Mississippi District Attorney Scott Colom has built a name for himself as a “progressive” prosecutor, frequently writing and advocating for changes in the justice system. Colom has now been tapped for a vacancy on the federal bench in Mississippi.
Background
A native of Columbus, Mississippi, Colom was born on December 25, 1983. He graduated from Millsaps College in 2005 and from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2009. He subsequently spent two years as a staff lawyer for the Mississippi Center for Justice before joining Colom & Colom in private practice.
While maintaining his private practice, Colom also served as a city and municipal court judge as well as a part-time prosecutor in Columbus.
In 2015, Colom defeated 30-year-incumbent Forrest Allgood in a contentious race for district attorney for the 16th Judicial District of Mississippi, where Colom currently serves.
History of the Seat
Colom has been nominated for a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. This seat opened on November 1, 2021, when Judge Michael Mills took senior status. Colom was recommended to the White House in November 2021 by U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, the sole Democrat in Mississippi’s Congressional delegation.
Legal Experience
Colom started his legal career at the Mississippi Center for Justice, a nonprofit law firm focused on racial justice issues and then spent five years in private practice. Among the most notable cases he handled with the firm, Colom represented Taylor Bell, an Itawamba Agricultural School student who was disciplined by the school for publishing a rap song on Facebook that contained vulgar lyrics and criticized two coaches at the school. See Miss. Student Challenges Suspension Over Rap Song, A.P. State & Local Wire, Dec. 4, 2012. The district court dismissed Bell’s challenge, finding that the song was not protected under the First Amendment. See Bell v. Itawamba Cnty. Sch. Bd., 859 F. Supp. 2d 834 (N.D. Miss. 2012). However, a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit reversed the dismissal, finding that the disciplining of a student for purely off-campus activities violates the First Amendment. See Bell v. Itawamba Cnty. Sch. Bd., 774 F.3d 280 (5th Cir. 2014). The full Fifth Circuit took the matter en banc and affirmed the district court’s decision. See Bell v. Itawamba Cnty. Sch. Bd., 799 F.3d 379 (5th Cir. 2015) (en banc).
Since 2016, Colom has served as district attorney for the 16th Judicial District in Mississippi, which covers four counties in Northeastern Mississippi. His campaign against longtime incumbent Forrest Allgood involved criticism of the incumbent’s “tough on crime” record and the number of overturned convictions under his watch. See Leon Neyfakh, How to Run Against a Tough-on-Crime DA – And Win, Slate, Nov. 12, 2015.
Notably, as D.A., Colom was asked to review criminal charges related to the shooting death of Ricky Ball from police officer Canyon Boykin. Colom controversially decided to hand the case to the Attorney General’s office for prosecution, stating that his office handling the case would have an appearance of bias given their close relationship with the police department. See Jeff Amy, District Attorney Hands Police Shooting Prosecution to State, A.P. State & Local, July 6, 2016. However, after Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood was replaced by Republican Lynn Fitch in the 2019 elections, Fitch dropped the charges against Boykin, prompting criticism by Colom, who claimed that he was not consulted in the decision. See DA: Bad Time to Drop Charge of Ex-Cop in Black Man’s Death, A.P. Int’l, May 29, 2020.
In other matters, Colom supported the release of Steven Jessie Harris, who had been held for 11 years without trial, to a state mental health facility. Emily Wagster Pettus, Man Held 11 Years Without Trial Will Go to Mental Facility, A.P. State & Local, June 14, 2016. He also dropped murder charges against Brittania Smith, noting that toxicology reports did not support that she had fatally poisoned her child. See Murder Charge Dropped Against West Point Woman, A.P. State & Local, July 11, 2016. Colom also dropped murder charges against Eddie Lee Howard, who spent 23 years on death row, after his conviction was based on debunked bite mark evidence. See Leah Willingham, Murder Charge Dismissed After Debunked Bite-Mark Testimony, A.P. Int’l, Jan. 11, 2021.
Statements and Writings
As a district attorney, Colom has frequently issued statements regarding prosecutions of his office. He has also issued statements on other issues as well. For example, in 2021, Colom was one of the politicians who was discovered to have unpaid campaign finance fines (in his case $50). See Taylor Vance, Mississippi Elected Officials, Candidates Owe Thousands in Unpaid Campaign Finance Fines, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, July 1, 2021. In the article, Colom blamed the failure to pay on a lack of notice from the Secretary of State’s office, noting that a predecessor had sent out email notifications. See id. (quoting Scott Colom).
Specifically, Colom has been vocal about the use of special prosecutors to prosecute cases of police misconduct, arguing that keeping the cases with the elected prosecutors’ offices creates an appearance of bias. See Why one North Mississippi D.A. Thinks Special Prosecutors Hold the Key in Police Shootings, Mississippi Today, Aug. 20, 2018.
In addition, Colom has frequently joined amicus briefs and letters with other prosecutors. For example, Colom signed onto an amicus brief with the Fifth Circuit opposing cash bail for misdemeanor defendants. See Attorney General Racine, Other Prosecutors and Law Enforcement Leaders Call for End to Cash Bail for Misdemeanor Defendants, States News Service, Aug. 10, 2017. Colom also signed onto a Supreme Court brief seeking to overturn a 241 year sentence imposed by Missouri on a juvenile. See 75 Judges, Prosecutors, Probation, Corrections, Law Enforcement Leaders Call on Supreme Court to Reject 241-Year Sentence for Juvenile, Targeted News Service, Mar. 15, 2018. Colom also joined an amicus brief seeking the overturning of a Missouri conviction after new evidence was unearthed. See Elected Prosecutors File State Supreme Court Brief in Support of New Trial for Innocent Man Behind Bars, States News Service, Feb. 11, 2020. He also wrote in support of reducing prison populations in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. See Scott Colom and Miriam Aroni Krinsky, Tragedy of COVID-19 in Prison Shows Need for Decarceration, The People’s Vanguard of Davis, July 3, 2020. See also Elected Prosecutors Call for Dramatic Reduction in Incarcerated and Detained Populations in Response to Coronavirus, The People’s Vanguard of Davis, Mar. 18, 2020.
Overall Assessment
Given Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Durbin’s commitment to preserve home-state veto power over district court nominees, Colom makes for a curious choice from the Biden Administration for Mississippi. His record overall is strongly liberal and willing to court controversy. Additionally, at only 38, Colom is young enough to have a lengthy tenure on the court. One would think that these would be reasons for Mississippi’s home state senators to block his nomination.
However, the fact that Colom’s nomination has become public suggests that the senators have, at least tentatively, signed off on him. For all of the Administration’s judicial assertiveness, they have largely resisted the urge to override home-state senators on nominations, even in states where they could have arguably done so. As such, it will be interesting to see if Colom’s nomination represents part of a deal with Mississippi senators (perhaps as part of the state’s U.S. Attorney picks), or if Colom was able to strongly impress the senators in meeting with them. As Colom is also a good friend of Mississippi Republican Representative Trent Kelly, it is possible that Colom has fans on the other side of the aisle.
The Vetting Room 
This is an absolutely spectacular nominee. If one of the two Mississippi 5th circuit judges were to create a vacancy, this is my front runner for the seat. A 38 year old liberal black man would be a good pick in a blue state.
I find it hard to believe Biden would announce him without the two home state senators consent. If Democrats can win Arizona, Nevada & Georgia to get to 51 seats next term, this is the nominee I would end blue slips for district court nominees for. He’s that good. Hopefully his good relationships with some Republicans in the state will be good enough that we won’t get to that, albeit I think blue slip consideration will still happen in other red state seats.
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Someone (I think it was here) hypothesized that this may be a deal with the GOP senators to allow Colom on a district seat in exchange for not nominating him or another progressive to a future Mississippi circuit court seat. Not the worst outcome and probably one to try in a few more deep red states if we’re able to
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Yesssirrr that was me Joe. I was saying I can’t explain why the two Mississippi senators would turn in their blue slips for this nominee so the only reason I could think of was some sweetheart back room deal. If so, what deal. Now it could be to let them pick the US Attorney’s and/or US Marshal.
To be honest Colom is that good that I wouldn’t have a problem with him getting a lifetime federal judgeship in exchange for those positions that could end with a new president. Another possibility is that regardless of if Durbin keeps blue slips for district court seats, Biden will leave them in place for future Mississippi seats.
But another theory I had was Biden will not nominate any circuit court judge to the state without their consent, basically blue slips behind the scenes. So here’s the thing if that’s the deal. There are 3 Mississippi seats on the 5th circuit. 1 was just filled by Trump so that won’t be vacant for likely decades. The other 2 judges can retire today if they want.
1 of those two judges is a GW Bush appointee & unlikely to retire under Biden. So that leaves the Clinton appointee. I believe he is in his low 70’s so this deal would be good to get Colom confirmed. A judge is his low 70’s would most likely only retire upon the confirmation of his successor. So if the Mississippi s series played ball & came to a consensus nominee then great. If not, then the judge is still relatively young enough where he can just stay on the bench until the next Democrat president where this deal would not be in place.
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In others news, Wasserman has gone ahead and called Arizona (I guess the networks are being overly cautious) and Nevada returns last night were better than the track Dems needed.
Looks like Democrats are well on their way to 50 and hopefully 51 next month, so it should be an exciting two years around here.
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I think after tonight’s Arizona batch news outlets will call it for Kelly. Cortez Masto is down by less than 9,000. I think she will probably still be down after tonight’s batch but should be able to take the lead after tomorrow’s batch.
The Arizona governors race is gonna be tight. If Hobbs wins by 10, 10,000 or 10 million Lake will want a recount so I don’t expect a final result there until after Thanksgiving. I think the Nevada governors race will be the only Republican flip.
