Micah Smith – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii

Micah Smith, a former SCOTUS clerk, and longtime federal prosecutor, would bring a star-studded resume to the federal bench.

Background

Born in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania in 1981, Micah Smith graduated summa cum laude from the Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania in 2003 and then received a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2006. After graduating, Smith clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then for Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, in a clerk class that included Senator Josh Hawley, California Solicitor General Michael Mongan, and federal judge Rachel Kovner.

Smith subsequently joined the Washington D.C. Office of O’Melveny & Myers and in 2012 moved to be a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. In 2018, he shifted to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii, where he serves as Appellate Chief.

History of the Seat

Smith has been nominated for a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. This seat will open when Judge J. Michael Seabright moves to senior status on January 30, 2024.

Legal Experience

After his clerkships, Smith started his legal career at the D.C. Office of O’Melveny & Myers. In this role, Smith worked primarily on appellate litigation, handling a wide variety of issue areas. This included briefing at the Supreme Court, where he was part of the legal team for Antoine Jones, who successfully challenged the attachment of a GPS tracking device on his vehicle under the Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (2011). Smith also represented the D.C. Public Charter School Board pro bono in defending its decision to revoke the charter of a failing school. See KIMA v. D.C. Public Charter School Board, 55 A.3d 894 (D.C. Ct. App. Nov. 15, 2012).

Between 2012 and 2018, Smith worked as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Smith started as a line prosecutor with the office before advancing into a supervisory role. His notable cases with the office included a jury trial resulting in the conviction for conspiring to distribute crack cocaine in the Bronx. See United States v. Muir, 710 F. App’x 510 (2d Cir. Feb. 9, 2018). Smith was also co-lead counsel alongside fellow judicial nominee Margaret Garnett in the trial leading to the conviction of a defendant charged with ordering hitmen to murder his nephew. See United States v. Ventura, 673 F. App’x 82 (2d Cir. Dec. 15, 2016).

After moving to Hawaii in 2018, Smith has worked as a federal prosecutor. Smith has handled a number of supervisory roles with the office, to include the Criminal Civil Rights Coordinator and his current role as Chief of Appeals and Legal Strategy. While with the office, Smith notably prosecuted an individual for assaulting the patron of an illegal gambling business while working as security because the patron refused to share his winnings with him. See United States v. Siatunuu, No. 19-cr-00119 (D. Haw. 2019-21) (Judge J. Michael Seabright). In this representation, Smith litigated against Assistant Federal Public Defender Shanlyn Park, who has been nominated alongside him to the Hawaii federal bench.

Overall Assessment

While he is unlikely to get the support of his co-clerk sitting on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Smith nonetheless is likely to sail to confirmation. Given his youth and stellar credentials, Smith would likely also be a strong contender for future elevation, including potentially when Judge Mark Bennett takes senior status.

100 Comments

  1. This is an A+ nominee in my opinion & was my first choice from day one of the vacancy announced. And African American/AAPI left of center nominee in his low 40’s is straight out of central casting for what I’m looking for in judicial nominees. Due to Mark Bennett’s age, he actually would be eligible for senior status after 10 years of service so if he decides to do so, Smith would still be at a prime age for elevation.

    I must say over the past two administrations, the Hawaii senators have been amongst the best when it comes to judicial nominations. Under Trump, we got the aforementioned 60 something year old 9th circuit court judge Bennett. For the district court we got a judge that Biden himself could have nominated. And now we get Smith & Park nominated under Biden. It’s a shame there likely won’t be any more Hawaii vacancies in the near future.

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  4. I looked up the two cases mentioned that Smith prosecuted. Phillip Muir got 200 months for conspiracy to distribute crack and firearms trafficking offences in 2018.

    The murder for hire actually took place in 1995. Jose Ventura was a major drug trafficker whose son Kevin helped with the day-to-day operations. They both had Jose’s nephew murdered and killed a few other people. They got life without parole.

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  8. Quite an interesting coalition of Republican senators voting to invoke cloture on Jennifer Hall’s nomination: Budd, Cassidy, Collins, Cornyn, Cramer, Graham, Grassley, Lankford, Lee, Murkowski, Romney, Rounds, Tillis, Vance, Young

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  11. Thanks for sharing Rick.

