Michael Delaney – Nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

Former New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney has built a wide variety of legal experience that equips him for a federal appellate position.

Background

Born in Danvers, Massachusetts on July 19, 1969, Michael Delaney received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the College of the Holy Cross in 1991 and then received a J.D. from Georgetown University in 1994. Delaney subsequently joined Wiggin & Nourie in Manchester, New Hampshire.

In 1999, Delaney joined the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, being elevated to Deputy Attorney General in 2004. In 2006, Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, chose Delaney to be his Chief of Staff.

In 2009, Delaney was confirmed to be New Hampshire Attorney General, replacing Kelly Ayotte. He held that position throughout the Lynch Administration, leaving upon the election of Maggie Hassan in 2012. Since 2012, Delaney works with the Manchester office of McLane Middleton.

History of the Seat

Upon the recommendation of New Hampshire Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, Delaney has been nominated for a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. This seat opened when Judge Jeffrey Howard took senior status on March 31, 2022.

Legal Experience

Delaney started his career at Wiggin & Nourie in Manchester, where he briefed and argued actions before the New Hampshire Supreme Court. See, e.g., Simonds v. City of Manchester, 141 N.H. 742 (1997). See also Mason v. Smith, 140 N.H. 696 (1996). He subsequently shifted to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office, where he rose to become Senior Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Homicide Division. As Assistant Attorney General, Delaney continued to argue before the New Hampshire Supreme Court. See, e.g., State v. Almodovar, 145 N.H. 541 (2000).

In 2006, Delaney became chief counsel for Governor John Lynch, a role which he held until he was appointed to be Attorney General.

From 2009 to 2012, Delaney served as the Attorney General of New Hampshire, an appointed position. In this role, Delaney:

  • Spoke out in favor of the death penalty in New Hampshire. See Kevin Landrigan, New Hampshire Commission Examines Costs to Carry Out Capital Punishment, The Nashua Telegraph, Dec. 5, 2009.
  • Supported a comprehensive plan to cut New Hampshire’s rate of prison recidivism, which included increased funding for treatment. See Kevin Landrigan, New Hampshire Panel Backs Plan to Reduce Prison’s Revolving Door, The Nashua Telegraph, Feb. 9, 2010. The plan was signed into law by Lynch. Kevin Landrigan, Lynch Inks Sweeping Jail Reform Bill, The Nashua Telegraph, July 1, 2010.
  • Opposed expanded gambling in New Hampshire. See Kevin Landrigan, Governor Cites Casino Concerns, The Nashua Telegraph, Mar. 26, 2010.
  • Secured a $60,000 settlement after a 2009 oil spill on the Souhegan river. See Kathy Cleveland, 2 Oil Firms to Pay $60K to ‘09 Spill, The Nashua Telegraph, Feb. 9, 2010.
  • Fought efforts by the Republican state legislature to force his office to challenge the Affordable Care Act in court. See Kevin Landrigan, Legislative Lawyers, AG Before Court, The Nashua Telegraph, May 24, 2011. The New Hampshire Supreme Court sided with Delaney and indicated that he did not need to join the lawsuit.
  • Criticized “stand your ground” laws, arguing that they can lead to greater citizen harm. See Kevin Landrigan, No-Retreat Law Under Scrutiny, The Nashua Telegraph, Apr. 3, 2012.

Since 2013, Delaney has been in private practice. In this role, he was hired to conduct an independent review of Keene State College’s investigation and termination of Gino Vallante, who was accused of making sexually explicit remarks to members of the basketball team. See Meghan Foley, D.C. Lawyer Retained Plans to Investigate Keene State, New England College, The Keene Sentinel, N.H., May 8, 2014. Delaney’s report found a pattern of sexual harassment. Law Firm Report Sheds Some Light of Keene State Coaches’ Dismissals, The Keene Sentinel, N.H., Mar. 27, 2015.

Writings

While working as a Senior Assistant Attorney General, Delaney authored an article discussing a prosecutor’s ethical obligations when making media statements in relation to homicide prosecutions. See Michael A. Delaney, Attorney General Article: Public Comments from the Criminal Bureau: Navigating the Uncharted Waters of Professional Conduct Rule 3.6, 45 N.H.B.J. 49 (Spring 2004). In the article, Delaney notes that prosecutors are held to a higher standard as other attorneys with relation to trial publicity, given their roles as “ministers of justice.” See id. at *51.