I’m still trying to figure out why news outlets haven’t called the Oregon governors race yet. 99% of the core has been in for 2 days now & the Democrats lead is sizable. I’m thankful Oregon didn’t let Phil Nike’s millions to the third party candidate trick them into getting a Republican elected.
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I swear I saw a call for Kotek last night, but maybe that was just on Twitter. Either way I’m not worried.
I agree on Lake, to me that’s the most suspenseful race left besides GA senate of course.
Going to be a fun few weeks for election watchers like us and especially so since Dems will have at least 50 Senate seats locked up
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I’m pretty good with most things related to the judiciary but one question I have if anybody can answer it. If Democrats have 51 senators, is that enough to hone them a 1 seat advantage on all committees or do each committee have different rules to determine the make up?
I assume the answer is 51 means automatically every committee gets a 1 senator advantage but if there is even one word of ambiguity, we know McConnell will expose it.
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Yes, I believe that 51 senators gives a 1 seat advantage. The GOP had a 51 seat majority in 2018 after Doug Jones was elected.
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As for the SJC, I would assume Durbin is going to
Hold a SJC hearing on November 30th. That hearing should have all of the remaining district court nominees that need a hearing except for Scott Colom since Biden still hasn’t officially sent his name to the senate for consideration yet (What’s up with the long wait?).
That leaves December 14th as the last likely SJC hearing. Hopefully Biden will announce another batch of nominees by the middle of next week. I’m hoping 2 of the 4 vacant circuit court seats without a nominee is in that batch so they can get their hearing out of the way this year, making it quicker for them to get confirmed likely in February.
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I believe even at 51-49 that every committee would have a Dem majority. That’s the same makeup of the senate after Doug Jones won in 2017 and the GOP held all committees.
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Ok great. I just gents little scared when I’m not sure if things are written in stone or just tradition… Lol
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Correct. The distribution would only revert back to 11-11 if there is a Democrat to Republican flip.
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For those of you that use Wikipedia to look up article 3 federal judges, here is an update on each judge having a profile picture.
We are down to three circuit court judges that are active & have not announced senior status without a picture;
Ilana Rovner – 7th
Karen Henderson – DC
Harris Hartz – 10th
Biden judges – All have pictures.
Trump judges – All have pictures.
Obama judges –
Denzil Price Marshall Jr.
Sara Lynn Darrow
Nelva Gonzales Ramos
Kristine Anne Gerhard Baker
George Levi Russell III
Valerie Elaine Caproni
GW Bush –
Clay Daniel Land
Jay Christopher Zainey
Christopher Charles Conner
David Charles Godbey
Jose E. Martinez
James Edgar Kinkeade
Alia Moses
Thomas Alexander Varlan
Philip Peter Simon
Louise Wood Flanagan
Earl Leroy Yeakel III
Robert David Proctor
Ronald Allen White
Marcia Ann Cain Crone
Kenneth Michael Karas
Paul Steven Diamond
Jane Ellen Jackson Boyle
Robert Bryan Harwell
Timothy Carroll Batten Sr.
Thomas Edward Johnston
Aida Milagros Delgado-Colón
Susan Davis Wigenton
Renee Marie Bumb
Thomas Lamson Ludington
Gregory Kent Frizzell
Robert James Jonker
Timothy D. DeGiusti
William Lindsay Osteen Jr.
Martin Karl Reidinger
Sharion Marie Aycock
Robert Michael Dow Jr.
Joseph Normand Laplante
Thomas David Schroeder
James Randal Hall
Mark Steven Davis
Paul G. Gardephe
Glenn Thomas Suddaby
Cathy Seibel
Eric Franklin Melgren
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They finally called Oregon for Tina Kotek . Democrats officially won’t lose any fixed or seats.
And Catherine Cortez Masto down by less then 800 votes in Nevada now.
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Cannot wait to talk about all the implications of a possible renewed (and expended?) Dem senate majority. I felt for sure, base on the fundamentals of midterm elections, that Dems would lose.
Here is one thing I’d love to hear what you think about. For me, the answer is a big fat YES. Hold off on this confirmation and wait for the two Dems to come up with a non-NRA replacement. But I don’t think the right combination of Biden/Casey/Durbin/Schumer would go along with that. Especially Casey. I feel like he’ll still consider himself bound by the 3:1 deal. Sigh, only the GOP gets to play hardball:
https://twitter.com/fedjudges/status/1591245600968015872?s=20&t=TW1rCQkAa-_hkvy-0sKehg
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@Gavi
I actually thought of that scenario prior to election day. So this is where I stand on that. John Murphy was a Republican pick but not that bad. If you go back to the day he was announced, myself as well as others on this site couldn’t tell which of the four were the Republican pick. If he was somebody like Chad Meredith, I would definitely say withdraw him. In the case of Murphy, him not being that bad, combined with Pennsylvania having additional vacancies, I would keep him.
But I admit it is tempting to withdraw him & replace him with Jasmine Harris, Sandra Mayson, Susan M. Lin, Riley H. Ross III or Nilam Sanghvi . This is exactly why I was against nominating anybody for Pennsylvania seats until after the election. I know @Shawn disagreed with me, but I felt even if Dr. Oz won & Republicans won the majority, you either still get the same deal or just leave all of the seats vacant. IO felt the upside was worth the risk.
Now one alternative is Biden could tell him he is withdrawing him but offer him the court of international trade. There are two vacancies on the court & by statue, one has to be a Republican. It’s still a lifetime judgeship. In the past, I offered the Republican seat should be offered to Chad Meredith to please McConnell or David Leibowitz if senator Rubio agrees to blue slip any Florida district court nominees currently vacant.
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Usually, Dems should follow through on a gentlemen’s agreement in the senate but as none of the 3 liberal judges have been confirmed either I don’t consider it a broken promise if they let all 4 nominees be returned to the President and he can nominate 4 liberal judges in the next congress.
Toomey let McConnell steal 2 Supreme Court seats, he doesn’t exactly have a moral high ground to stand on.
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Very good point Mike. I wouldn’t shed a tear if Murphy was not renominated. There’s a list a mile long of nominees McConnell didn’t let get a hearing, let alone vote. I think it depends a lot on the runoff. If Warnock loses & it’s a tied senate, I wouldn’t rock the boat & renominate him. If Warnock wins & Democrats have 51, I think the chance of not renominating him exponentially goes up. But if I had to bet on it, I say he gets confirmed.
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Another suggestion if Warnock wins & Democrats have 51 would be Schumer go to McConnell & tell him they are going to pull Murphy & replace him next year with a young liberal unless he wants to make a deal. At a minimum I would tell him there has to be a voice vote on all 4 Pennsylvania nominees & I would probably throw in at least another 4 of his choosing. If no, kiss Murphy goodbye. I think Murphy would be worth saving the floor time for at least a half dozen or more nominees.
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That’s a good point. A traditional Dem senator would probably keep this deal. Fetterman is not a traditional Dem senator and basically ran a “f this guy” campaign (referring to his opponent) so he might demand more progressive nominees. I could see Toomey rushing to get this deal done before this Congress ends.
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Ryan Joshi
What I would do in regards to the 4 Pennsylvania nominees is go to McConnell & tell him the only way they get confirmed this year is a voice vote for all 4 at once. Anything other than that & they will not get a vote & risk Fetterman not giving blue slips for all of them. McConnell would take that deal & we save an entire day of senate floor time.
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Personally I would stand by the agreement since it was made in good faith and Murphy appears to be a reasonable nominee. Toomey also supported Chung. I would not rock the boat and risk missing out on packages in other red states.
It’s tempting for sure, but the fact that there are additional vacancies makes it much sweeter
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Yea Joe, that was my initial reaction as well. But I definitely would push for a package deal voice vote for all 4. That would save a day of senate floor time so I think that’s a fair deal.
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I’ve been thinking of the election results. More than anything else, it was the early voting that saved the Democrats. In August and September, Jackson vs. Dobbs was still on many peoples’ minds. At least 20% listed that as a primary voting motive. In October, economic news was terrible, prices and crime were still soaring, and the bottom fell out for the Democrats. But millions of people had already voted. They couldn’t have changed their minds if they wanted to.
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@Mitch
I would also add the youth vote saved Democrats. They came out in what looks to be historically high numbers. Democrats absolutely need to delivery to keep them engaged in 2024. Hopefully between that & hopefully getting a 51st senator, we will have any chance of holding the senate in 2024 with the harsh map.
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@Dequan, you’re back. I thought you had fallen ill. Glad you’re OK.
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Mitch
Thank you for the well wishes. I actually never left. Harsh said there was an error blocking numerous users from posting. I had been posting every day as normal but none of them were going through until Thursday. I thought I was blocked actually… Lol
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“and the bottom fell out for the Democrats. ”
I don’t think the bottom ever fell out for Democrats, and most of the early voting actually happened well after the media and punditry promoted the “red wave” consensus. Frankly I think that was an artifact of bogus right-wing “polling” like Trafalgar and a deeply insensitive male dominated pundit industry who lapped that up.
Robert Cahaly, the head of Trafalgar should be investigated for fraud, and belongs in prison if he was committing fraud.
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I promise not to flood in here with elections stuff, but here’s one more. Being a LI boy, who still votes in NY1st (yes, Zeldin is my congressman, ya jealous?) this really sucks:
(Thank goodness Zeldin won’t be making NY judicial appointments in Albany. Back to Shirley he goes!)
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@Gavi
Flood away. We are a mostly political junkies if we are on this blog in addition to being focused on the judiciary of course.
As for the post, I am so angry with former governor Cuomo. He should never be elected to office, not even dog catcher after the justices he put on the NY Court of Appeals that struck down the redistricting map. I wasn’t too thrilled with Hochul’s first pick either. I’m hoping she picks a rock star for Chief Justice. My pick would be Jorge Rodriguez since Judge Hurd has now rescinded his senior status. I would be outright thrilled if she picked Melissa Murray but I know that won’t happen.