    I have a question for those who have been following this a while. Did McConnell’s plea for more conservative judges to retire lead to many new openings. Just looking at the list of Trump judges it appears only 30 or so where confirmed after March 2020 and I assume many of them had already been in the pipeline.

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    • @Joe

      I don’t know if McConnell got a lot of judges to retire, but even if it’s a handful that still has an impact. One that comes to mind is judge Griffith. Not only did he retire from the second highest court in the last, he replaced him with a conservative Justin Walker in his low 40’s, & Walker was replaced on the district court by a conservative in his low 40’s. And of course retiring under Trump prevents any chance of Biden filling the seat in the future.

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  12. Yes, at a quick glance it appears Walker was the only new appellate judge that may have been appointed because of this plea. Cory Wilson filled a vacancy that had been open since 2017 and Thomas Kirsch too ACB’s old seat on the 7th.

    Maybe later today when I have time I’ll go through the 30 something district confirmations after 3/2020 and see how many of them were to new vacancies.

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  13. @ Dequan Joe

    Also remember when Trump came into office in 2017, there were tons of vacancies since McConnell only allowed 2 Circuit court confirmations and about 15 District Court confirmations in 2015-16.

    Democrats controlled the senate in George W Bush last 2 years but they moved a fair number of nominees including Leslie Southwick, who was controversial. They did not institute an outright blockade like McConnell did

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    • Definitely. And years later we will see people writing on this blog how Republicans ditched blue slips for district court vacancies too. That will be another norm they will exploit that Democrats should have done first & ill lead to more conservatives on the bench.

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      • One of my favorite days of the Obama presidency was around November 21 2013 when Sen Reid invoked the nuclear option to get those 3 DC Circuit judges confirmed.

        There is no doubt in my mind, had Democrats left those seats open, McConnell would have use the nuclear option in Feb 2017.

        Democrats should have invoked the nuclear option in the fall of 2009, instead they waited until late 2013.
        In 2009-10 they had 58-60 senators. It took a while to seat Franken since his election was very close..The Sen Kennedy got sick in early 2009 and never returned, he past away in Aug 2009. Even after the awful 2010 midterms, Democrats STILL had a 53-47 majority..

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      • @Rick

        Even better, do you remember the bs reason Republicans gave for not allowing Obama to fill any of the three DC circuit seats? They said because the judges were under worked & the court only needed 8 judges. That was despite both, them filling three GW Bush judges on the court & chief justice Robers (Who was on that court previously) saying the court needed 11 judges. Of course, when Trump had three vacancies on that court, we didn’t hear a peep from them about shifting any of the seats to other courts that had judges over worked.

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  14. I definitely remember that. They kept saying the DC Circuit doesn’t need another judge. Meanwhile that is a very busy circuit with very complex cases..

    Had Democrats not filled those seats, in early 2017 Republicans would have changed their tune – they would have said “you know upon further review the DC Circuit is an extremely important court and the American people want us to do our jobs and fill these DC Circuit seats. If Americans are to have their day in court every circuit opening needs filled”

    Then when Republicans are out of power they revert back “The DC Circuit is overstaffed and underworked and there is no need to fill any vacancies.. There are other courts that should be filled, but not the DC Circuit”

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      • @Frank

        Looking at senator Butler’s record, I would suspect she will be fairly if not very liberal. And that’s besides her being LGBT. Her resume includes the following;

        President of EMILY’s List.

        Butler ran political campaigns for Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

        For more than a decade, she served as the president of the largest labor union in California — SEIU Local 2015.

        Butler served as President of SEIU United Long Term Care Workers (ULTCW) and also as SEIU’s Property Services Division Director.

        Butler served as an SEIU International Vice President and president of the SEIU California State Council.

        Butler was named a “Champion for Change” by President Barack Obama.

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  16. What they also should have done when they did the nuclear option was get rid of the blue slip for Circuit court seats.
    It’s absurd how Ron Johnson was able to keep a vacancy that opened up in 2010 empty until Trump came into power.
    That along with so many other seats could and should have been filled by Obama.
    As to the other point, those who keep saying Democrats made a mistake with the nuclear option, not doing it would have ensured even more seats fell into conservative hands, especially on the DC Circuit where the argument about how there were too many judges would have been forgotten in a heartbeat.
    Reid did what he had to do.

