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Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III are imploring President Biden to press the Democratic governor in his home state of Delaware to appoint more Black judges to the state bench. In particular, the two civil rights activists want to see Delaware Gov. John Carney (D) nominate a Black person to fill a forthcoming vacancy on Delaware’s Chancery Court, which resolves business disputes, and they are asking Biden to use his influence in the state to make that happen in a letter to the president, a copy of which was obtained exclusively by The Hill.

And the nominees are … The 2022 Academy Awards are almost upon us — the night when A-list actors, singers and other members of the Hollywood elite will descend upon the steps of the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles next month. While the telecast is set to air on March 27 on ABC, the nominations were announced by Leslie Jordan and Tracee Ellis Ross on Feb. 8. The pair revealed the nominees across 23 categories in the announcement, which streamed on the Oscars website and the Film Academy’s social media accounts.

The Senate has voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court Justice. She will be sworn in tonight, probably around the time I finish writing this post.It’s remarkable to me how quickly Mitch McConnell was able to drive this nomination through. I’m also surprised that only one Republican Senator (the embattled Susan Collins) voted against confirming Judge Barrett. President Trump is said by some to be a divisive influence within the Republican Party. Yet, GOP Senators and House members have been extraordinarily united during the past three and a half years.During today’s proceedings, Chuck Schumer lashed out...

This election was always going to be about culture. Treat the election as a referendum on cultural issues and lean in, Mr. President It is said that when Napoleon was presented with the credentials of a general, he asked, “I know that he is good, but is he lucky?” The phrase might be apocryphal, but it is by no means wrong. One need not believe in the concept of fortune to be fortunate.On that note, President Donald Trump might be considered fortunate, presented with another opportunity to shape the future with his third nomination to the Supreme Court. With the...

A legal advocacy group advised by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in the 1980s actively opposed conservative Robert H. Bork's nomination to the high court calling him a "threat" to the "civil rights of the Latino community." The Senate went on to reject President Reagan's nominee in 1987. The revelation is included in 350 pages of documents the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund delivered to the senators late Tuesday evening. Judge Sotomayor worked for PRLDEF in various capacities from 1980 until she became a federal judge in 1992, spending most of her time as a board member. The...

If you were president of the United States, would you hire an alleged former spy for Fidel Castro to be ambassador to El Salvador, a country teetering on the brink of hard-core socialism? President Obama just did. On Dec. 9, Obama nominated Mari Del Carmen Aponte to be ambassador to El Salvador, despite the fact that in the late 1990s, the FBI discovered that she was working with Cuban intelligence officers. According to Insight Magazine, "When the FBI eventually questioned her about her involvement with Cuban intelligence, she reportedly refused to cooperate." Why would Aponte escape the Obama administration's scrutiny?...

President Barack Obama has nominated Mari Carmen Aponte to become the next ambassador of El Salvador, a decade after she was forced to withdrawal her name from consideration for a similar post following concerns about alleged ties to Cuba, Newsmax.com reports. A former FBI official told Fox News that Aponte’s 1998 nomination by president Clinton began receiving attention after the foreign relations panel questioned her about a past relationship with Roberto Tamayo, who was alleged to have "possible ties to the Cuban government" and made "repeated trips there." Current White House spokesman Tommy Vietor responded, "as has been previously reported,...

Senate Republicans are determined to block a Democratic Party activist's nomination as ambassador to El Salvador because of questions about a long-ago boyfriend who had contacts with Cuban diplomats, congressional staffers say. The FBI cleared Mari Carmen Aponte when the issue of the boyfriend, Cuban-born businessman Roberto Tamayo, first became public after President Bill Clinton nominated her as ambassador to the Dominican Republic in 1998. Aponte withdrew from that nomination after Senate Republicans vowed to ask tough questions about Tamayo. They had dated from 1982 to 1994 and attended social functions with Cuban diplomats in Washington, D.C. Her Obama administration...

NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE: Adam L. Braverman, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of California, vice Roger T. Benitez, retired. John W. Holcomb, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California, vice Dean D. Pregerson, retired. Knut Sveinbjorn Johnson, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of California, vice John A. Houston, retired. Steve Kim, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California, vice Beverly Reid O’Connell, deceased. Sandy Nunes Leal, of California, to be United...

California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris lashed out at the White House after President Trump, under pressure from conservative activists, re-nominated two conservative California judges to the Ninth Circuit federal appeals court over their opposition. “We are deeply disappointed that the White House has chosen to re-nominate Daniel Collins and Kenneth Lee to the Ninth Circuit,” Feinstein and Harris said in a joint statement late Wednesday. “We made clear our opposition to these individuals and told the White House we wanted to work together to come to consensus on a new package of nominees.”

NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE 9/19: Danielle J. Hunsaker, of Oregon, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit, vice Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, retired. William Joseph Nardini, of Connecticut, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit, vice Christopher Droney, retired. Daniel Mack Traynor, of North Dakota, to be United States District Judge for the District of North Dakota, vice Daniel L. Hovland, retiring. Nominations sent to the Senate 9/20: Patrick J. Bumatay of California, to serve as Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Lawrence VanDyke of Nevada, to...

Well, isn’t this just special? Normally, when we hear any stories about convicted child rapist Roman Polanski, it has something to do with our continually unsuccessful efforts to extradite him from Poland or somewhere else in Europe so we can bring him back to California for sentencing and imprisonment. But this week a different sort of story was breaking in Hollywood. Due to a recent change in the rules for how France selects a nominee for best foreign film at the Oscars, the serial pedophile may be able to qualify for that honor. (Hollywood Reporter) When France announced it will...

A State Department official who was awaiting confirmation to be U.S. Ambassador to Albania communicated with the former British spy Christopher Steele and supplied information to a senior DOJ official after and before the 2016 presidential election. Former State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Kathleen Ann Kavalec’s nomination was withdrawn recently by President Trump, according to a Senior White House official who spoke to SaraACarter.com. Kavalec was awaiting to be confirmed as Ambassador to Albania, but information surfaced that she had personally met and was in communication with Steele before and after the 2016 presidential election. Kavalec, a long time State...

President Trump’s picks for attorney general and U.N. ambassador have run into immediate opposition from Democrats -- suggesting both nominees could face tough confirmation hearings. Trump announced Friday morning that he plans to nominate William Barr, the George H.W. Bush-era leader of the Justice Department, as his next attorney general to replace former AG Jeff Sessions. Fox News is told Trump liked the respect Barr commands and the fact that he has earned bipartisan support in the past. If confirmed, he would replace Matthew Whitaker, the former Sessions chief of staff who took over as acting attorney general last month....

____ 28, 201_ CONFIDENTIAL Senator _______ ___________ Dear Senator _________: I am writing to you with information concerning the background of the current nominee to ____________. As I am a loyal Democrat, I trust that you will keep this confidential from Republicans, especially Senator _________, until we can spring this on them at the last minute with no chance for rebuttal or fact checking. Also, may I ask that our colleagues in the usual social media companies carefully scrub my posting history for the past ____ years. ________ physically __________ me and sexually __________ during ___________ in the time frame...

WASHINGTON — As a senator more than two decades ago, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. argued that President George Bush should delay filling a Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, until the presidential election was over, and that it was “essential” that the Senate refuse to confirm a nominee to the court until then. Mr. Biden’s words, though uttered long ago, are a direct contradiction to President Obama’s position in the battle over naming a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia. Mr. Obama has said it is his constitutional responsibility to name a successor to Justice Scalia, who died Feb....

WASHINGTON – Countering resistance to President Donald Trump's pick for CIA director, the spy agency gave lawmakers a declassified memo Friday showing she was cleared years ago of wrongdoing in the destruction of videotapes showing terror suspects being waterboarded after 9/11. Gina Haspel is facing opposition from some Democrats and rights groups critical of her activities related to the shredding of 92 videotapes in 2005 and her overall role in the CIA's harsh interrogation program, which critics have portrayed as one of the shadiest chapters in the agency's history. Friday's release, however, did not satisfy opponents who want to know...

While President Donald Trump took swipes at Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress over the social media giant’s allegations of data misuse, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that it’s quite possible that hearings for a Supreme Court nomination could occur within the coming months. Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy is said to be mulling retiring from the bench.It was not the meat of the story. Grassley was merely warning the president not to fire Mueller, or anyone in the DOJ, like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which would burden the...

The Shape Of Water, Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri received the most nods as the announcements for the Academy Awards nominations 2018 were made in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning. Christopher Plummer, 88, the actor who replaced disgraced Kevin Spacey at the very last minute, has received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his part in All The Money In The World. Other shock names included, musician Mary J. Blige who received her first Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category, and Octavia Spencer who became the first black actress to receive multiple-nominations at the 90th annual...

Today President Donald J. Trump announced his intent to nominate a ninth wave of judicial nominees and a tenth wave of United States Attorney nominees as follows: If confirmed, Joel M. Carson III of New Mexico will serve as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Joel Carson currently serves as a part-time Magistrate Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico and as a partner in the Roswell-based firm Carson Ryan, LLC. Prior to being selected as a Magistrate Judge in 2015, and starting his own firm in 2014,...