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You’re sooo lucky you’re not in our media markets. Local news is like a horrible bubble that’s surrounding us with how bad Dems did on Tuesday. It’s like Dems didn’t win ANYWHERE in the country.
What a disaster.
I know nationally, Dems did better than expected and it’s a good thing for the country. But politics is really local so this sucks.
McCarthy could literally be handed the Speaker’s gavel because of New York. Not Ohio, not NC, not Texas (other GOP gerrymandered states that Dems still did reasonably well in). New York. No hyperbole.
I was a big Cuomo family fan (personal relationships) but Andrew really did is dirty.
To button this up, don’t assume that all these seats will be easy to win back in a presidential year. Case in point: John Katko, a perennial Dem target, who gets to retire on his own timing.
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I was a huge Cuomo fan too before I really dove into his judicial picks & of course knew about the sexual harassment. I actually wanted him to run for president in 2020. Gosh can you imagine if I had gotten my wish.
And you’re absolutely right about not assuming these Republicans will lose their seats in 2024. Incumbency has major advantages.
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@Dequan
There was a problem with the map passed by the legislature. It district lines were so convoluted, the map violated state law. The New York Democrats overreached.
The New York losses go beyond maps. Democrats suffered surprise losses in southern Brooklyn. That’s right, parts of Brooklyn voted Republican.
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OUCH. I was born in southern Brooklyn. I didn’t even know what a Republican was until I moved when I was 9… Lol
But I agree the NY Democrats need to do some soul searching. I hope they listen to the voters over the next two years so we can win any of those seats back.
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Not accurate.
Let’s be categorical:
“There was a problem with the map passed by the legislature. It district lines were so convoluted, the map violated state law.”
What problem are you talking about? What do you mean by the lines were convoluted? The map didn’t violate any state law. A Republican (literally) judge found it to be unconstitutional and the Court of Appeals agreed.
“The New York Democrats overreached.”
By trying to maximize their party’s power? You mean like they did in Florida? NC? Ohio? Wisconsin? The Dem supermajorities in both chambers draw maps that they thought were legal, even if those maps benefited them.
“Democrats suffered surprise losses in southern Brooklyn. That’s right, parts of Brooklyn voted Republican.”
Biggest inaccuracy, which shows that you’re not familiar with New York.
This is a single Republican seat anchored on Staten Island, which is a Republican stronghold. (In NYC we have a saying, “S.I. is to NYC as Mississippi is to America.”). S.I doesn’t have enough people, so that district had to extend into Brooklyn. This area of BK happens to be less liberal.
NY Dems should try again. They’ll need a supermajority to do so and a new progressive judge on our CoA!
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Republican gains in Brooklyn went beyond Bay Ridge, the section in the same Congressional district as Staten Island.
Republicans took down a state Senator from a district that includes Coney Island and Sea Gate. They may pick up a second seat, a newly created one that’s currently too close to call. They also picked up three state Assembly seats there, which includes unseating a 36-year incumbent.
Brooklyn gave voted 77% to Joe Biden in 2020.
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I was one of those who thought that Dems would lose the senate. Everything pointed to that. We can argue whether Dobbs changed the forecast in JUNE. But what in February pointed to Dem holding their majority?
As I said, I’m really upset about how NY voted in congressional races. Dems lost some seat in the Albany but RETAINED their supermajorities. That was important for me. For me, the congressional losses are more about what they say about areas that are close to me. After Tim Bishop lost my district, I got used to Zeldin, even after voting against him every chance I got. I thought that he’s probably the only one who could hold it. When he announced his run for governor I got really nervous because I dreaded this outcome — a local popular Republican running statewide carrying another crop of Rs on his coattail. And so my beloved LI was deluged under the red wave. I can soothe my sorrow with the fact that my district in the city is as blue as ever.
There is one inaccurate take, that because these are Biden+ seats they should have been won by the Dems. That’s not how LI elections work. Dem presidents often outrun Dem congressional candidates. Much like the Valadao district in CA. The amount of times I thought, yes, this will be the year we beat Peter King, only to come up short. NY tends to be susceptible to out party wave elections.
Sean Patrick Maloney is awesome! Nationally, the red wave didn’t happen! He doesn’t get some credit for that? Most of the pundit class predicted a blowout. As far as I know, no one on here is a professional pollster or prognosticator, so we are using data prepared by someone else and the data pointed to SPM being very unsuccessful in his defense of the Dem House majority.
In the whole, I do agree with Shawn on being happy that the House flipped to R. I think 4 straight years of Dem Trifecta would put a lot of pressure on them to deliver some serious results. With Rs in charge now, thankfully by a very small margin, Dems can point to gridlock and hope that’ll help them blunt the bad 2024 map (for the Senate).
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Here are some of names of who I would like to see for the 4 vacant circuit court seats;
1st:
Gilles Bissonnette (c. 1981)
Devon Chaffee
Henry Klementowicz (c. 1987)
4th:
Deepak Gupta (c. 1977)
Ajmel Quereshi (c. 1981)
Tejinder Singh (c. 1982)
5th:
Amparo Monique Guerra (c. 1977)
Diana Song Quiroga (c. 1976)
7th:
Mario Garcia (c. 1973)
Zachary Augustus Myers (born 1981)
Jessica Eaglin (c. 1983)
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I’ll go out on a limb judicially.
If Catherine Cortez Masto and Ralph Warnock are reelected, Sonia Sotomayor may choose a strategic retirement like Stephen Breyer did.
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I truly hope Sotomayor seriously considers retirement if not next year, early in 2024. But from my understanding she really enjoys being a Justice. I’ve actually met her twice myself & I wouldn’t bet on her retiring.
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Sotomayor should absolutely consider retirement. Maybe in early 2024 if she wants to enjoy being the senior liberal for a while. But losing 3-4 senate seats is very possible in 2024 and who knows when Dems would have the presidency/senate at the same time again.
She’ll be 70 in 2024 with 30+ years of federal service, does she really want to work until she’s 75 or 80?
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And also by the Summer of 2024 both Myrna Perez & Brad Garcia will have years experience on the circuit courts. Also if I remember correctly Sotomayor had some health issue. I can’t remember what it was but perhaps that, 30 plus years as a federal judge, being in the minority in the SCOTUS, a good deep bench of young Hispanic appeals court judges & the ugly 2024 senate map, might be enough to persuade her to retire.
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If Sotomayor were to retire, what if Biden were to look outside the D.C.-NYC-Boston corridor? One name that would come to mind for me would be Salvador Mendoza of the Ninth Circuit.
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I think looking at who could replace a possible Sotomayor, we need to get a reasonable baseline established. I think the two baselines for that seat would be it will be a Hispanic & I think Biden will only pick a court of appeals judge. Looking at Obama court of appeals judges, he only had two circuit court judges confirmed in his last two years & both were Hispanic. However, both would be in their mid to late 50’s in the Summer of 2024. So, I believe the pick would be a Biden Hispanic appeals court judge. Here are my picks in order of who I think would be picked & why;
1. Myrna Pérez – I think Biden would want to replace Sotomayor with a woman. Perez is from the majority leader’s home state & from teh same court Sotomayor served on.
2. Brad Garcia – He will be a judge on the second most important court in the land. His profile seems to be fairly liberal. And of course, him being in his 30’s will keep him in the running for over a decade.
3. Gabriel P. Sanchez – He has a liberal background working for Governor Jerry Brown. He is from VP Harris home state & after justice Kruger was pass over for the KBJ seat, Biden may look to him to add a Westerner to the SCOTUS.
4. Salvador Mendoza Jr. – He has a pretty liberal background. Just like I said above with Sanchez, he is a Westerner. However, he would be near his mid 50’s in the Summer of 2024 so that is a slight drawback.
5. Gustavo Gelpí – He, like Sotomayor is Puerto Rican. He has a pretty liberal background. Being a GW Bush district court appointee may get him a few Republican votes. However, he would be near his late 50’s in the Summer of 2024 so that is a slight drawback.
6. Maria Araújo Kahn – She is fairly liberal, particularly in disability rights. But she would be around 60 years old in the Summer of 2024, so I think that takes her out of the running.
I have a strong feeling the Texas 5th circuit pick will be a Hispanic. Hopefully it will be a young, progressive Latina. I think she would be added to this list eventually.
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Perez seems like the most logical pick of those Dequan listed. Would also open a spot to elevate Dale Ho to the Second Circuit
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Biden has been the best president in my lifetime when it comes to the judiciary. Still, mistakes like two of his DC circuit picks & nominating Dale Ho as a district court instead of circuit court judge are glaring short comings. But tonight, is a night for celebration so let’s hope the next two years will be even better than the first.
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I could see it going either way. She would still be able to serve by designation on the circuit courts for as long as she wants and ensure that someone that matches her judicial philosophy replaces her. Of course, power is a pretty addictive drug.
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On another topic, Richard Dietz was elected to the North Carolina Supreme Court. He was mentioned in a prior posting from 2020 about state judges who might be nominated for the Circuit Courts.
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Richard Dietz is 45 so he certainly would be young enough to be considered for the 4th circuit if Republicans won The White House in 2024 or 2028. Speaking of the state, I think Democrats need to focus more on North Carolina than Florida.
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Florida is a red state now. Some in-depth article explained why (the title is something like “Florida is a “the Republicans won, let’s move on” state”). North Carolina is still swing-ish but definitely leans red.
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This is the best of governor Newsome’s 3 picks to the California SCOTUS so far so I’m happy she was confirmed. If he plans on running for president should Biden decide not to in 2024 or in 2028, I hope he acts more like his predecessor than Andrew Cuomo when it comes to picking judges.
