Federal prosecutor Kirk Sherriff, who has led the Fresno Office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office since 2015, has now been nominated to a pending vacancy on the busiest federal trial court in the country.
Background
Kirk Edward Sherriff received a B.A. cum laude from Columbia University in 1990 and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1995, working as a school teacher in Mississippi in the interregnum. Sherriff then joined White & Case LLP as an Associate, where, barring a hiatus to clerk for Chief Justice Deborah Poritz on the Supreme Court of New Jersey, he stayed until 2002. In 2002, Sherriff joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, where he has stayed since, rising to be Chief of the Fresno Office since 2015.
History of the Seat
Sherriff has been nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, to a seat vacated by the elevation of Judge Ana de Alba to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Legal Experience
Sherriff started his legal career at the firm of White & Case LLP, where he worked as an associate on civil litigation. Among the cases that he worked on there, Sherriff was part of the legal team defending against fraud suits brought about after the collapse of the Executive Life Insurance Company. See Low v. Altus Finance S.A., 136 F. Supp. 2d 1113 (C.D. Cal. 2001). However, he has spent the vast majority of his career as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California. While with the office, Sherriff worked on both civil and criminal matters, starting out in the Civil Division, where he handled fraud and tort cases, as well as forest fire cases and affirmative civil enforcement actions, before shifting to the Criminal Division, where he has focused on tax evasion and embezzlement prosecutions.
Among his notable cases, Sherriff argued before the Ninth Circuit against Jeff Livingston, who was challenging his convictions for mail fraud and theft as an employee of a gambling establishment on Indian lands, arguing that the government had failed to prove that the establishment in question was actually on Indian lands. See United States v. Livingston, 725 F.3d 1141 (9th Cir. 2013). The Ninth Circuit affirmed the conviction, finding that the gambling establishment being on Indian land is not an element of the offense that needs to be proven. See id.
Political Activity
Sherriff has two donations to his name: one to Democratic Rep. T.J. Cox as a Congressional candidate in 2017 and another to the Committee to Stop the Recall of Governor Gavin Newsom.
Overall Assessment
With 25+ years of experience with both civil and criminal litigation, Sherriff has a background that is likely to serve him well as a federal judge. As there is little in his record that is likely to attract controversy, Sherriff remains strongly favored for confirmation.
The Vetting Room 
The old White House Counsel’s office loved uncontroversial picks like this that can get confirmed easily. Hopefully we get more progressive California picks from this new White House Counsel.
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Totally @Ethan. Sherriff is certainly qualified, but we need younger & more progressive nominees. Either way, they need to go ahead & confirm de Alba so The White House can finally send his nomination to the senate & get a hearing since nobody in the WHC office knows you can send nominations to the senate before the judge they are replacing gets confirmed…smh
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Who do you like for the other EDCA seat? Julie Yap?
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I would like to see Charles J. Lee or Rei Onishi for the vacancy
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@Dequan
There have been a spate of financial crimes in central and eastern California in the past couple of decades. Before being promoted to Chief of the Fresno office, Sheriff was Chief of the White Collar Crimes Unit and scored some important convictions. Many, including local progressives, are among those impressed by his job performance and mentoring of newly hired AUSA’s.
If Sheriff is confirmed (which I fully expect), look for a lot of White Collar criminal cases to be steered his way.
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@Mitch
Yea I guess that was the thinking of the senators & WH. Sherriff is certainly well qualified. It just sucks that the EDCA is probably the busiest district court in the land & yet only have six judges. Out of the six, Obama has 3 judges & Biden has 3. One Sherriff replaces de Alba, 2 of Biden’s 3 judges won’t be young or particularly progressive.
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Those picks would be coming from the CA senators, not the WHC.
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I was thinking it would they’d probably lean towards a female candidate since 2 of the 3 women on the court are leaving.
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@Harsh
I found a big case that Sheriff prosecuted, along with some other AUSA’s. In 2014, he prosecuted the cases of Crisp & Cole Real Estate, whose employees engaged in a major complex mortgage fraud scam.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/bakersfield-loan-officer-sentenced-crisp-cole-mortgage-fraud-scheme
In another case, he convicted two sisters of mail fraud and tax evasion in another mortgage fraud scheme.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/sisters-convicted-trial-bakersfield-mortgage-fraud-scheme
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I wouldn’t classify Daniel Calabretta as being old. He’s a year younger than De Alba and is also a year younger than Charles Lee who was mentioned as being an example of a good candidate.
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Daniel Calabretta was the one I was referring to as being young & also progressive. Jennifer L. Thurston along with Sherriff are the two I was mentioning as old & not particularly progressive. I’d be fine with Calabretta, like de Alba being elevated in the future.