Political Activity

Delaney has an extensive history of giving to New Hampshire Democrats, including Shaheen, Hassan, Lynch, and Rep. Chris Pappas.

Overall Assessment

Throughout his career, Delaney has developed expertise in both criminal and civil law, and is well-respected in the New Hampshire legal community. As such, he should be a relatively uncontroversial selection for the First Circuit.

119 Comments

  1. Uuuggghhh, not a bad pick but certainly not a pick that blows my socks off. Out of all the blue state circuit court vacancies, this was the one I would have bet on day one of the Biden presidency we would get a White man in his 50’s for. I would have won that bet. But he’s extremely qualified so I wish him well.

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  2. Bench isn’ very deep in New Hampshire, but I would’ve preferred Dartmouth College General Counsel Sandhya Iyer. She’s AAPI and used to work for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

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  3. Agreed that Delaney isn’t a groundbreaking or particularly exciting pick, but Harsh’s write-up suggests that he’ll be a standard center-left Dem nominee (my guess is that he’ll be where Heytens on CA4 is). I still think this is pretty par for the course for NH’s senators – I doubt Shaheen/Hassan would’ve recommended the Dartmouth lawyer somebody mentioned above over Delaney, who they definitely know from being in NH Democratic politics together. My theory is that other than a few exceptions, most Dem senators still treat appellate nominations as rewards for their campaign counsel or other lawyers who have helped them. More progressives should look into getting involved with senators’ campaigns – Rachel Bloomekatz should be the model here.

    Importantly, this is a flip from R to D – though Howard was probably one of the most moderate Republican nominee still on the bench. If Kayatta goes senior next year, Biden will appoint 5 out of 6 judges on CA1 and cement an all-Dem court for at least a generation. CA1 is not inclined to issue high profile partisan decisions like CA5 or CA11 (which makes sense given the composition of SCOTUS), but I wonder if the influx of new judges will motivate them to be bolder.

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  4. I actually like this pick a good deal minus the death penalty stuff, but that was nearly 15 years ago so maybe he’s evolved some. Seems well qualified and should be a consistently liberal vote on that circuit (not that it matters a ton anyway).

    Age is a possible concern but he’s only 53, so should be able to hold that seat for 15-20 years at least. And given his background I wouldn’t anticipate him retiring under a Republican president/senate.

    In my book I’d put him at a B+

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  7. Agreed, it’ll be nice.

    If my calculations are correct we’ll only have Colom and Brailsford who haven’t gone before the committee, so I’m hoping we get a batch of nominees tomorrow.

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    • @Joe

      Yea Colom and Brailsford pending what’s going on with Wamble. If we have all three in the next hearing then that’s all red state nominees. I suspect with the amount of red state seats left, we will see that again before the end of Biden’s term.

      Either way it is GREAT to see six nominees at tomorrow’s hearing. As you said we just need another batch (At least 8 new nominees) to fill the next two SJC hearing slots with the 2 or 3 current pending nominees after tomorrow.

      Multiple confirmations, six in tomorrows SJC hearing & Feinstein retiring is an awesome start to the week. Three days left so let’s keep the good times rolling.

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      • Doesn’t there generally need to be four weeks between announcing nominees and them being in a hearing? If we get nominees tomorrow as a lot of people expect, the next hearing on 3/1 or 3/8 may be very light on nominees, especially if there’s a blue slip holdup on Colom and Brailsford.

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      • I think the dreams of three hearings in March have been dashed even though mathematically it was possible. Instead of three hearings on 3/1, 3/15 & 3/29, at best we will see two.

        And I still have not been able to find if Hyde-Smith has returned her blue slip for Colom yet. Even if we got a new batch tomorrow with 8 nominees, the best we can hope for are hearings on 3/15 & 3/29 at this point.

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      • The thing about the 10th circuit vacancy is it took well over a year to get Wamble as the nominee. I can only imagine how long it will take to get another one. I just read the SJC questionnaire for Mike Delaney. He stated senator Sheheen reached out to him about the vacancy last February 2022. He replied & interviewed with her staff the same month, yet the White House didn’t announce him until January 2023.