(https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/judge-kelli-evans-confirmed-to-california-supreme-court?context=search&index=0)
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Here’s a tidbit. With Evans’ confirmation, three of the seven justices are from Alameda County.
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Cortez Masto wins Nevada. It’s official. Democrats will hold the majority in the US senate even without Georgia
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Oh wow, they just called it for Cortez Masto in Nevada. TWO MORE YEARS of Biden judicial confirmations is going to be something amazing to see.
Even if not a single new vacancy is made in the next 2 years, Bidens current Circuit vacancies will equal about 73% of Trump confirmations and 70% of District confirmations if they only confirm judges from states with at least one Dem senator.
Looks like our adherence to rule of law and democracy survives.
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Thank you America. What a great night. 83 confirmations so far, 116 current vacancies & I’m sure dozens upon dozens more will open up over the next two years. Let’s match Trump’s 230
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I think Biden has a good shot to match or top it, particularly if we can get Warnock re elected as well. Its something the administration has been great on and now that they’ll have more time I can see movement on some red state packages as well as wrapping up all the remaining circuit and blue state seats.
It’s going to be a fun next two years.
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I am not surprised at all that the Democrats held the Senate. Even when many people here suggested that I was nuts for saying that the Democrats would hold the Senate due to candidate quality of the GOP candidates. I also am not surprised that the Democrats overperformed the expectations of the male punditry who had no clue how angry women were about Dobbs.
Serious question on whether Mitch McConnell remains GOP leader, especially if Warnock wins the Georgia runoff (which I fully expect to happen).
I have a lot to say regarding what happened in New York, and I will say that in future posts.
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You must be joking Shawn.
Werent you the one constantly threatening to donate to and vote for Republicans because Biden didnt nominate judges to your stands all year long?
I’ve been here for almost a year but just started commenting this week and as an outsider looking in your comments we’re very off putting.
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First of all GFY Mike, this is not a Democratic Party blog.
I actually did donate to several GOP candidates against several pieces of filth who call themselves Democrats but spent most of their time bashing progressives. And I did vote mostly for GOP candidates in this election.
Specifically Mike Lawler and Yesli Vega and the opponent of Debbie Wasserman Schultz..
One of them Sean Patrick Maloney, a pile of shit, who ran the DCCC, thankfully lost, and spent his bashing AOC after he lost. I really enjoyed his loss.
That said, if you actually read my comments, you will note that I had been predicting that the Democrats would hold the Senate back in February.
I wonder if you are actually Zach.
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Dequan and I were discussing this. It seems a combination of early voting and high turnout of progressive whites and young voters (especially women) delivered the election to the Democrats.
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Shawn,
Welcome back buddy. I will assume you had the same issues posting that many of us did the past month. So much has happened since we have last heard from you.
Good question about if McConnell will hold on to minority leader. My prediction is yes for this term, but all bets are off in 2025. If Warnock wins the runoff, I have a few predictions.
1. Durbin will not keep blue slips for district court seats absolute the entire 2 years.
2. John Murphy will be confirmed, albeit I do see the temptation to not confirm him this year, not renominate him & replace him with a Pennsylvania liberal.
3. Biden will not match Trump’s 230 judges but come within 15 or less.
Things I am not sure about…
1. Will there be a SCOTUS vacancy in the next 2 years? I give it about a 35% chance.
2. Will every Democrat senator win their primary in 2024? I probably would say yes, all will but both senators Sinema & Menendez are up in 2024.
3. Will Kevin McCarthy be Speaker of the House? I give it about a 60% chance.
4. Will Trump be the 2024 Republican nominee? I give that about a 70% chance. But I give it an 85% chance he will be a presidential candidate regardless of Republican or not.
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Blue slips- I expect Durbin to have a middle ground on them. Senators who cooperate and have legit commissions will retain blue slips. People like Ron Johnson won’t. (Still disappointed that Barnes fell just short. I really thought he was going to win.)
Murphy will be confirmed, it sucks, as I would dump him and frankly all the PA nominees. Let Fetterman and Casey negotiate new nominees. Renominate Mia Roberts Perez, but find three better progressive nominees.
Number of Biden nominees, I don’t know. But given that we are looking at a GOP House, there will no actually legislating going on.
SCOTUS vacancy, hopefully Thomas leaves the bench, perhaps feet first. I don’t see anyone leaving on their own though.
I would support the GOP candidate over Sinema or Menendez. After the results in Arizona, Sinema better shape up or she will lose a primary. Neither of them belong in the Senate, and frankly they belong in prison.
The GOP will win narrowly the House (and I’m glad they will TBH). I see 219 or 220 GOP seats. I think McCarthy will be speaker, but how long is a dubious question.
Way too early to say about Trump, but he’s playing with fire. As I’ve said before, I’m not sure at all that Trump is a weaker candidate than say DeSantis. There are a lot of working class apolitical voters who will come out for Trump but won’t bother for DeSantis. I suspect DeSantis would do poorly in the Midwest.
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Shawn,
I was having that same conversation earlier tonight about Sinema better get her act together after today.
The Pennsylvania batch is a divided one for me. That’s why I said earlier this year I wouldn’t have announced any until after the election & take a chance on the election results. Even if Dems lost the majority, I felt either we would get the same 3 for 1 deal in 2023 with Oz or leave the seats vacant. But now that they have been announced, yea I think they will all be confirmed. But I do agree with you that Perez is the only one I am thrilled about.
As for your last paragraph, I agree with you but not for the same reasons. I think DeSantis would be weaker than Trump but only because I think Trump would screw him in some sort of way if he defeated him. I think Trump would be perfectly fine with taking the party down with him.
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Toomey would be wise to push for Murphy’s confirmation. As i said in a comment earlier, Fetterman isn’t a traditionalist. Unlike many Dems, Fetterman might go all out and push for 4 progressive nominees.
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Testing…
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Nope Shawn, Mike is a different person who like me and many others has found your posts off putting.
If nothing else, the fact you’re celebrating a GOP controlled house shows you’re no progressive.
AOC and others would be revolted by you.
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Gee Zack conveniently shows up for the first time in months after I suggested someone else is Zack.
I strongly suspect Zack and Mike are the same person.
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Keeping control of the Senate means we will be able to flip two Republican held seats on the 1st and 7th Circuit while being able to ensure open seats on the 4th,5th circuits will stay in Democratic hands.
There are at least 17 Circuit court seats with Democratic Appointees that could take senior status and several Republican ones as well so who knows how many more seats we can fill?
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The House will have at least 211 Republicans and 204 Democrats.
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I’m projecting between 219 and 221 Rs. Of the five seats left that are seen in play, I see CA-41 and AZ-1 going R and CA-13 going D. AZ-6 and CA-22 are on a knife’s edge and really could go either way.
And from my perspective this is perfect. I didn’t want to see Dem establishment’s piss poor performance rewarded with another House majority that would likely get nothing done. But also I want that GOP House majority to be as small as possible. 218-217 would be absolutely perfect from my perspective.
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I know what most of you on here think about Dianne Feinstein but she is going to make history as the first woman to be President Pro Tempore.
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She should get that honor in January, and then resign immediately and hand it to Patty Murray.
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The first few lines of a Washington Post article suggest that Feinstein may decline to take the position, which would make Patty Murray the President pro tempore or at least that position in an acting capacity.
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Patty Murray is also the No. 3 Democrat, though I believe that she can be PPT while also remaining in leadership. McConnell is second-in-line after Grassley on the GOP side.
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@Ryan Joshi
I don’t want Feinstein to decline the position, I want her to resign so we can get a functional and progressive senator. She has no business remaining in the Senate.
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we can definitely continue to discuss this, especially since I am a California voter and undecided on whether to vote for Feinstein in 2024 if she runs again. My decision on whether to keep Feinstein will primarily be based on who else runs.
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Also to be clear, “progressive” is a key word in your comment. I am open to voting for a progressive challenger to Feinstein (Katie Porter would make a great candidate) but I will absolutely not vote for a Republican just to get rid of Feinstein.
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I wonder if Warnock will be in the senate at all between now & the runoff. If I was Schumer, I would work this schedule out with him & do all discharge votes, tough confirmations & legislation you want to get done before losing the House while he is in.
11/14 – Off
11/15 – Warnock in
11/16 – Warnock in
11/17 – Off
11/28 – Off
11/29 – Warnock in
11/30 – Off
12/1 – Off
12/5 – Off
12/6 – Election day
12/7 – Off
12/8 – Off
12/12 – Warnock in
12/13 – Warnock in
12/14 – Warnock in
12/15 – Warnock in
12/19 – Warnock in
12/20 – Warnock in
12/21 – Warnock in
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That’s what I’m wondering as well.
I do also wonder with Inhofe and Sasse both leaving if they’ll bother to show up at all now.
That could make it easier to confirm nominees even without Warnock.
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I was thinking about how many days Sasse would miss too. He doesn’t start at UF until February so he probably will show up for most days but I don’t expect him to be at any SJC hearings for the rest of the year.
I didn’t think about Inhofe. His attendance has actually been good but I hope him, Toomey and/or Roy Blunt takes an early retirement. That would definitely give Warnock some more wiggle room.
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I think it is absolutely essential that we discharge and confirm Nancy Abudu immediately to give Warnock another feather in his cap. That’s something that Warnock can and will show up for.
Warnock is one of the senators that I really like, so making sure he wins the runoff ought to be a major priority.
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I’m not sure we will see any discharges before the runoff. Warnock & the VP would have to be in DC at the same time to do it presuming all Republicans are in town. Plus, if Warnock wins, it’s probably better to just let them wait for January when they can be voted out of the SJC outright & save the 4 hours on the discharge vote.
But I would go full speed ahead on all non-discharge nominees (Except the Pennsylvania batch unless it’s a voice vote) & confirm the discharged first thing in January. Unless Democrats win the House somehow, I would focus more on legislation between the post runoff & end of the year.