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Keeping my fingers crossed for some more cloture motions later this afternoon. I think there is space for 3 more district nominees plus cloture on a circuit nominee before the end of the week if Schumer is aggressive enough.
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Nominations for last week’s batch just sent to the senate. Only Sherriff is pending now.
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/11/06/nominations-sent-to-the-senate-127/)
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Durbin sending cloture motions to the desk with senator Butler as the presiding officer…
Brandy R. McMillion
Mónica Ramírez Almadani
Ana de Alba
Yes yes yes
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Excellent news. Should go a long way towards clearing the backlog.
Two more weeks like this and Schumer will more or less be caught up by the end of the year.
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Definitely. Durbin also threw in another no name position I never heard of. It sucks every slot we have to waste on a non-judge but I won’t get greedy. I’m hoping they set Ramirez up for a cloture vote Thursday since she will have no problem getting confirmed next Monday regardless of Democrat attendance. It would be nice if we get some voice votes Thursday as well.
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Yes, my guess would be Almadani will get both of her votes Thursday followed by cloture for de Alba
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I’m guessing Kazen, Laroski, and Wang are possible voice votes. Maybe Long and Edwards, too. Any others?
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I doubt Long and Edwards get voice votes. Long got questioned about the FBI’s role in various investigations & I don’t see any Black man this side of Clarence Thomas getting a voice vote for an article III judge from this Republican senate.
Hopefully they knock out some Superior Court of DC voice votes soon.
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In another matter, I found a page for John Russell, a nominee for Oklahoma. Lots of information on his specialties as a lawyer as well as a picture.
https://www.gablelaw.com/attorneys/john-d-russell/
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John D. Russell seems to be a centrist. I am fine with a red state, old centrist if we get an A nominee like Sara Hill to go along with it.
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We did get the biggie, de Alba today (caught me off-guard that the clotures were sent before the vote at 5:30). Assuming her cloture vote is the final vote of the week, she should be confirmed on Monday, in which then Biden could send Sherriff’s nomination to the Senate and appear for the 11/15 hearing, although would she appear on a 2-day notice?
Best case scenario for the 11/15 hearing is you get four nominees (both Oklahoma nominees, Holland, and Sherriff), and then the red state nominees from last week should all get the 11/29 hearing.
Merkley wrapped up today, it looks like they’ll vote on Kato and cloture on Kobick, so Kobick and Reyes will likely be confirmed on Wednesday.
As a fun fact, I believe the last time Durbin filed cloture on nominees in place of Schumer was when Schumer had COVID last year, I remember Durbin filing the motion to discharge Sweeney (DCO) and I think Freeman (3rd Circuit).
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Haaaa
I wasn’t caught off guard only because I was at work & happen to tune into the senate floor live feed & saw Durbin standing up at the podium shuffling papers. Usually if he just wanted to give a speech it would be earlier in the day so I said let me hang around & just watch just in case they try & throw a curve ball.
He sent the first cloture motion to the desk & it was for Secretary of Baking Cookies or whatever position it’s for so I was like don’t tell me we are gonna waste Tim Scott being at the debate & not get any judges. Then the next one I heard the clerk say the word “Judiciary” & my ears perked up… Lmao
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I know some of the Senate executive calendar numbers, so last Thursday when we were getting calendar numbers in the 20s and 30s for the cloture filings, I knew we were getting some heavy hitters for this week. If I had C-SPAN up I would have known de Alba’s number when it came up (222).
Also, I must’ve misheard the schedule for tomorrow, we are going to get Kobick confirmed and then cloture on Reyes. Reyes will be confirmed Wednesday morning and then it looks like five additional votes should be in order Wednesday (so they can confirm two of the nominees where we filed cloture today and then invoke cloture on a third). Whoever has their cloture invoked last will be confirmed Thursday morning, leaving de Alba’s cloture vote to be the final vote.
If there’s any disappointment from today, it’d be I wish we got cloture on additional party-line nominees knowing we have most likely will have seven votes this week that will be on party lines.
If that happens to be the case, there’s still a possibility for a cloture vote to happen next Monday after de Alba’s confirmation.
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Glad to see Judge Kato finally getting her cloture and hopefully confirmation vote soon.
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Looks like there’s a nominee for the 3rd circuit https://newjerseyglobe.com/judiciary/adeel-mangi-is-top-candidate-for-third-circuit-court-of-appeals-seat/
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I don’t think we will get De Alba’s confirmation vote on A Monday incase a Democratic Senator is missing e.g today Schumer and Ossoff didn’t vote.
We also may need VP Harris vote.
So I would guess she will be confirmed this Thursday or next Tuesday but I’m glad she has finally getting voted on!