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    • I’m not too worried about her working for them. As I’ve said in the past when grading judicial nominees, people have to make money. If somebody worked a good part of their career for progressive but worked some years for a corporation or big law firm to make money, that doesn’t bother me one bit. At least show me some progressive background & in Butler’s case she had a lot.

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      • Well, the incentive structures are different, certainly. She is now a Senator for the entire state, not an employee trying to keep the stock price up, which could make her more likely to take progressive positions. Still a good choice even if she doesn’t run.

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      • I just keep hanging my hopes in this is a five weeks in a row stretch the senate is in session so we really should see some movement even if we have to wait 2 weeks or so. Plus with Butler rep packing Feinstein I’m the senate & soon on the SJC, we really shouldn’t have as many attendance issues moving forward. Now the question is will we get another batch tomorrow, even if just a small one to avoid missing a SJC hearing in a month.

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      • I guess they want to get the senate portion of any bills out of the way. As long as we get at least two of the five weeks on judges I’ll be happy regardless of if it’s the beginning or the end. With four circuit court nominees pending I figure one week will be spent confirming them similar to September of last year. Then a second week knocking out most of the pending district court nominees. Trust me right now more nominees is the most important thing.

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  21. On a different note, we saw the confirmation of two more district court judges today, including Jennifer Hall from Delaware, even though the seat she will fill won’t be vacant for another two months.
    IMO, that’s because the DE district sees a lot of patent cases as well as ones involving corporations etc. and any vacancy, even for a short amount of time can cause major issues.
    Still hope not to see that kind of leap frogging going forward though.

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    • I think who the president of the country is has more to do with the two judges that jumped the line & were confirmed today more so than the heavy case load of Delaware. One of the two judges is from the president’s home state & the other is from the city the president was born. Schumer expedited the only other nominee, Gregory Williams, who fit in either category. He, like Hall & Munley was fast tracked past nominees pending for much longer. That’s how it works. You’re the leader of the free world, the nominees from your birthplace & home state get fast tracked… Lol

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      • Trump & Obama aren’t good comparisons. Obama was replaced by a Republican for his senate seat, so Illinois was a purple state for most of the first six years of his presidency & we all know Republicans were in the majority for his last two years. And of course, we know New York was a blue state all four years of Trump’s presidency. As you said he didn’t claim Florida as his home state until after he lost the 2020 election.

        On the contrary both Delaware & Pennsylvania are blue states & the senate is majority Democrat Biden’s entire term. So the only comparison would be GW Bush. The Democrats held the majority for the first two & last two years of his presidency & the third & fourth year it was basically split so the only comparison would really be late 2004, 2005 & 2006. So here’s a look at all of the Texas district court judges during that time frame with their nomination date first & confirmation date second;

        Micaela Alvarez: June 16, 2004 & November 20, 2004

        Gray H. Miller: January 25, 2006 & April 25, 2006

        Michael H. Schneider Sr.: May 17, 2004 & September 7, 2004

        Jane J. Boyle: November 24, 2003 & June 17, 2004

        So out of the four judges put on the district courts in GW Bush home stated under the same circumstances Biden’s three judges have been, it took a total of 20 months between the nomination & confirmation for all four judges. So yes, president’s get their home state nominees confirmed at an expedited rate if they have the home state full senate majority from the same party… Lol

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      • Forgot about Illinois having a Republican senator. Yeah I’m aware that Trump’s residence was NY for most of his presidency (though he officially declared Florida as his residence around Halloween 2019, before the 2020 election).

        GW Bush got a lot of 5th circuit picks from Texas as well as district court seats. It makes sense that a president wants to prioritize seats from their home state… I would make sure that all California seats are filled promptly if I were the president

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      • Another thing about the Delaware seat is that Judge Andrews cannot take senior status until December 22, by the rule of 80. So he couldn’t just leave a bit early even if he wanted to.

        I wish more judges were willing to wait until their successor is confirmed before taking senior status. A lot of judges did this at the beginning of Biden’s presidency, so I wasn’t as impatient about getting those seats filled. I wonder if any of the judges whose seats had been vacant for a year plus are regretting having taken senior status.

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      • Besides red states district court seats I don’t see a problem with all circuit & blue states district court seats that are currently vacant getting filled by the end of 2024. I think the wild card will be purple states. Maine I think likely will get filled. Without any change to the blue slip process I highly doubt Alaska or Montana will get filled.