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@Dequan
I mostly agree with you on the focus on legislation, but given that Abudu is a Georgia nominee, I think getting her confirmed before the runoff would be a powerful symbol for Warnock’s accomplishments.
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@Dequan
I mostly agree with you on the focus on legislation, but given that Abudu is a Georgia nominee, I think getting her confirmed before the runoff would be a powerful symbol for Warnock’s accomplishments.
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Ah, you was saying her specifically because she’s from the 11th circuit. Yea that I could see. Perhaps have Warnock come in for 2 or 3 days between now & the run off & confirm her would make sense in that aspect. The rest of the discharges could wait for January.
One thing is for sure, Dems need to schedule precisely between Warnock & VP Harris. We don’t need any more Arianna Freeman type scheduling screw ups the rest of the year.
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Just for the record, here’s what I said in September:
“I’m the oddball who actually thinks that polls may well be *underestimating* Democratic performance right now. I think there are a LOT of pro-choice women that are not being properly counted in the polls right now or are
The male dominated polling and pundit industry has no real understanding of this.
Everyone was stunned by the results in Kansas. I wasn’t, I was expected a 15% defeat of the referendum.
…
Personally I am an undecided voter for all races except for the US Senate.
”
Regardless of my personal votes, I never believed the whole “red wave” consensus of the male dominated polling/pundit industry.
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@Ryan Joshi
“As i said in a comment earlier, Fetterman isn’t a traditionalist. Unlike many Dems, Fetterman might go all out and push for 4 progressive nominees.”
And that’s why I LOVE the guy! Fetterman was among my favorite Senate candidates. I truly believe that if he didn’t have the stroke, Fetterman would have won by around 10%. The stroke hampered his ability to barnstorm the state and really fight the GOP smears against him.
Also as I said above, I’m really upset that Barnes didn’t make it. I knew it was close, but I really hoped he was going to beat Johnson.
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Uuuggghhh, another 6 years of senator Ron Johnson makes me want to vomit. Mandela Barnes not winning that race, particularly with the governor getting re-elected was the second most disappointing thing from the midterms in my opinion after the New York Democrat House loses.
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The DSCC blew this race by allowing Barnes to be outspent early on. Because he wrapped up the nomination so late, Barnes didn’t have the fundraising that all the other Democratic Senate candidates did.
The NY Democratic Party is run by Andrew Cuomo’s left-bashing hacks. The degenerate piece of shit NY Dem chair Jay Jacobs blamed the left for his awful performance, and in 2021 he spend the party funds propping up a conservative Democrat Buffalo mayor who lost his primary rather than helping Democrats in local races. Jacobs belongs at Rikers with Cuomo frankly. Hochul should have fired him.
Any surprise they did so poorly? I wouldn’t be surprised if Cuomo’s hacks intentionally sabotaged the party efforts.
And as bad as getting the original NY congressional map struck down, I don’t think it mattered much this year. This was an extreme red tsunami, worse than Florida. I looked at the numbers. The GOP won 11 seats in NY this year. Under the “gerrymander” map, I think they win 10 or 11 seats, depending on whether Pat Ryan could have won a different district. When you are losing several seats that Biden won by double digits, the map won’t help you. When you lose a Biden +9 seat on Long Island by 8 points to a MAGA conservative who was at the Capitol on 1/6/21, the map won’t help you.
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I wonder how the certainty that Democrats are retaining control of the Senate will affect turnout in the Georgia runoff. As a Georgia resident, I know there is a lot of work on the ground being done to ensure Herschel does not win. And I doubt he will win the runoff. But in the unlikely scenario that Democrats keep control of the House (path does still exist), I wonder if Republicans will be more energized to turn out so that Democrats (now with Fetterman) don’t have 51 votes to pass more of their agenda without Manchin and Sinema.
As for Fetterman being the 51st vote for filibuster reform (and other agenda items), I’ve seen reporting that several other Senate Democrats (most likely Feinstein, Shaheen, and Tester) privately agree with Manchin and Sinema about keeping the filibuster. I just wonder if they’d be more open to modest reforms like bringing back the talking filibuster or requiring 41 votes to continue debate instead of 60 votes to end debate.
Additionally, I also wonder if Bob Menendez will have to resign at some point since he is under federal investigation. He got out scot-free once, but not sure he can twice. I obviously hope Feinstein resigns sooner rather than later. But part of me thinks she will want to relish being the first female President pro tempore of the Senate, even if just for her ego.
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The three vacant SCOTUS vacancies were the number one reason I wanted governor Murphy to be re-elected. I was hoping he would screw the bipartisan tradition & nominate 3 Democrats but that didn’t happen.
The second most important reason was because in the event Menendez has to resign, I wanted to make sure he was replaced by a Democrat. And by the way New Jersey has picked judges under Biden so far, anybody would be an improvement SHOUKD that occur.
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“But in the unlikely scenario that Democrats keep control of the House (path does still exist), I wonder if Republicans will be more energized to turn out so that Democrats (now with Fetterman) don’t have 51 votes to pass more of their agenda without Manchin and Sinema.”
This is a BIG concern of mine, and is a major part of the reason why I hope the GOP gets a very narrow majority. I would much rather have say Warnock and a 219-216 GOP House rather than a 218-217 Dem House and Herschel Walker.
I have no confidence that the Senate will get rid of the filibuster, even a carveout for abortion and voting rights, which makes having a Democratic House less useful. The only positives I see from having a narrow House majority is perhaps increasing taxes on the wealthy within Joe Manchin’s parameters (as Sinema isn’t supporting it). I think the narrowness of the GOP House majority is going to make it harder for McCarthy or whomever to do insane stuff. At least some of the new NYC area GOP Congresspeople in double digit Biden seats will kibosh some of this nonsense.
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Senate control not being on the line will depress turnout in the Georgia race from both sides. I’m not sure which side it will hurt more.
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I’ve heard the same, and it’s certainly not just Sinema & Manchin. I believe that Carper and Coons both still support the filibuster. Tester & Angus King aren’t entirely on board with getting rid of the filibuster but want filibuster reform. Feinstein also says she’s for filibuster reform but maybe not for filibuster abolition.
Honestly, getting rid of the filibuster might be a non-starter because you might need 60 Dem senators in order to have 50 true anti-filibuster senators.
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Now with the senate majority decided, I hope we see a new batch of nominees next week. Hopefully The White House had a list for if Republicans won the senate & one for if Democrats held. If we can get another batch next week, those announced could be in a SJC hearing on December 14th assuming in addition to Tuesday’s hearing, there is another hearing on November 30th.
If I had to guess, there will be nominees for the 1st & 4th circuit blue state seats. For the district court I can see two Illinois & one Colorado nominees since those senators have already released the list publicly. We could also see nominees from California, Maryland or Michigan too.
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I suggested this last week. In addition to the 1st and 4th, I hope Biden nominates someone for the 5th, Cruz be damned!
Schumer indicated that the lame duck will be mostly about judges judges judges. I hope tonight’s results don’t make him procrastinate until next year. Very doubtful that Biden will get to Trump’s number, but we shouldn’t be sitting on nominations for too long.
On another note, am I the only one who’s *ultimately* OK with Ron Jon’s blueslipping of Pocan? Setting aside Johnson’s duplicity, Pocan’s too old. Besides, Ron Jon indicated that he’d consider supporting someone else from the list of 4 that he and Baldwin sent to Biden. Krista Ann Halla-Valdes, I think. Biden shouldn’t have picked Pocan. When Pocan’s nomination is sent back to the WH at the end of the congress, Biden should try to get someone else from that list past Johnson.
(Also, Ron Jon was always going to win, but especially against someone who fumbled on Abolish ICE t-shirt. Although, maybe Ron Kind could’ve won. Unknowable.)
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@Gavi
My guess would be the 5th circuit pick won’t be in the next batch if it comes out before the runoff (Which I pray it does). With the uncertainty of 50 or 51, I truly believe Biden has two list of nominees & is waiting to see which list to chose from. Of course 50 can still get anyone confirmed, but with Manchin up for reelection in 2024, I fully expect some no votes on judicial nominees from him over the next two years. Hearing two home state senators scream at the top of their lungs in the SJC about the pick from their state might be enough to get his first no vote so I think once a 51st senator is clinched, Biden can hopefully nominate a 40 something (If not in their 30’s) progressive Latina to the seat with the understanding that Manchin may vote no.
As for being ok with Ron Johnson shenanigans with Pocan, if you sit me down in a closed room & fill me with Sodium Pentothal then my answer would be yes I’m happy about it. Pocan was the worst pick out of the 4 recommendations simply based on his age alone but we all know he was picked because of who his brother is plus maybe because he would be the first LGBT Wisconsin judge. Of course Krista Ann Halla-Valdes would be a way better pick with her being younger & a federal defender.
But publicly my answer to your question is no. I say no because we have to stop letting Ron Johnson be Ron Johnson. He held up a 7th circuit Wisconsin seat for years with Obama when there were still blue slips for those seats & Trump eventually filled the seat. He also held up Obama Wisconsin district court seats as well. I would even be less upset about it if Wisconsin had two Republican senators but there’s a Democrat in the other seat. If Warnock wins. Durbin absolutely should remove blue slips for Johnson & a few others as well. Maybe not in January, but by the Summer if they don’t change their tune, which they won’t.
@aangren
My guess is had Democrats lost the majority, Manchin would have probably gone ahead & voted yes on every nominee probably except Rinkleman. If Warnock wins, I would expect her & probably Dale Ho to wait until January to be confirmed so he can vote no peacefully with them still getting confirmed.
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I was one of those who thought that Dems would lose the senate. Everything pointed to that. We can argue whether Dobbs changed the forecast in JUNE. But what in February pointed to Dem holding their majority?