        If it is taking 11 months for blue state circuit court seats to get announced even when the home state senator reaches out to the prospect almost immediately after the vacancy is announced, I am scared to think how long it will take to fill the 10th circuit with an obstructionist MAGA Republican senator.

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  8. The reported comments in support of the death penalty leave me very cold, but otherwise Delaney seems to be fairly unremarkable and serviceable nominee. I agree with Hank that he comes across as Toby Heytens’s New England cousin.

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  9. Hearing rumors around Washington that a 5th Circuit nominee announcement is imminent, and that it’s no surprise an Hispanic woman, and if I had to guess I’d say it will be District Court Judge Marina Marmolejo.

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    • My guess from the beginning was Marina Marmolejo first or Diana Saldaña second. I truly hope Biden is smart enough to only nominate a district court judge if it comes with a package of nominees to fill most of the vacant district court seats as well. If not, then he should go with a fire breathing young progressive. If Cornyn was telling the truth two weeks ago in the SJC then it sounds like him & Cruz are trying to play ball & work in good faith, so I expect something similar to what we have seen with the Indiana senators.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. This is an awesome thread that has all the Dem-appointee holds and flips (but only for the courts with named *nominees* as of early January). Everything we already know, but it’s nice and convenient to see them all in one place:

    With Gina Méndez-Miró’s confirmation there’s no more active Carter judges on the courts for the first time since his presidency. Think about that. The man stopped being president way before I was born but only today the replacement for the person (Carmen Cerezo) he put in that seat was confirmed.
    This is why youthful judges matter. You can’t serve 41 years if you are already in your 60s!

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    • OMG @Gavi, great great point. There have been six presidents since Carter left office, four of which served two terms, yet today was the day his last judge was replaced. Amazing stat & drives home the point many of us have been trying to make. For the six or so judges that resign early, there are hundreds of judges that wait until they can retire or take senior status to leave the bench.

      Liked by 1 person

      • @Dequan

        I haven’t seen any pictures of Delaney.

        This is a safe, conventional choice. The principle of Do No Harm was key to this nomination. The only possible weakness is that he’s never practiced Federal law. But if Delaney shows knowledge of Federal law, he’ll be confirmed without much fuss.

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      • I like that the People Parity Project is coming out forceful against a nominee they don’t like (I actually was emailing back & fourth with that very group last week about a separate judicial issue). I wish them, Demand Justice, the American Constitution Society & others did it more often. I just don’t see how this issue will be enough to get two no votes for this nominee.

        He is far too experienced to fail Kennedy’s pop quiz tomorrow. I see his hearing on par with Anthony Johnstone’s, which should be fairly uneventful tomorrow.

        Oh & I’ll post his as well as the rest of the nominees pictures in Wikipedia tomorrow during the hearing. The pictures from the SJC are the easiest to get licensing from. Believe it or not Wikipedia is very strict with what pictures you can use which is why I just wait for the hearings to post them.

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      • Why not. If most people can be at the top of their profession then why not. If you’re an airline pilot & can fly the biggest plane with the best routes at the age of 35 then you have no issue taking that job & staying there until you have to retire. Same thing if you’re a lawyer unless you just are in it for the money & want the biggest paycheck. I guess that’s why somebody like Paul Clement never became a federal judge despite him probably sitting on the US Supreme Court today if that is really the career path he wanted back when GW Bush became POTUS.

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      • @Dequan, indeed.
        These are clearly unserious posts by that commenter. Hence my responses in kind. Reminds me of that person who was a huge Judge Hank booster, remember her? Like, I am happy for you and your unshakable opinions on old judges. Good luck with that.

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      • Haaaaaa… Oh yea, I remember her. She was hilarious at times actually.

        But seriously, after the last four years, if any progressive or Democrat thinks the response should be to put nominees in their mid 50’s or older on the bench just isn’t getting why the courts are in the shape they are in now.

        Like I’m not against all older nominees such as Beth Robinson but they should be few & far in between. Especially on the circuit courts & blue state district courts.

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      • Let me make it serious. This loose talk about people’s ages (too old) you can be fired for saying stuff like that in a workplace. If a you were a manager or supervisor you could be sued saying people are old or whatever.

        You would be on your way to meet one of these judges you are opining on.