        As for Wisconsin, there’s two White men recommended so if Biden works quickly & names one of them before the end of next month, perhaps that would be too much time even for senator Johnson to play his normal shenanigans. If the nominee isn’t named until next year I am almost sure Johnson will use the old,
        He needs more time to evaluate the nominee & then after stalling for months say it’s too close to the next election so let’s let the voters decide who fills the seat, routine.

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  22. I agree with Dequan, more nominees are sorely needed tomorrow. Even if it’s just a batch of 3-4 district nominees.

    At this point, after reading latest batch gets it’s hearing on Nov 1, there are only three remaining potential SJC hearing dates for the rest of 2023 (Nov 15, Nov 29, Dec 14). It’s absolutely imperative that we have a full slate at each of the three.

    I’m particularly interested in seeing some red/purple state nominees. I’d love to get a batch from TX, WI, SC, or FL. There’s a lot of potential seats there and I know those senators have at least some names to the WH. Wishful thinking, I know. I will be happy as long as we get a batch.

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    • Here’s what we either know or has been rumored for the red & purple state vacancies;

      Texas – Cornyn told reporters earlier this Summer that there were a “couple” of nominees going through the pipeline. More recently Cruz said they are shifting their focus to the El Paso vacancies because of the proximity to the border. There are three vacancies in El Paso.

      Florida – There were three rumored names for the SDFL. None of the three were Black woman so there was pushback leaving a court so large without a Black woman, so it appears the deal is on hold. There is a fourth vacancy so perhaps they are trying to get a Black woman acceptable to both sides.

      Wisconsin – Two new names have been recommended. Personally, I don’t trust senator Johnson any further than I can throw him until I see his blue slip turned in.

      North Carolina – A White man near 60 was rumored to be recommended by the senators. He’s a Democrat & may be part of a package deal for the other vacancy.

      Indiana – No names have been rumored but the Indiana senators have worked in good faith up to this point. I suspect we will see nominee for one, two or all three vacancies before the end of the year.

      Louisiana – The EDLA seat hasn’t officially been announced yet but it has been rumored. For now, only the one vacancy in the WDLA is official. Senator Kennedy was quoted earlier this Summer saying he thought there was a deal to fill all of the vacancies however all but one of the WDLA seats had a nominee announced. No reason was given as to why the nominee wasn’t announced but Kennedy & Cassidy have worked in good faith so we likely will get a nominee. I am surprised Stephanie Finley hasn’t been announced already. She checks all of the boxes. A Black woman, a former Obama nominee, former military, not too liberal & he is in her late 50’s.

      South Carolina – Two woman around the age of 60 were rumored. One Black & one White woman. My guess is Tim Scott has put filling the seat on hold while he is running for president.

      Missouri – Hawley actually said there were talks going on with the White House. I don’t necessarily believe it but now there are four vacancies on one of the courts so perhaps they can work out filling one or two of the seats.

      Kansas – I think it’s possible to get this seat filled since both senators & Biden agreed on Frederico for the 10th.

      Maine – No rumors but I definitely think Collins will work in good faith to fill the vacancy.

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  23. Sorry/not sorry to be the grumpy one, but it just irks me to no end the way Schumer is running this show. Voters gave Democrats another seat, against all historical precedent, and he is absolutely pathetic in terms of confirming judges.

    Most weeks that we haven’t had confirmations, we could have had. Even with absences, there have been nominees (and there still are some on the floor) who could have gotten some R votes to make up for D absences. While I agree that there are differences in quality and ideology among Biden’s nominees, part of this process is quantity. We need to fill as many seats as we can while we have Biden and a D Senate.

    Schumer could have moved some of the less controversial ones when there were absences so that when he’s at full strength, the only ones left are the high quality, progressive nominees. It’s ridiculous that Kenly Kato has been waiting so long for a confirmation vote. If the easier nominees were already confirmed, she should get a vote the first time there were 51 Dems in place.

    While the war in the Middle East is important, deserving of his attention and not able to be predicted, Schumer was present and voted today and could have teed up other district nominees or Ramirez (who will likely get R votes).