As I said, I’m really upset about how NY voted in congressional races. Dems lost some seat in the Albany but RETAINED their supermajorities. That was important for me. For me, the congressional losses are more about what they say about areas that are close to me. After Tim Bishop lost my district, I got used to Zeldin, even after voting against him every chance I got. I thought that he’s probably the only one who could hold it. When he announced his run for governor I got really nervous because I dreaded this outcome — a local popular Republican running statewide carrying another crop of Rs on his coattail. And so my beloved LI was deluged under the red wave. I can soothe my sorrow with the fact that my district in the city is as blue as ever.
There is one inaccurate take, that because these are Biden+ seats they should have been won by the Dems. That’s not how LI elections work. Dem presidents often outrun Dem congressional candidates. Much like the Valadao district in CA. The amount of times I thought, yes, this will be the year we beat Peter King, only to come up short. NY tends to be susceptible to out party wave elections.
Sean Patrick Maloney is awesome! Nationally, the red wave didn’t happen! He doesn’t get some credit for that? Most of the pundit class predicted a blowout. As far as I know, no one on here is a professional pollster or prognosticator, so we are using data prepared by someone else and the data pointed to SPM being very unsuccessful in his defense of the Dem House majority.
In the whole, I do agree with Shawn on being happy that the House flipped to R. I think 4 straight years of Dem Trifecta would put a lot of pressure on them to deliver some serious results. With Rs in charge now, thankfully by a very small margin, Dems can point to gridlock and hope that’ll help them blunt the bad 2024 map (for the Senate).
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While I don’t claim to be a Democrat Party cheerleader, I’d be glad to see SPM be gone if I was. Example A: He spent 0 money on the race that saw John James win by an very narrow margin in MI, which could have been won with more resources available to the Democrat, yet poured in a ton of money to the race in AZ where thanks to redistricting Tom O’Halleran had no chance to win. As it is, that matters practically nothing to get judges confirmed in the next two years, but I think in this case progressives are fair to criticize SPM.
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Two things:
1 – That criticism is only fair if you don’t understand the foremost role of the DCCC. The DCCC is tasked with RE-electing incumbents. And since campaign resource is only finite, they have to triage. Nothing invites ex post facto sage advice and takes like a defeat. Gosh darnit, if only they had done things the way I would have.
2 – “I’d be glad to see SPM be gone…”
SPM, is a congressman first and the head of DCCC secondly. You might disagree with his handling of DCCC as chairman, but what’s your criticism of him as a congressman?
While we are at if, Dems is losing the House by about a margin of ~4 seats when most other predictions had them lose by a blowout. Does he get any credit for that? Or is that victory an orphan?
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“First of all GFY Mike, this is not a Democratic Party blog.“
Lol Shawn, I’ve seen kids bawl their eyes out at grocery checkout lines with more maturity and restraint than anything you’ve said over the last 11 months.
It’s a testament to everyone else’s temperament that they simply ignore and skip over your many deranged posts. But unlike Zack and the others here I have no issue being banned from comments for telling you what an absolute cancer you are here with your Trump sized ego.
Everyone has such an immaterial opinion of you that no one bothered to tell you how completely psychotic you sound with your repeated warnings here to the PRESIDENT and SENATE MAJORITY LEADER to do what you want or you’ll give a Republican $50.
It would be funny if it wasn’t a clear sign of your obvious disassociation from reality (Shawn, is Chuck Schumer in the room with us right now?) and your innately toxic (if not downright abusive) personality on any poor soul with your actual presence in their life.
I assume you’re the way you are because too many or not enough people have told you this: You’re a a piece of garbage Shawn and this place is worse off because of you.
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It is great to see dems retake the senate, i am really hoping warnock wins, hope dems and black voters don’t let up one bit, we need to be able to successfully vote out all biden nominees and not have them lingering in commitee for months like abudu and ho.
Question: With democrats winning is it all but a certainty
dale ho and rinkleman and every judicial nominee announced thus far wins?
The fact that mcconell cant stop any judicial nominee is something so sweet, thats a huge victory, less hacks like ho and more judges like perez and H.A thomas
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IMO, Manchin knows he’s likely a goner in 2024 so I don’t expect him to be voting no on most nominees.
Still want the outright majority because then it will be far easier to confirm judges without worrying if they’ll be deadlocked etc.
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Manchin’s best hope is the combination of a good economy & another Trump backed crazy opponent in 2024. Perhaps he can squeak out a victory that way. But if anybody sane such as the West Virginia governor is his opponent, then he’s likely toast. Between there, Montana, Nevada & Sinema in Arizona, Democrats really need Warnock to get them to 51 to help offset any 2024 losses.
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Indeed and as some of us have already pointed out, an outright majority means not having to worry about being down a senator or seeing good nominees like Dale Ho or Arianna Freeman get deadlocked in committee.
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Yeah, 2024 is not a good setup for Dems. Dems have 8 Senators up in red or swing states. Manchin, Tester, & Sherrod Brown are all in red states, and if they all lose the Senate could be red for a very long time.
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I hope we see minimal retirements from cabinet secretaries & other executive branch members after the midterms like we usually see. The less time the senate has to spend confirming them is more time they can focus on confirming judges. Already we have the resignation of the head of the Customs & Border Patrol.
Now that the new head of The White House Counsel has been in place for months, I am hoping the vetting process is shortened for nominees. I went & looked at the SJC questionnaires for some of Trump’s circuit court judges. Some of the time frames between initial contact with the home state senator to the date they were announced was less then 3 months. Biden will need to mirror that as additional vacancies start to be announced. I’m hoping after 2 years, they have a running short list for every vacancy for any circuit court judge eligible for retirement. @Ethan on this blog has a great list so if The White House Counsel’s office doesn’t have the same, they aren’t doing their job well.
Finally, any district court vacancy in a blue state should have a nominee by the end of March, PERIOD. Yes California, I’m looking at you. It is the middle of November. This country just rejected Trumpism against all midterm trends & odds. To have a vacancy in your blue state today & not have a nominee by the end of March is disrespectful to all of us that helped keep the majority in Democrats hands. The only vacancies on April 1st that should not have a nominee are those not vacant today & those in a red or purple state.
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On another note, since we spend so much time speculating on who might be nominated for judgeships, let’s change it up and speculate who might run for Senate in 2024. The map for the Democrats is terrible. Their only chance for a flip is Florida, and the chances are slim. Republicans have the chance to flip Montana and West Virginia. They’ll definitely try in Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin too.
There aren’t any Democrats that have announced that they are definitely retiring. I obviously hope Feinstein retires. I think she could lose a primary anyway. In retrospect, thank goodness she beat Kevin De Leon last time though. If she does retire, a lot of people have thrown out Katie Porter’s name. I’d love to see her in the Senate, but I do worry that the Republicans could flip that seat if it were open. She’s also a single mother, which may impact her decision. Barbara Lee is amazing and we need a black woman in the Senate again, but she’d be 78 by the time her term starts. Another black woman whose name has been tossed around is San Francisco Mayor London Breed, but I’m not a big fan of her. Ro Khanna and Adam Schiff have also been mentioned. I’d prefer Khanna as he’s younger, progressive, and would be and only the second South Asian Senator ever.
In Arizona, I’m sure Sinema will lose a primary challenge if she runs. Congressman Ruben Gallego’s has publicly toyed with running, and I think he will. Other people have suggested Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego (Ruben’s ex-wife) and Tucson Mayor Regina Romero (she’d be only the second Latina Senator).
Ben Cardin and Tom Carper also might retire. Cardin will be 81 in 2024, and Carper will be 77. Jamie Raskin is definitely favored to be the nominee in Maryland. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a black woman, has also been mentioned. If Carper retires, I’d be shocked if the nominee is anyone other than Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, another black woman.
I’m also disappointed that Debbie Stabenow plans to run for re-election in Michigan, as the Michigan Democratic party has so many younger rising stars including but not limited to Congresswomen Elissa Slotkin and Haley Stevens, Attorney General Dana Nessel, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, and State Senator Mallory McMorrow.
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That 2024 Arizona election is going to be fascinating for sure. I fully expect Gallego to run and if he does it’ll be tough for Sinema to hang on.
I used to be a fan of hers because she finally flipped an Arizona seat but honestly four years later her star has completely tanked.l do you poor decisions on her part. I think she was banking on a red wave and the DNC pivoting to the center and backing her. Now with 51 senators and Kelly significantly outrunning her 2018 victory, she is likely in for a rude awakening.
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I doubt any Democrat senator other than Feinstein will retire in 2024. None of the names you mentioned have given much of a hint at doing so. Of course, if the economy & their things take a turn for the worst that could change their minds. But I think the environment will look better 2 years from now.
I know I’m probably in the minority here, but I do not think Sinema will lose in a primary. I think she will tone down her shenanigans over the next two years. Let’s be honest, besides her over the top attitude & refusal to eliminate the filibuster (Which we aren’t even sure there are enough votes even with her vote), I think she’s not that far off from the mainstream of the party. And to my surprise, she’s not only voted 100% for all Biden judicial nominees, but her one recommendation Roopali Desai is amongst the best of Biden’s circuit court nominees so far. I am not sure how Arizona voting works, but if Republicans are allowed to switch over to vote in the Democrat primary, I actually expect her to win even more then me not knowing the answer to that.
I 100% agree with you Ethan. In retrospect, thank goodness Feinstein beat Kevin De Leon. I wanted him to win so I am happy I didn’t get my wish. As for possible replacements for her if she decides to retire like I believe she will, I’ll go through the names you mentioned.
Katie Porter – She would be great. Her House seat is a tossup even with her running, so I’m not worried about her leaving the seat to run for the senate.
Barbara Lee – She would be great & as you said the senate needs a black woman in it. I believe Lee was the only no vote against the war in Iraq. If I am correct, she has great political courage which is really needed in the senate. Unfortunately, her age is a major drawback.