        Liked by 1 person

      • @shawnee68

        Yes you are correct. At a job telling somebody you can’t have a job because they are too old would be serious business. But you are by no means bound to nominate a federal judge based on their age. The president has the prerogative to nominate whoever he chooses with the advice & consent of the senate.

        If the voters don’t like who he nominated then they can fire him 4 years later. People like us are not bound by the same rules for advising or giving opinions about judicial nominees that we would be at our jobs. They are two completely different scenarios.

        Liked by 1 person

      • @shawnee68

        All judicial vacancies including red state district court seats? If so then WOW. Maybe senator Cornyn was telling the truth two weeks ago in the SJC. I know senator Kennedy said the names The White House sent over were unacceptable but I can see them working it out.

        I’ll be surprised if the Florida vacancies get filled without a deal including Rubio’s big donor’s nephew he’s been trying to get nominated since Trump. I would guess Alabama, Arkansas & Missouri are lost causes but I would love to be wrong.

        As for Kagan retiring, yea I would agree with you on that. She’s not even eligible for senior status so to think she would just give up her dream job without so much as a post card, let alone lifetime retirement check is crazy talk.

        Sotomayor is a different story. While her case isn’t as urgent as RBG & Breyer’s were, she is at least eligible to retire. I hope she gives it serious consideration next year.

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      • So let me try to keep track. You think being a judge is like being in any old regular job for 40 years; like driving the same car for 40 years; like any old workplace where you actually have a right against discrimination. Here’s my suggestion: lock up all 45 presidents, former and current, long dead and still living. Every single one of them has made nominating decisions based on a candidate’s age. No matter how much you hate it, this fact is unassailable.

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  12. SCOTUS’s will retire on their own timetables & will not be forced out due to age (hence RBG), or based on who’s President. So having debates about would’ve should’ve could’ve is pointless to me.

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  13. As many of us have pointed out, this sounds like one judge replacing another but this will be a socially conservative judge being replaced with a moderate one.
    That matters, as the en banc hearing today regarding trans issues shows.

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    • Schumer didn’t send any cloture motions to the desk today. That means no one judicial nominees will be confirmed that haven’t already been announced until at the earliest the first week of March since the senate is out AGAIN next week. After that they are in session four straight weeks so the main events should be able to get confirmed during that time.

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    • We may see some if this happens as stated by Senator Braun from Indiana…..

      When asked what his advice was for other Republican colleagues looking to deal with the White House on nominations in their states, Braun suggested finding middle ground.

      “I’d say find some at least middle-of-the-road, slightly conservative nominees, and it’ll probably go pretty smoothly, especially from a conservative state,” Braun said.

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    • Madison Alder always writes great articles. It’s good to see the responses from senators Rubio & Scott about Florida. I am also happy to see senator Kennedy sent some names to The White House as well. It is interesting that would have the 56 pending vacancies without a nominee, only two are from purple states. So 54 will either be dealing with two Democrats or two Republicans.

      From the article mixed in with interviews I & others on this site has said they have seen from administration officials, we could see a good chunk of those 56 vacancies with nominees by the Summer. And of course additional vacancies will continue to arise.

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      • Yep I’d not be surprised if the next batch is a mix of blue and red state nominees. I think the Brookman and Brailsford nominations may set the tone for them going forward. Colom may have been an experiment to see how they’d respond, and no response from one senator may just be a delay tactic to drag things out, who knows. It’s frustrating to watch this blue slip dance play out behind closed doors. If they’d just nominate a bigger batch, we’d have a better sense of who’s in good faith and who should be ignored.

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      • Yes & like Rubio alluded too….The WH needs to give serious consideration to candidates put forth by red state Senators who have been vetted, interviewed, & recommended by their Bi-Partisan (Republicans, Democrats, & Independents alike) Judicial Selection Committees, that consist of some of the most seasoned & well-regarded attorneys from across their respective state. Otherwise, I can see how the Senators would feel frustration over the fact that they are doing all this work for not. But what I would have a problem with is Red State Senators recommending candidates to the WH of their own making or choosing without utilizing a fair process such as a Bi-partisan selection committee.

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  17. It’s tough when two Senators of the same party have totally separate recommendation processes for their State. Sure you can take the nominees from Rubio’s panel, but there’s no saying Scott will support any of them and they currently still need both blue slips.