    Whenever I try to cut him a break, I think of how Reid or Robert Byrd would have handled this. My favorite Reid moment was when he took Ted Cruz’s delay on…something…to tee up and confirm 12 judges in one night in 2014, knowing Dems were about to lose the majority. Obama had only about 20 vacancies at the start of 2015, which is probably what really panicked McConnell and caused him to slow-walk 44’s nominees in 2015 and 2016.

    I wish I had @Dequan’s optimism about the next 4 weeks, but my original prediction of 180 by the end of the year is now looking way, way off. We’ll be lucky to get the 22 now on the floor. But hey, I’m sure we’ll get a press release soon from Schumer telling us how much he is going to prioritize judicial confirmations. Oh, and a fund-raising e-mail.

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    • Although most vacancies has been discussed here in detail, the ones in Tulsa haven’t been if I remember correctly, though the situation there is critical, at a court of four, two or half of the judges already gone, the third eligibly for senior status, and the fourth one is sitting on two other district courts. Nothing on attorneys here so far.
      Hence good news to see something is moving there.

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  26. Looks like a good batch to me. I’m a little miffed it’s only two, but thankful that we’re getting some red state nominees. On the surface, Sarah Hill sounds like a great nominee. As I said yesterday, we need to really get as many of those red state nominees in as we can now because it will be a lot tougher in 2024 because of the election.

    With Kirk Sherriff plus any holdovers from 11/1, we should now have a full SJC hearing on 11/15 at least. I’m looking to see two more good batches in the next four weeks so we don’t miss another SJC hearing this year.

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    • @Joe

      I agree, while two is a small number, but both were from red states that we hadn’t heard a peep about. That’s definitely a win. And neither seems to be a Republican so that definitely is a win. Here’s my initial recap on both;

      John D. Russell (Born c. 1963) – While he is in his 60’s, he doesn’t seem to be a Republican so that’s a plus for a red state with multiple nominees at once. He is a member of the Northern District of Oklahoma’s Criminal Justice Act Panel. & worked as a Assistant U.S. Attorney mostly under Clinton… B- (For a red state)

      Sara E. Hill (Born c. 1978) – She litigated for the preservation of the Indian Child Welfare Act in court. She was also secretary of natural resources. A Native American in her mid 40’s that seems to be at worst left of center is a phenomenal red state pick… A

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  28. These seem like decent nominees from what is easily one of the reddest states in the country.

    But can’t the WH ever have a list when they nominate more than 7 people.. And how about filling those circuit seats

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    • @Rick

      I am very surprised they couldn’t have picked between Gowen or Shelley for the NDIL being Durbin’s home state. Also I figured either the EDPA, EDMI or the SDNY nominee would be ready by now as well. But I’m not going to complain. Getting two Ruby red state district court nominees with neither being a Republican, including one being in my opinion an A, might be as good as three blue state nominees.

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  29. The main thing I’m wondering is that if the Oklahoma senators turned in their blue slip, or if these nominees are going to become 2 more Scott Coloms. I know that Biden has been working with some of the GOP senators on court picks, so I’m hoping that these nominations get confirmed.

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    • One of the Oklahoma senators has already released a statement of approval for both on Twitter. My guess is Biden will not nominate any district court nominees going forward without pre assurance that both senators have signed off on the nominee.

      @Gavi & myself actually had an in depth conversation on this blog about this in the past. Prior to Colom he said most White House’s do not use that strategy in the past. I said then that was completely dumb (Not @Gavi for saying it but the strategy itself). With Durbin showing no reluctance to change the blue slip practice, my guess is that strategy has come to a stretching halt as it should. I’m in favor of ditching blue slips altogether but if you’re not, let’s not waste time & nominate somebody that isn’t going to get a hearing.

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      • I am still a little confused why Colom was nominated in the first place. My hope is that at some point a deal can be worked out to get the Hyde Smith to sign off on him (perhaps pairing him with a favorable US attorney/Marshall or some other executive nominee). Barring that, maybe a Mississippi circuit court seat will open down the line.

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      • @Joe

        Apparently previous administrations would simply let the home state senators know who they were thinking about nominating, allow them to interview them then nominate them. Perhaps in the past this was an acceptable practice even with blue slips since senators use to mostly act in good faith to fill vacancies regardless of what Larry the president was in. Of course we know those days are long gone so I would suspect Scott Colom will be the last of those type of nominations for quite some time.