London Breed – Hell no. As a matter of face let me write that in all caps so you can hear me screaming it… HELL NO. She is too conservative & I hope she gets primaried for mayor.
Ro Khanna – He would be an absolute rock star in the senate. And he’s young in addition to being progressive. He would definitely be a presidential possibility in the future.
Adam Schiff – He would be great as well. Of course, being a white man would hurt his chances against many of the others that would run.
As for Debbie Stabenow, she wasn’t going to retire anyway. After the results in Michigan, she probably definitely not be retiring as the electorate has shifted to the left. The Republicans can run the black guy, I think his name is James (By the way did he win his House race) again & just like two years ago he will lose again.
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@Dequan. I’m totally with you on London Breed. She might be the only one who’d be worse than Feinstein. If Democrats keep the House and Fetterman becomes that 51st vote to reform the filibuster (even if not completely eliminate it), people might forget Sinema’s shenanigans, but early polls show her losing a primary in a landslide. I actually do think Cardin and Carper could retire though.
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I absolutely would rather Feinstein remain in the senate instead of London Breed. She’s in her 80’s so while I wish her good health, let’s be honest she won’t be in the senate after another 6 year term. Hopefully that would be enough time to get a better front runner to replace her. If London Breed becomes a senator in 2025, she likely would be the senator for decades. I can only imagine the judges she would recommend.
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Yes Dequan, John James finally won a race. I think by only 1500 votes or so in a district that voted for Trump. I hope he runs again because Stabenow would smoke him.
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Uuuggghhh… Well I guess congrats to John James. If he’s smart he will stay right where he is & not vacate his seat to try for the senate again.
On another note, it looks like Brian Fallon doesn’t agree with some of us on this blog about Justices Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan should retire.
(https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-democratic-hands-clears-path-biden-keep-remaking-courts-rcna56753)
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Stabenow has name recognition, and she did about 5% better than Gary Peters (both against John James in 2018 and 2020, respectively). Michigan is definitely still a Dem leaning state, no Republican has won statewide since 2016. Ditto Pennsylvania, no Republican has won statewide since Trump & Pat Toomey in 2016.
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I’m glad the election is over (mostly) awaiting on some House races and Arizona governor..
I spent Tues night watching returns….I had MSNBC on downstairs (listening) but spent most time watching those live interactive NYT & WAPO maps as they were getting filled in…..I just kept going from state to state to see how results were coming in..
Now we can get back to the business of confirming some judicial nominees, of which there are a lot to confirm……I hope Schumer files cloture Mon on several as the senate is back this week, but probably off next week for Thanksgiving
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For those of you that want to keep track of the judges that are eligible to retire before 2025…
(https://ballsandstrikes.org/senior-status-tracker/)
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Yea..if Republicans had won control of the Senate, Biden would have either had to do Orrin Hatch type deals where he nominated conservative judges in order to get liberal ones through(Clinton had to do that quite a bit) or more likely, judicial confirmations would have just stopped altogether.
We don’t have to worry about that but it would still be nice to have Warnock for the outright majority which will make confirming judges a breeze.
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I didn’t even realize it til now but the nominations hearing is Tuesday this week, not Wednesday.
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/11/15/2022/nominations
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Now that Vincent L. Briccetti has announced senior status next year, I hope Schumer & Gillibrand recommend Jorge Rodriguez for the seat. Of course I would rather judge Hurd would just retire like he initially said, but if not, then at least Rodriguez can get that seat if he doesn’t mind moving to Manhattan. Honestly, it’s probably a promotion anyway as the Southern district of New York is probably the most prestigious district court in the country.
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I would think the only issue is Rodriguez has closer ties to the Northern District then the Southern one but I would still like for him to get a shot that was wrongly denied to him.
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Agree with you 100%. The issue is not qualifications, it is simply that there are candidates just as good in the S.D.N.Y. who have more ties to the area.
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@Frank, not if you are specifically looking for candidates with ties to the Westchester County (White Plains) area, where Briccetti’s duty station was. But then again, probably lots of lawyers who work in Manhattan that I don’t realize live in Westchester.
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To me, jurisdiction isn’t as important when you’re talking about the NYC area because geographically the area is all relatively close. It’s not like you’re talking about NYC versus Buffalo for example. At the end of the day, if the two home state senators sign off on it, the nominee could live on the Moon & it wouldn’t matter. Now I am not saying I think he will be the nominee, but I think it would be sweet justice if he was. Thankfully we have two more years for Hurd to leave the bench however he can.
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This is precisely my position. It’s nobody else’s business. If the nomination is good enough for the home senators and the president, it’s good enough for me. I’ll have none of these NON-statutory requirements. If you feel so strongly about it, lobby congress to put it into law. Until then, it’s meaningless.
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Plus, Schumer has already shown us he doesn’t care about what part of the state a person is from. When a vacancy occurred last year on the 2nd circuit, a lot of people on this blog was saying it was an “upstate seat”. I was on the record as saying I bet Schumer recommends somebody from NYC because that’s where the best candidates for a Democrat president are. He did just that.
The idea that you have an A+ candidate passed over for a C candidate just because they live in a different part of the state isn’t as important today as it once was. I’m happy about that. I want the best person for the job regardless of their area code.
Jorge Rodriguez is a special case in my view. He was already announced for a district court seat. On top of it he’s a really good nominee. He’s young, Hispanic & fairly liberal. Sure there are other really good candidates from Manhattan but I don’t think 177 miles is enough of a distance to say the man has no ties to the area & shouldn’t be considered. I hope he is the nominee. If he is not, it should be because Schumer recommends a rock star of a pick like Joshua Matz (born c. 1986) for instance.
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Ok, this is too funny not to share… Haaaaa
(https://mobile.twitter.com/nagy_minaj/status/1591875101192081409?cxt=HHwWgsC-1Y3-vJcsAAAA)
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@Dequan. Do you agree that Democrats don’t do a good enough of job pushing back against the GOP narrative that Democratic appointed judges are partisan hacks while GOP/ FedSoc judges just interpret the law as it is (outside of SCOTUS nominees)?
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I don’t think Democrats do a good job pushing back on several topics including that & the judiciary as a subject overall. But I will say they have vastly improved over the past 2 years. I expect even more improvement now. I think the Trump judges overturning so much precedent & over ruling so much of Biden’s agenda is finally getting Democrats & progressives to focus on the bench. It has been my focus ever since my first vote was not counted when I voted in Miami-Dade in the 2000 presidential election. It took two decades but the party is finally catching up.
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Speaking of Miami-Dade County, I saw someone suggesting that Democrats need to make more inroads with the Haitian community there. As someone who lives there, do you agree? I know that the Latino community in Miami-Dade County is much more conservative than the Latino communities in other areas since many of them came from communist countries and they continue to (wrongly) associate the Democratic Party brand with socialism.
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The problem for Democrats here is multi fold. The biggest problem is when a conservative bought one of the biggest radio stations down here a few years ago. I said back then that would result in gains for Republicans, albeit I didn’t know it would be this much & this fast. The majority of my friends are Hispanic & many of them who aren’t even political send me stuff all the time that I usually can debunk or disprove in a matter of minutes. When I get the same thing from more then one friend then I can tell what’s being said over the Spanish speaking stations for the past day or so. M
But besides that, Democrats really have an infrastructure problem. When I first moved to Miami in 2000 I wasn’t involved in politics at all. The only reason I voted in the 2000 presidential election in the first place was because volunteers were all over FIU where I went to college at talking to students. I don’t see much of that anymore. I saw it both times Obama ran but not much since.
Of course two decades of losing will suppress some voters as well. But yes reaching out to Haitian voters would be good, but bottom line is the South Florida community is so diverse, you really need a broad outreach. But I would put the Spanish speaking misinformation on radio stations as the number one problem in my opinion here.
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Very thorough analysis. I’ve heard that there’s also a lot of disinformation WhatsApp in addition to radio stations.
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Democrats need to get their ground game back & outreached improved in Texas, Florida & Ohio. A Democrat can win The White House even if they lose all 3 but a Republican can’t win the presidency without winning all 3. If they can just pick off one then it virtually guarantees a Democrat victory. Well that is of course if New York doesn’t swing another 6 points. Andrew Cuomo should be barred from ever crossing over The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge ever again.
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All 3 of Texas, Florida, & Ohio are solid red states. Florida is much redder than it was in 2020. Texas & Ohio could be winnable by Dems but it would be tough; Greg Abbott & J.D. Vance’s victories show that even with good candidates it’s hard for Dems to win a red state.
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The easiest way for Dems to win the white House in 2024 is to go for the same states they won in 2020. Michigan & Pennsylvania have a slight D lean, Wisconsin & Georgia have a slight R lean, Arizona & Nevada seem to be true tossups.
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Now that the posting issues seem to have been resolved, I will be weighing in on my thoughts about some of the judicial nominees we’ve seen, especially since they’re all likely to be confirmed at this point.
I
‘ll start with Maria Kahn of the 2nd Circuit.
As with others, I’m not thrilled at the fact someone who was in her late 50’s was nominated, in large part due to the fact that it could come back to bite us in the butt like it did with Gerald Lynch and Chris Droney, both of whom were in their late 50’s when Obama nominated them over a decade ago.
As we saw afterwards, that bit us in the butt as Lynch took senior status the minute he turned 65 to be replaced by a right wing Alito clerk while Lynch retired outright and while his replacement isn’t a complete hack, he’s still a hack.
I get why Biden did what he did with Beth Robinson but here I suspect there was a reason he and others went with Kahn instead of others.
And that is the fear Jose Cabranes would do what Robert King or David Hurd did and pull back his senior status if a younger more liberal jurist was the nominee, as he is easily the most conservative Democratic Circuit court judge still in active service.