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  18. With the number of vacant seats in the Texas districts, I wonder if an agreement on the 5th circuit vacancy can be worked out. If Biden agrees to promote Marmalejo would Cruz/Cornyn go for a 3 centrist D/1R split to backfill the district seats?

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  19. I normally give my recap of the entire SJC hearing but the Delaney panel 1 portion was brutal so I’ll give my recap on that alone first.

    In his opening statement, Delaney brought up the case in question brought up by the People Parity’s Project. Senator Durbin immediately dived into giving him an opportunity to respond to the allegations. Senator Graham then questioned him on his relationship with senator Ayotte.

    Senator Kennedy steered his questions to a manner where he was giving Delaney an opportunity to defend himself. Senator Blackburn then questioned him in a completely role reverse from senator Kennedy saying she had concerns that may be disqualifying. She accused Delaney of witness tampering & witness intimidation multiple times despite him denying it. She invoked judge Todd Edelman’s name while ripping the nominee & said she will not be voting for Delaney.

    Senator Lee continued to rip him over the case. Senator Tillis later lightened the mood with a quick joke after being skipped over twice by mistakes from Chairman Durbin.

    Senator Hawley them ripped into Delaney about the case. Hawley pointed to the family of the then 16 year old girl was sitting in the audience. Delaney outright “respectfully” disagreed with Hawley. Hawley then read the girls letter to the committee.

    Senator Cornyn asked Delaney if he disclosed the sexual assault case on his SJC questionnaire. Delaney then answered no & explained his reasons why.

    Senator Cruz started off his remarks by saying “Mr. Delaney, this hearing is not going well for you”. Cruz flat out said Delaney was lying. Cruz then said “Mr. Delaney, there is a reason virtually every Democrat has skipped this hearing, they are embarrassed by this nomination”.

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  21. Yea…if there is a nominee where it could be back to the drawing board, this will be it and honestly, I wouldn’t object to it.
    Outing a sexual assault victim isn’t something you are required to do in defense of a client, it’s something you choose to do and his defense of it fell flat.
    We know Republicans are hypocrites on this issue but Democrats shouldn’t be.
    There is enough time to get another nominee here and in this case, it should happen.

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  23. I’d love to get another nominee for this seat (ideally a more proven progressive), but this faux-“outrage” by the likes of Blackburn, Hawley, Lee, and Cruz (probably four of the least credible people in the Senate and the world when it comes to victims of sexual abuse. See, e.g., Kavanaugh, Brett) are hardly going to sway any Dem senators – especially when Hassan and Shaheen have continued to back Delaney. I believe the Boston Globe article that reported this did include a statement from Hassan and Shaheen in response to this that was basically like “despite that, he’s still great and a big advocate for abuse victims” or whatever.

    I agree that his actions in this case are a major red flag though, and it seems like karma is coming back to bite the NH senators for simply picking someone based off of connections. That being said, folks on this blog take these nominations far too seriously rather than seeing them for the theatre they are.

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    • For me, much of the SJC outrage is usually theater & often fake outrage. I will say the SJC hearing has only twice swayed me to vote no on a Biden nominee if I was a senator. Those two were Christine O’Hearn & Charnelle Bjelkengren. I would have voted no on Childs & Pan based on other reasons. I’m the case of Delaney, I would have to take a closer look at the case but I will say I don’t see the concern in his case as fake outrage versus other cases, notably the KBJ hearings.

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      • The opposition from the victim’s family and the People’s Parity Project is justified. Cruz/Hawley/Lee/Blackburn? About as real as their claims that Republicans nominated fair, balanced jurists.

        If I were Durbin, I would’ve pointed out that these are serious allegations but that what I’m most embarrassed by is the fact that any of the four above are in the Senate, let alone on the SJC.

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  24. (Apologies for typos, I’m writing this while multitasking and on the go.)

    Hearing slots
    It’s sad that it’s happened, but I am not surprised that the WH’s pace of nomination means that one of the March hearings slots will be unused. This sort of thing should never happen, but, of course, we have 2 years, so by all means, let’s go slow.