        As to your second point, I doubt a deal will be reached with Hyde-Smith for a U.S. attorney or marshal. Colom is a progressive Black man in his low 40’s while Hyde-Smith not only said she would happily attend a hanging, but do so in the front row. The best hope for Colom is for one of the two Mississippi judges on the 5h that are eligible for senior status to do so. Then we would have to hope Biden would have the guys to nominate Colom for the vacancy despite not getting both blue slips returned. Of course blue slips aren’t needed for circuit court nominees any more but as I have predicted in the past, I don’t think we will see Biden nominate anybody else for the rest of this term who doesn’t have both blue slips returned. I sincerely hope I’m wrong on that however.

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      • I don’t think there’s a snowballs chance in hell that Biden nominates Colom to the 5th in the event of a vacancy by one of the sitting circuit judges in that state. Biden and Durbin are scared of their own shadows, not to mention them being scared of causing faux outrage from GOP senators. I wouldn’t even call them crocodile tears because that would be being unfair to crocodile tears lol.

        Not one word was sent when Trump and McConnell told Dem senators to take long walks off short piers when nominating the fringiest of the fringe FedSoc individuals to blue-state circuit courts. Sens. Rosen, Cortez-Masto, Cantwell, Murray, Feinstein, and fmr Sen. Harris didn’t change any hearts and minds when they complained about the breaking of decorum and tradition. I bet you Biden and Durbin would rather support a consensus centrist bland late 50’s white male judge for that seat than to grow a pair of balls and put Colom on the fifth to spar with Ho and any other hack judge on that circuit.

        I hate to keep rehashing this point, but it really sucks seeing conservative rulings coming from the 9th, while there is a less than 5% chance of a fair ruling coming from the 5th circuit. The GOP can put hacks judges everywhere they want (FedSoc district court judges coming soon to NDCA as soon as they abolish blue slips with a R Senate and a GOP president) and we have to settle with decent nominees. That imbalance creates a right-leaning court system and not many judges willing to fight the complete hackery coming from the 5th and even SCOTUS. One of my favorite things was 9th circuit judges basically disregarding some of the shit Roberts wrote in his opinions and doing things the way they wanted to until SCOTUS openly reprimanded them. Have the courage to put liberal nominees everywhere you can and don’t fall for the fake outrage by most of the GOP senators. Can you imagine what would’ve happened if Durbin and Biden listened to Sullivan when he wanted to meet with each 9th circuit nominee prior to nominating them? LMAOO

        No speaker of the house and not as much legislation coming to be debated on and amended and we still can’t get more than 2 cloture motions sent every week or so. Pathetic. And I bet you Schumer will tweet about every confirmation like he’s doing something grand by filling a seat on NDIL when there are judicial emergencies in TX and FL that seem no closer to being filled than months ago.

        One side breaks precedent and gains power and the other side says “please” and “I do not like that sir”. To say I’m frustrated is an understatement. 200 is 100% in doubt by the end of Biden’s first term. Didn’t think I would be saying that after getting 100 in June of last year.

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      • @dawsont825

        Can’t argue with anything you said. I too doubt Colom would get rammed down Hyde-Smith’s throat if a vacancy on the 5th opened up but I would hope they would at least bluff. Perhaps they could work out a deal to get her to reverse her withholding blue slip & at least get him on the district court although the 5th is where he belongs.

        Thanks for your reminding of Sullivan’s demand to meet with all 9th circuit nominees. It still to this day makes me busy out laughing just thinking about the nerve to even suggest that let alone actually ask for it.

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      • There’s no way to know how the WH would handle a new 5th Circuit Mississippi seat. Biden has nominated 4 circuit judges (Mathis, Freeman, Johnstone, Bloomekatz) that didn’t get support from one of both home senators, so it’s not as if we can say he definitely won’t do it. The WH is probably quite miffed that Colom wasn’t given a SJC hearing, so I could see them supporting him as a way of righting a perceived wrong like they have with several failed Obama nominees.

        As far as getting to 200 I think it should be very straightforward. We are at 147 confirmed and with announced nominations (5 appellate and 28 district) that would take it to 180. Add in the remaining appellate vacancies and blue state district vacancies and that takes it around 205. And that’s assuming no new additional vacancies or red state packages, which we’ve seen.