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Manchin hasn’t made it clear what his position on de Alba is. If Manchin supports de Alba, there won’t be any problem in confirming her.
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A potential 3 Circuit nominee in the horizon, I’m surprised due to Booker’s last comment. https://newjerseyglobe.com/judiciary/adeel-mangi-is-top-candidate-for-third-circuit-court-of-appeals-seat/
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Been away for a bit, but news on the CA3 vacancy: https://newjerseyglobe.com/judiciary/adeel-mangi-is-top-candidate-for-third-circuit-court-of-appeals-seat/.
If Mangi ends up getting the nomination, it’ll be more than I expected from Booker/Menendez – he’s a corporate litigator, but has done substantial pro bono work and is on the boards of some pretty progressive orgs. He certainly seems more liberal that Fabiarz, and hopefully the WH will in fact nominate him soon. Even though Mangi’s got a pretty conventional career, the Republicans will probably fight him pretty hard and try to drag it out because he’s Muslim.
The other names in the mix were interesting – none of the names I remember people complaining about were on it. Also interesting that Pierre-Louis preferred to just stay on the NJ SSC – but that’s an easier job with a lower caseload and she’s not bound by the BS coming out of SCOTUS, so I can understand it.
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@Hank
OMG thank you for the article. This is amazing news. If Adeel A. Mangi ends up being the nominee, I’m giving him an A+. WOW, I hadn’t heard of him before & he wasn’t on @Ethan’s list so I am just going off of the article.
46 years old, he would be the first Muslim circuit court judge, served on the board of the Muslim Bar Association of New York, the Muslims for Progressive Values, and the Legal Aid Society of New York & has had some progressive cases in his legal docket. This would be an amazing pick.
As for the finalists, many of the names mentioned in the article we have spoken about here on the blog. Fabiana Pierre-Louis seems to have been pushed HARD by the administration. I wonder if she hadn’t withdrawn her name, would they have gone with her.
Jeremy Feigenbaum was one of my top picks. I’m angry the administration thought he was too young but just happy we still got an A+ nominee.
Jose Almonte would have been a good district court pick, particularly instead of Evelyn Padin her 60’s.
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I can certainly see some people turning down federal judgeships just because of what SCOTUS is like now and not wanting to have to follow the BS they’ll come up with.
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As somebody as fascinated with the federal judiciary as I am, I can’t imagine turning down an offer. Particularly for the circuit courts. But in Fabiana Pierre-Louis case, she’s already on a state supreme court so I can see in her case but even still it’s hard for me to imagine saying no.
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Here’s an article from 2018 about Adeel A. Mangi. He’s definitely the real deal & an A+ nominee in my book. Phenomenal job by this new WHC office. This pick will go a long way towards making up for some of the bad district court picks we have gotten from New Jersey.
(https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/we-re-going-stand-ourselves-why-lawyer-sued-two-towns-n854096)
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Wow! New Jersey Globe seems to have a really good NJ judicial source. They were also the ones who broke the news about Jamal Semper and Edward Kiel getting the district noms.
The part about Jeremy Feigenbaum and the other candidates is an interesting tidbit. It’s kind of like, “Hey Republicans, if you give Mangi a hard time, we’ve got a whole list of already vetted people and one of them is a 35-year old progressive.”
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@keystone
I know right. Can we get editors for the New Jersey Globe to work in a Maryland until we get a nominee for the 4th? Lol
As for Jeremy Feigenbaum, I actually think the opposite of what you wrote. The article said they thought he was too young to be a circuit court judge. To me, Republicans will think if they tank Adeel Mangi, all other finalist are much better (Or in my opinion much worst) picks. I think the incentive to tank his nomination means one of the other four (Really three since Pierre-Louis withdrew) would be much less progressive.
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Mangi seems like a solid pick to me. I like his pro bono work. Hopefully the WH makes the call in these next few batches so he can be confirmed wary next year.
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Mangi seems excellent. He wasn’t on my radar because his main office is in New York.
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Agree, he seems like an excellent pick. I hope a nomination is forthcoming very soon. I am hoping we have new noms every two weeks and lots of full Senate judiciary committee nomination hearings going forward…
The delay with the 4th Circ. nominee is almost criminal at this point. I hope we get a stellar nominee that was worth the wait.
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Does Mangi live in New Jersey?
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His law firm is based in New York City but it is not uncommon at all to work in New York & live in New Jersey. My guess is he does but even if he didn’t, it isn’t very hard at all to have an apartment in the state across the river. The main thing is to be a member of the bar of the state which I am sure he probably is a member of both the NY & NY bar associations. And since this is New Jersey & we know the bad nominees we have gotten from the state, I wouldn’t care if he lived in Uganda, he’s an A+, I’ll find him a NJ real estate if need be… Haaaaaa
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I just read the article again. At the bottom it says “He lives in North Jersey with his wife and two children.”