    Article
    Great article by Alder, as usual. Again, it’s consistent with what most Republicans have said about the lack of outreach/response on district court vacancies.
    I’m don’t share your optimism on the potential Florida nominees. Those senators are some of the most partisan, never-compromise-with-Dems senators. So while we might get nominees for those vacancies, expect them to be only a little better than Chad Meredith. If that’s the case, I’d prefer leaving the seats open. And if you don’t think Rubio is as bad as Scott, remember that Rubio recommended the infamous Aileen Cannon and came out strongly in her defense her widely panned ruling in the Trump documents case.

    Michael Delaney
    Not a big fan of this nominee but I think Dems should see it through. The St. Paul’s case and the (growing?) opposition is getting to be a big deal. The GOP’s motion argument is so disingenuous and it’s easy to fall for their bogus claim.
    That said, if this case causes the nomination to stall in the senate, I think Biden should absolutely withdraw it and move on with terrible speed. This nomination is already unreasonably delayed and so we shouldn’t waste any more time than is necessary. Maybe the Kelly Ayotte endorsement will put him over the line (with the Graham-type senators; really only 3 GOPers).

    (In this week’s super pedantic moment: I chuckled loudly at Judge Marian Gaston’s procedural due process comment. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a nominee mention this outside the context of contrasting it with substantive due process. This seemingly simple comment leads me to think that Gaston would have wiped the floor with Kennedy’s bar exam questions if he’d asked them of her. She’s gone up in my estimatiton.)

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  25. I had thought Monica Aladani was going to get grilled for her past work at the ACLU, but she only got a question or two from Sen Kennedy, basically one of his bar exam questions…

    I think she’ll be confirmed rather easily

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  26. Seeing the nelson vote live on cspan and durbin has had convos With both NH senators for quite some time. Its clear delaney blew it. His name should be Withdrawn. A black or hispanic person please given the seat

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    • Hopefully the New Hampshire senators gave Biden at least two names. Since it took 11 months from first point of contact to nomination according to Delaney’s SJC questionnaire, if two names were given I would assume both were better & considered.

      That would lead me to believe if the nomination was withdrawn then perhaps we could get a second nominee in short order. Particularly if the nominee was somebody known to the administration such as Dana Remus.

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      • My personal pick has always been Gilles Bissonnette (born c. 1981). He clerked for a GW Bush judge & is a White male so he could please some Republicans. He is the Legal Director of the ACLU of New Hampshire so he would definitely please progressives. I’m not sure how well connected he is to the senators however.

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  28. Adrienne Nelson is replacing Michael Mosman, a conservative who convinced Lewis Powell to uphold anti-gay sodomy laws in Bowers v. Hardwick. This will be a massive move to the left. I’m surprised that Mosman let Biden pick his successor.

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  29. Here’s my recap from panel two…

    Cummings got chocked up talking about the Michigan State shooting. Senator Graham questioned Gaston about a brief she co signed stating not allowing sexual assault criminals to live near schools could cause homelessness for them.

    Senator Hirona then fired back at an early claim by senator Cruz saying no Democrats were present at Delaney’s panel. She said she would advise him to get his custom checked.

    Senator Kennedy then questioned Gaston about the same brief Graham questioned her on. He then asked Ramirez about qualified immunity. He then gave a pop quiz to Hunt who knocked her answer out of the park. He asked Hsu a question who knew what the question was about but stated he never worked with precedent involving that case. Cummings also answered his question with flying colors. He then inquired to Ramirez what The White House did to prepare them for this hearing. She said they gave her material from past hearings & Kennedy asked which senators were the ones asking questions in the material. She answered a lot were from senator Kennedy himself. He & the committee had a good laugh.

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  30. https://gothamist.com/news/lasalle-state-senate

    1: I told you so.
    I predicted that Andrea Stewart-Cousins may have to relent and grant a vote in the full senate. Now she has. It’s always cute when people unfamiliar with NY politics tell you about how they think it works. To head off a lawsuit brought on by the Republicans, Stewart-Cousins lined up the votes against him and brought up the nomination.
    2: Thank God that nomination failed. We can finally move on from LaSalle.
    3: The biggest loser is still Hochul.

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    • Yes yes yes yes yes… A complete & utter embarrassment for governor Hochul who has officially replaced Louisiana governor Edwards (Who at least has a reason to be bad since he’s governor or a red state) as the absolute worst Democrat governor in the country. Anything that makes her look bad I am all for.