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      • Yea I agree with @Joe. A Mississippi vacancy on the 5th (Depending on how early before the election it happens) tremendously increases Colom’s chances of getting on the federal bench, either circuit or district court. As for 200 judges by the end of next year, I fully expect Biden to pass that number. My threshold was alway 230 which is how many Trump had (234 – 4 who he nominated twice such as ACB).

        I will say I would be fine with Biden getting to around 210-ish if we continue in the mold we have seen so far. To date, I don’t think he has nominated a straight up Republican other than the International Trade Court which by statute he had to nominate one Republican. The nominees in Iowa, Idaho & Murphy in the EDPA certainly aren’t card carrying Democrats, but all more than acceptable for red states. Even todays Oklahoma nominees don’t seem to be Republicans.

        On the contrary Trump nominated several out right liberals and/or Democrats & not all were even in package deals. For instance he only put one judge on the district court of Rhode Island & that was a former public defender Democrat who of Biden had elevated to the circuit court I would have been fine with. And of course Biden did elevate Stephanie Davis to the 6th who Trump nominated. So if we keep getting non Republicans and/or conservatives from Biden, hitting the 210 – 215 rang would actually be better then Trump’s 230.

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      • For those interested, these are the current blue state/appellate vacancies. I may be missing one or two that have been announced but not yet posted on the federal site.

        3rd CCA
        4th CCA
        6th CCA
        SD New York
        ED Pennsylvania
        ED Michigan
        SD California
        ED California
        CD California
        D Rhode Island
        D Vermont
        WD Virginia
        ND Illinois
        D Arizona
        D Arizona
        D Oregon
        D DC

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      • @Dequan

        The only place he belongs is on the 5th circuit. Having him on the district court in Mississippi is that classic meme where there is a designer car in a little shithole house. He could pen the most articulate, well-thought out decision, and due to the bass ackwards ideology of the judges on the 5th circuit, his decision would get reversed and none of it would matter. Where he belongs is on the 5th circuit where he wouldn’t have to kowtow to James Ho or any of the other hacks on that court. His opinion and input would be meaningful and his dissents (for now *fingers crossed*) would be there for law students hoping to emulate him could read for decades.

        It really shouldn’t matter what that racist meemaw senator wants to happen. Tell her to kick rocks and ram a judge down her throat like the 10+ Trump and McConnell did to Senate Dems. Andre Mathis & Scott Colom wouldn’t match the disrespect shown by the GOP, but it would be a nice start. Now nominate a lefty to the 6th circuits over the objections of Blackburn and Hagerty and you’ll really pique my interest.

        Senators like Sullivan, Johnson, and Hyde-Smith are exactly the reason the blue slips will soon be gone. I completely understand not wanting an extremely partisan judge opposite the state’s senate delegation in one’s state, but to just plain old deny the president the ability to nominate judges is just wrong. As much shit as I give Durbin and a few other Senate Dems, they at least worked in good faith to fill their vacancies. Hirono and Schatz got an older moderate on their circuit court, that’s how it should be. Soon, due to the Senate GOP intransigence on judicial nominations, the home-state senators will have 0 say in judicial nominations. It’ll be outside groups with lists of names in each state and very little working across the aisle. You can thank the Senate GOP for that. (No one better not try to say that it was Robert Bork’s nomination that started it. They knew damn well he was a nonstarter). Judicial shenanigans escalated and now we’re in a period where nothing happens, and justice isn’t given due to politics.

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      • Yup I totally agree. The ink should barely be dry on the senior status letter from the 5th circuit before Biden withdraws Colom’s district court nomination & nominated him for the 5th.

        As a matter of fact, if I remember correctly when Colom was nominated for the district court he was the only nominee. Biden should do the same if a vacancy opens up & mo other nominees are ready to be announced. No need to wait a week or two just to pair him with other nominees… Lol

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    • I have a suspicion that Hyde-Smith might have pulled a Ron Johnson in private (meaning she initially lied and said she wouldn’t withhold her blue slip).

      If Durbin refuses to outright get of blue slips, here’s a compromise: after Biden announces who he wants, the senators have 1 month to decide whether they will allow that nominee. If they both sign off, that should be binding and they should not be allowed to withhold a blue slip thereafter. If they change their mind they can vote against the nominee but they should not be allowed to unilaterally block a nominee after their nomination.