Hence Kahn and while she won’t be a flaming liberal, she will still be world’s better then Cabranes is and will actually give us a 7-6 moderate/liberal majority on the 2nd Circuit.
We should all be happy with that.
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Hi Zack Jones
I’ve heard that same argument before. That is a good case but there is one problem with it. There were TWO vacancies for Connecticut when Cabranes announced senior status. Biden chose to nominate Sarah A. L. Merriam to the other seat. Had he nominated her to Cabranes seat & left the other one vacant, then if he rescinded his retirement Biden could have just renominated Merriam to the other seat. If all went well, he could have nominated anybody to Cabranes seat sine the other judge was a Democrat appointee. That was the real error.
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Can someone tell me the current state of Biden’s consultations with Republican Senators on home-state circuit court picks? I know Republican Senators no longer have a veto power like they do with district judges, but does Biden still take their preferences into serious consideration in making circuit court picks?
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@Shawn
Yea Nancy Abudu I agree would look good for Warnock to deliver on. I actually wish he would go to Schumer & tell him he needs that. Schumer would confirm her in 2 days.
@Jason
Sure, here is the answer I can give you based on SJC questionnaires & other new reports.
1. Andre Mathis – Biden forwarded his name to the Tennessee senators. They countered with Camile McMullin who was about 14 years older & more moderate. The senators staff interviewed Mathis. The White House nominated him instead of the senator’s choice. They screamed they were not consulted but all accounts show that is not true. The one Democrat error was Durbin did not send the senators blue sips before scheduling the hearing. He apologized for the error.
2. Doris Pryor – According to her SJC questionnaire, the Indiana senators reached out to her. So clearly there was consultation here.
3. Dana Douglas – Cedric Richmond reached out to her. She did interview with the Louisianna senators (By phone I believe).
4. Rachel Bloomekatz – Senator Brown reached out to her. There were two women vetted for the position. I could not find anywhere that she interviewed with the Republican senator. I know Brown objected heavily to some of the Trump nominees to the 6th from Ohio so I wouldn’t be surprised they didn’t spite him on purpose here.
5. DeAndrea G. Benjamin – This is what I wrote below… It looks like Jim Clyburn waited about 2 weeks after J Childs nomination for the DC circuit was sent to the senate before he reached out to DeAndrea G. Benjamin regarding the 4th circuit. And nowhere on her questionnaire does it show she met with either senators Graham or Scott which is surprising.
6. Jabari Wamble – He was recommended by his father-in-law Rep. Clever. We have not seen his SJC questionnaire yet, but we did get a statement from senator Moran. It didn’t sound like a harsh statement, but it was also non-committal.
7. Anthony Johnstone – It looks like senator Tester recommended him. I believe there was minimal consultation to senator Daines. Daines released a statement that was much stronger than the senator Moran statement I mentioned above.
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I understand what you’re saying but at the end of the day, getting Cabranes to senior status where he’ll be less likely to hear cases is worth it.
I will say this going forward, I hope Kahn is the last Circuit Court nominee in their late 50’s that we see, especially if Warnock wins and we have an outright majority.
Because I fully expect to see a lot more retirements going forward of most of the Clinton/Obama judges that are able to take senior status, along with a handful of George W judges and George Sr Judge Ilana Rover of the 7th Circuit, who is easily the most liberal Republican judge on the bench today.
I will be shocked if she doesn’t take senior status in the next couple of years.
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I fully agree with you that I hope Khan is the last circuit court nominee by Biden in their mid 50’s or older. I just wish there were less out of his picks already. But yes I’m thankful for two more years either way of additional judges.
Is anybody else a little gitty to see the confirmations start back tonight after over a month off? I’m excited. Oh & yes I also fully expect to see some Republican circuit court retirements in the next two years as well. Fill those sssts
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Yes, especially knowing that time isn’t as much of an enemy as before.
I will say I don’t expect a ton of Republican judges to retire besides Rover, maybe Milan Smith of the 9th Circuit and Harris Hartz on the 10th but that’s about it.
The remaining judges from the Reagan years. aren’t going to leave the bench unless a Republican is in office or via death like Judge Michael Kanne did.
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Yes very glad to get back into the swing of things. I had been wondering which of the many many district court nominations would have to be prioritized in the case of losing control, so I’m glad that’s no longer necessary. Let them come up in whichever order is fine now.
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Fill those seats indeed!
I have my fingers crossed tightly that Judge Johnnie Rawlinson (9th) will indeed go senior and Judge Robert King (4th) will take senior status after all. But of course, not at the cost of them choosing their successors. If that’s the case, I’d rather them stay active until they are ready to die. With CCM’s reelection in Nevada, Dems retain full control of who’d replace Rawlinson.
I am not naive. I know that there are going to be disappointment along the way, just like in the past two years. I just hope that those disappointments are few and far between and not as consequential as a Childs on the DC Circuit or a Ho not on the 2nd. Or certainly no more Chad Meredith!
I cannot wait to see the vote margin for the confirmation of Julie Rikelman! 50+1 is all I care about!
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@Gavi
I completely agree with every word
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We have six for tomorrow’s SJC migrating. Now that Dems clinched the senate, I figured they would split the two circuit court nominees up. Wamble should get his hearing the week after Thanksgiving.
(https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/11/15/2022/nominations)
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A very diverse mix of nominees. I think that Judge Ballou might get a voice vote, as no one has any problems with him. Colleen Lawless is also not controversial.
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With the Senate back in session today, I was curious to see if Colom’s nomination had officially been sent over from the White House. Interestingly, the US attorneys nominated the same day were sent but his nomination was not. I hope that doesn’t mean there’s a blue slip holdup/reconsideration.
Also I’ve been watching the cloture vote on cspan2. It’s fun to see the senators all congratulating Kelly and Hassan with hugs and fist bumps. It could’ve had a whole other feeling coming back to town.
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I noticed Colom’s name wasn’t included in todays names sent over to the senate as well. I just can’t imagine The White House nominating a liberal black man in his 30’s without getting consent from the two Republican home state senators. Especially before the midterms when it looked like Dems might lose the majority. That would be INSANE.
And yes it’s so good to see them back on the floor voting, I am most. Interested in seeing if Warnock is in town or not. That & if Schumer will send a cloture motion to the desk are the two things I’m mostly looking for.
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Well, we’re off to a great STOP in the senate….No cloture motions filed today, confirmation vote tomorrow on the District Court nominee….And they’re off next week..
Come on Schumer, you don’t have a 64-36 majority..No time to waste
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Schumer filed cloture on the motion to proceed on the Respect for Marriage Act. I figure we won’t see much movement on judges this week with Warnock presumably out all week.
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Most of the judges awaiting floor votes would get the usual suspects (Collins, Graham, Murkowski) to vote for them….We’ll need Warnock for discharge votes, but Schumer could have moved on other ones…..Or, and I always forget this, since he filed cloture on Respect for Marriage Act, that prevents him from moving on more nominees I believe?
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It looks like Jim Clyburn waited about 2 weeks after J Childs nomination for the DC circuit was sent to the senate before he reached out to DeAndrea G. Benjamin regarding the 4th circuit. And nowhere on her questionnaire does it show she met with either senators Graham or Scott which is surprising. Graham would be the Republican senator I figured would have the most consultation.
(https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Benjamin%20SJQ%20Public%20Final.pdf)
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Text of SSM bill:
Click to access KIN22420_1114.pdf
They are reported to have 60 votes! I just don’t know if that includes Warnock, which would require him to be there to vote on the motion to proceed.
Do you think that this vote will factor in the GA runoff at all?
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I imagine they have the votes even without Warnock, there must have been several Rs that were silently in support and asking for a vote after the election.
I’m fine with judges taking a backseat for the rest of the week, this is such an important bill for millions and to do it before Thanksgiving will be tremendous.
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The GOP is 1 seat away from taking the House, so I think the Senate should work on getting legislation through (gay marriage, Electoral Count Act reform, budget) and then the Democratic senators will have nothing to do but confirm judges (and an executive official here and there) next year.
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One question I’m not sure the answer to. If the House impeaches somebody, is the senate required in a certain amount of time to consider the charges & vote on them? Like for instance can the House just impeach a different cabinet member & the president every week for two straight years & the senate be required to stop all other work & focus on the charges?
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I’m honestly not sure. I suspect that if the Senate could decline, McConnell would try to wiggle his way out of holding a Trump impeachment trial (McConnell was able to delay the trial after Trump’s 2nd impeachment so there may be some grounds for that). The Senate confirmed several executive nominees (and a bunch more by voice vote) in late January before the trial for Trump’s 2nd impeachment began.
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I’m expecting we’ll see a batch of nominees in the next couple of weeks.
I will say with the remaining vacancy on the 7th Circuit I fully expect Indiana’s senators to be far less cooperative on a nominee this time given that unlike Doris Pryor who is replacing Obama Judge David Hamilton, whomever Biden nominates this time will be replacing a well known conservative jurist and thus flipping the seat.
At least Durbin hasn’t been a fool like Leahy was on blue slips for Circuit Court seats.
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I actually think the Indians senators will be more cooperative for this vacancy now. Sure before the election they were dragging their feet hoping for the majority to flip. But now that Dems will remain in the majority, the senators know they can’t drag their feet for two years.
Doris Pryor was a genius recommendation. She was a black woman in her 40’s that was a former federal defender. However she wasn’t overtly a liberal & she was only a federal defender for less than two years so she was acceptable to the senators too.
If they were smart, they would recommend somebody like Mario Garcia or Zackary Myers, knowing that they would be acceptable to the administration while not being overtly liberal. If not, Biden can wait 8 months or so, show Durbin he tried to negotiate in good faith to no avail & then ram Jessica Eaglin down their throats.
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