      Now she can go ahead & make a second bad conservative pick & hopefully the Democrats can stay united & defeat him as well. She is an absolute disaster & I wish her nothing but bad things politically until she is out of the governor’s mansion.

      Liked by 1 person

    • Also, as I predicted, when it comes to judges, the GOP knows a good thing when they see it. So they voted for him. Whereas some on here said they wouldn’t in order to make Hochul look bad. What? That was always such a ridiculous hot take, which is borne out by their final support of him (lawsuit and vote).
      Republicans never go for short term political gain over long term judicial strategy. Not int he US Senate. and not in state courts. When will we understand that.

      I am over the moon about this historic rejection. Now let’s start this thing over again. At this point I’d be resigned to accepting the elderly Edwina Richardson-Mendelson.

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      • Now THAT I was wrong about (Am I happily admit I was wrong). I thought the Republicans would provide the votes to confirm him. He is the absolute worst pick Hochul could have made. He was #1 on the worst list. Now of course with her being a complete & utter disaster, she will now pick #2 on the worst list, but I figured they would just go ahead & vote to confirm him to make sure they get the worst.

        Happy I was wrong. Now she will pick the next worst nominee & hopefully Democrats stay united against him as well. I’m fine with the court being divided 3-3 until she runs out of crappy nominees to pick.

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    • What gets me is that some folks think what happened in NY was Hochul versus progressives.
      The centrist wing of the party was opposed to him as well and why she choose Lasalle as the hill to die is something I don’t get.
      Having said that, I do think folks need to brace themselves for the fact the eventual nominee likely won’t be as progressive as folks want or have unified opposition like was done here.
      In the mean time, celebrate this victory, a bad nominee was defeated and we’re better for it.

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  31. If the White House doesn’t send some new nominees soon, they’ll be playing blackjack or talking about fantasy football at the next SJC nominations hearing because there won’t be any new nominees to process.

    They’ve pretty much cleared the calendar, the ball is in the WH’s court to send new nominees

    Liked by 1 person

  32. I would rarely recommend federal Democrats getting involved in random state drama but at some point Schumer/Jeffries/whoever need to have a come to Jesus meeting with Hochul and ask her what the hell she is thinking. She is still early on enough in her term that she could recover from this with the general public. All she has to do is nominate a mainstream Democrat that the committee has recommended and then stay out of it. But her current shenanigans are hurting the party and, indirectly, the entire country as well. Just embarrassing behavior by her.

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      • For starters she almost lost the governor’s mansion in an election in which Democrats over performed in just about every other state besides Florida. While I do not live in New York I have plenty of family & friends that do live there. Between them plus what I can see on the news, New York seems to be in bad shape on numerous issues. From crime to the city of Buffalo not being able to handle a snowstorm, it seems from top to bottom the state is in worst shape today then the day she took office. Not to mention she picked a Lt. governor that had to be removed from office & probably will be indited so, so much for bringing integrity & competence back to Albany.

        But this one decision alone would be enough to put her at best #2 on the list of worst Democrat governors. Her trying to appoint anti-choice & anti LGBT justice’s moves her right past governor Edwards.

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      • Everything.

        Cost down-ballot Dems
        The Buffalo snowstorm response
        Veto solid bills
        Poor or nonexistent legislative outreach
        Continuation of Cuomo’s machine style politics
        Failure to hold the State Dem Party accountable (Jay Jacobs!!!)
        Fight against fellow Dems more than against GOP
        Besides the LaSalle nomination, I can never forgive her for making Dems lose ground in my home turf of Long Island, which will only get worse

        Like

    • Actually, Schumer was wise to stay out of it. The taint of this nomination won’t affect him. Jeffries, on the other hand, was all in and even rallied for LaSalle with Hochul.
      There’s nothing Hochul can do to make a lot of us regain confidence in her leadership. As I say before, she could solve world hunger or world peace and I would still vote against her in 2026.
      The only problem for the Never-Hochulers like myself is we don’t yet have a viable alternative. The natural person would be Tish James, our AG. But, unfortunately, James was also all in for LaSalle. This is a shame. I’ve met her and seen her work a room. She’s a natural. Maybe if she disavows her former support for LaSalle I’d reconsider. Otherwise, I’d have to hold my nose and vote for Jumaane Williams.