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  30. Yes, I certainly think James Graves or Leslie Southwick taking senior status is probably the easiest way to unravel this one. I was just trying to think of some creative alternatives

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      • I think a lot of them learned their lesson from Trump. “I should take senior status so that a Democrat can replace me” sounds much less urgent than “I should take senior status so that I don’t get replaced by a far-right Fed Soc hack who wants to tear everything I accomplished to shreds”.

        A lot of liberal judges who were eligible for senior status while Trump was president waited until Biden’s presidency to step down. A good number of them were even eligible under Obama but chose to stay at that time. I think that RBG might have retired in 2014 if she knew that Trump would be the next president and Turtle would block any appointments in 2015-16. Same goes for other old judges like Harry Pregerson. Some judges (i.e. Stephen Reinhardt) had too big an alter ego but they are a small minority.

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      • I don’t see Stewart or Graves as particularly having big alter egos (because generally those who know a lot about a judge can tell). I am just speculating, but my best guess is that Graves thinks he can last a while longer and Stewart, being more moderate, might not care which party replaces him.

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  32. Ok I did some more digging into today’s nominee John Russell. I found two articles he co-wrote. One was on the second amendment, in which he was careful not to show his cards too much on his own personal opinion. The other was advising companies how to avoid fraud for companies that received a Paycheck Protection Program loan. Nothing groundbreaking in either article, but I’ll link both below in case anybody wants to read them.

    (https://www.okbar.org/barjournal/march-2023/the-new-second-amendment-frontier/)

    (https://journalrecord.com/2020/08/26/gavel-to-gavel-two-extra-steps-to-protect-your-ppp-loan-forgiveness/)

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  33. I think that John Russell is a Republican. That being said, I don’t think he’s far right or all that political. Supporting Sara Hill is a major concession for Oklahoma’s Senators, so it makes sense that the White House would nominate Russell as a concession of its own.

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    • Russell could be a moderate Republican or an Independent. I haven’t found anything in his record that shows for sure. @Ethan said he looked up his political donations & couldn’t find any. But I agree even if he was a moderate Republican, that would be worth getting Sara Hill as a compromise. He seems to be in the mold of judge John Murphy from the EDPA.

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  34. We had one vote today at Noon. Why wasn’t cloture filed yesterday, we could have voted on two district court judges today!

    Also, while happy (and surprised) to see two nominees for Oklahoma, another missed opportunity with just two nominees announced. They need to drastically pick up the pace…

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  35. Today’s SJC meeting cancelled, most likely due to Butler having COVID? Kind of ironic that the Senator appointed to succeed a Senator who had attendance problems for much of the year misses their second week on the job.

    None of the nominees from the 10/4 hearing are in red font however, so they may have been eligible for a vote. I thought they would have been listed for the first time on this meeting and that they would have been held over, with only Lee up for a vote today. Either way, everyone should be voted out on 10/26.

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  36. My comment is not showing up on the new post about Shanlyn Park. I truly hope one day Harsh switches form Word Press. It truly sucks for this absolutely great blog Harsh has. It appears whenever he writes up a new post, he has to do something to allow my account to be able to post. Anyway below is what I tried to write…

    I’ve said it before, the Hawaii senators have done a phenomenal job when it comes to judges. Under Trump, we got a right of center judge near 60 for the 9th circuit & a district court judge that probably could have been nominated by a Democrat president. Under Biden, we have gotten two stellar nominees. Smith was my first choice & Park is solid. I give her an A only because she’s not as young as I would like in a blue state with her being in her low 50’s. But I have no other complaints. She is a solid nominee.

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    • I’d seen other users in the past say they had issues but I never did. Then months back it started with me. First it locked out my personal email account. I tried to delete my account so I can re-register but then it says I have to wait 30 days. After 2 months it still wouldn’t let me register it again so I wrote to Word Press & they assured me they would whipe the email from their records so I can register again. Now almost 4 months later when I try to create a new account with the email address it says I already have an account, but when I try to log in my account
      It says it’s been deleted.

      Meanwhile I use my work email & whenever Harsh makes a new post, it doesn’t let me post initially. Then sometimes it doesn’t notify me when others post even though I clicked that option to do so. I know I’ve seen other users complain of the same.

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