptcy litigation at the Costa Mesa, Calif., firm Greenberg Gross. A former officer in the Navy, Holcomb previously ran his own private practice and worked as a partner at the Riverside and Irvine, Calif., firm Knobbe Martens.
Liberal 9th Circus is being pushed in a conservative direction. Good.
I live in mortal dread of the day, and it will happen sooner or later, that we no longer have control of the senate and white house.
it will be difficult to imagine the moonbeams, spoon-benders, and 12 year olds that they will put on the federal bench.
The 9th Circus is the Left’s pet go-to court for all that ails them.
The reshaping of the court to a more conservative bench has their hair on fire...................
Always remember - THEY made "The Resistance" a real thing in this country.
They, however, merely shot their mouths off on Twitter and FascistBuch.
The Deplorables will just have to shoot off the stuff they have, instead of using Twitter...
More excellent news!
Bet they nominate an illegal alien.
To put the stake in the 9th Circuit Trump should move it from San Francisco to Fresno or Bakersfield. No progs want to live away from the coast.
Hopefully we’ll all be long gone before that dreaded “day” happens.
But...the children... :(
I’m guessing most won’t have read down to the 4th line.
Yes.
Hopefully we’ll all be long gone before that dreaded “day” happens.
But...the children... :(
An openly gay nominee and one named “VanDyke”. I sense a theme here.
impossible for me to know for sure which nominees will prove out to be good honest judges, but almost anyone to replace the crooked anti-American ideological communist judges occupying so many judicial seats now..... will be a big improvement!
(also Ruth Bader Ginsberg...on the damned Supremes since 1983!.. needs to be replaced ASAP! and let us never forget, the damned US Senate approved her nomination by a 96 to 3 vote! while she was an accomplished lawyer to be sure, there were clear signals of her far, far leftist ideologies...being no doubt why that horrible Jimmy Carter chose her in the first place.... the Senate couldn’t act fast enough to rubber stamp approve her..... but just look at the disgusting and prolonged spectable some Senators such as Dianne Feinstein made of the Kavanaugh hearing...it seems the Senate is good at rubber-stamping and good at making an ass of itself............but can’t run a decent, honest confirmation hearing?)
Bumatay—unfortunate surname
Holcolm IP Santa Clara?
Well, my conservative 10th decided that women can go topless. And like changing channels, at my age I can take my glasses off or leave them on depending on the show.
Well, my conservative 10th decided that women can go topless. And like changing channels, at my age I can take my glasses off or leave them on depending on the show.
I worry that gay, conservative judges cannot serve two masters.
He might go back to the dark side on us.
Roberts did.
Love it! Pretty soon they’ll all be sportin’ MAGA caps!
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