      Like

  34. As someone who lives in NY as well, I don’t like Hochul but a hard conversation has to be had on the issues of crime and a couple of problems with bail reform, mainly in that there needs to be a way to detain repeat offenders or folks who have shown they will be a threat to public safety until they have a trial, issues a lot of NY Democrats are being perceived as not caring about, which is why they lost ground in Long Island among other places.
    Yes, Hochul ran a crappy campaign and deserves to be called out for that but she alone didn’t cost us in swing districts.
    The mentality of some NY Democrats who pushed ideas like defund the police and their perceived indifference to victims of crimes did as well.
    IMO.

    Like

  35. Wow, I just read about this hearing and the Republican attack on Delaney caught me off guard. Seven Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee didn’t show up for the hearing and Ted Cruz said they were embarrassed by Delaney’s nomination.

    Like

  37. I wonder what is going on with the vacancy in Arkansas? I had predicted that Cindy Thyer, a veteran Greene County Circuit Judge, would be nominated. Her husband was U.S. Attorney for Eastern Arkansas during the Obama Administration. But she was recently elected to the state Court of Appeals. Maybe she’s not interested.

    Right now, I think the name to watch is Patricia Harris. She’s a Magistrate Judge with a pretty traditional background, a former AUSA and former intern to then-Senator David Pryor.

    Like

    • @Mitch.
      1. I don’t know about Senator Boozman, but I can’t imagine Senator Cotton has seriously tried to negotiate with the White House. He has threatened to block all of Biden’s DOJ nominees.

      2. The vacancy in Arkansas is in the Western District with a Fort Smith duty station. I think that does matter in this situation, as between the three seats on the Western District, one is based in Fort Smith, one in Fayetteville, and one in El Dorado.

      The only name I have on my radar for the Fort Smith area is Leigh Zuerker (born c. 1969), a judge on Arkansas’s Twelfth Judicial Circuit (which covers Fort Smith). She was a county public defender prior to becoming a judge, which I think is the best we can hope for in Fort Smith.

      Like

  41. Back to judicial news…

    This article touches *very* superficially on the Colom nomination. More substantively, it reports on the DA elections in Mississippi and the new judicial segregation happening in that state’s capital of Jackson. It still amazes me that so many black people still live there. I’ve never visited Mississippi and you couldn’t paid me to.

    https://boltsmag.org/mississippi-jackson-new-district-and-prosecutor-elections/

    Bolts is a great “new” publication. This is it’s wheelhouse. Daniel Nichanian is an absolute journalistic treasure on these kind of reporting.

    Like

    • I’m reading the Democrat in Mississippi that is related to Elvis & has his same last name had an outsize chance of beating governor Teeves. Of course he will probably lose in the end, but with legislation like this combined with a lot of corruption, scandal, economic hardship & events like the water disaster that happened last year & you meager know. It will take a perfect storm but Georgia had to start turning blue one day & look at it now.

      Like

      • Mississippi is actually the state with the highest percentage of African Americans. There are a LOT unregistered to vote. Plus they have an increasing Hispanic population. I’m not saying it will turn purple anytime soon but I think with the perfect storm & a Stacey Abrams type effort you could see some change in the future.

        Like

      • I keep saying, demography is NOT destiny!
        Mississippi has always had a large black population. Always. And it was a majority black state until after Reconstruction and the start of Jim Crow when blacks started to leave on the Great Migration.
        The black vote has always been suppressed in one way or another.
        If minority population equates to Dem victories, Texas would have been blue already, Nevada wouldn’t be a swing state, and Florida wouldn’t be going in the absolute opposite direction. But all those states would go bright blue before Mississippi turns the slightest shade of purple.
        I fully expect Tate Reeves to win reelection.

        Like

  42. @ Dequan

    Looking at your post about Mississippi, I can’t help but to think when Obama was in office in Jan 2009, Democrats had senators in 2 ! in North Dakota, 2 in Arkansas, one in Nebraska, one in Louisiana, one in Missouri, now seems like these states are practically lost causes in presidential and senate races.

    Of course now, though, Democrats have 2 senators in Georgia, 2 in Nevada, 2 in Colorado, and 2 in Arizona (well how about 1.5 in AZ)

    As far as today in senate, I bet they bolt town as soon as the 1:45 cloture vote is done…They will be gone by 3pm today I believe

    Like

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