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We also may get today or tomorrow vice president Harris breaking the tie breaking record. She is already joint 1st but I’m assuming (based on how long some of these nominees have waited) her vote may be needed depending on GOP senators missing i.e Scott
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Happy with Mangi if he ends up being the pick, as he’s in his 40’s and has a progressive background.
Have to say that it’s weird Jeremy Feigenbaum isn’t being considered given how young Bradley Garcia was when he was nominated to the D.C. Circuit.
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@Zack Jones
Great point. Brad Garcia is only a year & a half older than Feigenbaum. I mean it’s not a big deal because we are still getting an A+ nominee but had we gotten any of the other finalists that were in the running after Pierre-Louis withdrew, I would be furious. I’m happy it seems to have worked out in the end, particularly with Biden getting hit hard by Muslim ground for his handling of the Israel conflict, but the thinking of anybody older than 35 being to young needs to go out the window.
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Cloture on Kato starting now, there were two non-voters for the NIH nominee, one we know is Scott, not sure who the second one is.
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Nominees who were previously magistrate judges are usually uncontroversial. Not the case with Kato. I doubt there has been a more controversial magistrate judge nominee.
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Why is it that they seem to dislike all of the “K” name nominees: Kenly Kiya Kato, Karoline Mehalchick, Kato Crews, Julia Kobick, Mustafa Kasubhai.
Here’s hoping that Kirk Sherriff bucks the trend.
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I noticed that Kenly Kiya Kato’s initials are KKK. Republicans really want to play performative activism by baselessly suggested that she is representative of her initials.
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Haaaaaaa
I wasn’t too thrilled with Lucy Koh for the 9th, although I would have been perfectly fine if she was nominated for the Federal Circuit instead. Angel Kelley breezed through too but I see your point. Pretty funny… Lol
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Clerk ran down the current votes, Manchin surprisingly is a yes (Collins did vote no, I’d expect Murkowski as a no as well). Thought for sure he was a No, considering that he hasn’t supported any nominees that deadlocked and never got discharged last year (I know he supported Rikelman and Rikelman did deadlock last year, but her committee vote was after the elections last year when Democrats had clinched Senate control so the Senate would not have been in a rush to confirm her by year’s end).
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Good to see VP Harris will not be needed this week. Although I agree with @Rob above & would like to see her break the record for most tie breaking votes. It would be especially gratifying to see the first Black woman VP break the tie of a racist piece of crap VP from hundreds of years ago.
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Good news on Manchin. Should be smooth sailing then with Scott out.
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So they just finished the cloture vote on Kato, 50-47, and they are going right to the confirmation vote. No 2 hr wait needed for her today
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Yeah, the agreement was that her postcloture time would expire at 2:15, and the cloture vote overlapped that. The first two votes of the day, which were scheduled at 11:45AM, didn’t start until 12:30PM (several Senators lined up to talk about Israel/Ukraine funding), so that’s what caused the cloture vote to overlap. This means that right after her confirmation vote we’ll get the Kobick cloture vorte as well.
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I always wondered what do nominees who have waited so long do when their vote is finally happening. For instance, Kato is a magistrate judge. I wonder did she take today off. If I were a judicial nominee, I would definitely take the day off for my confirmation vote & have family & friends with me watching C-Span. This day changes your entire life. From today on, Kato will be a federal judge & nobody other than herself can take that job away from her barring any Thomas Porteous level corruption.
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@ Dequan
I bet Kato won’t take her seat until Jan 2025.. Holidays are coming up and she might just take a 6 week vacation before she becomes a judge on the CDCA.
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I hope Kato gets commissioned quickly. I like to see the judges commissioned in order of their age so since Mónica Ramírez Almadani is younger than Kato, I would hope Kato is first or they get commissioned the same day. I mean for God sakes, she’s been waiting a year & 11 months. She should have already ordered an Uber to the courthouse steps & be ready to ride to the new courthouse before rush hour traffic starts today… Haaaaa
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I wonder if Adeel A. Mangi is in better or worse standing now to be nominated much less confirmed because of the Israel-Gaza situation.
There could be some risky quotes from him about Gaza if he’s a progressive Muslim.
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Kato finally confirmed… And @Mike, I doubt the situation in Israel would matter. There could be peace in the Middle East & Republicans would still go bat shit crazy over the first Muslim circuit court judge, especially with him being a 46-year-old progressive. I don’t care what, no way I’m missing that SJC hearing… Lol
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With Edward Kiel, they went after him not for things he said but because an organization he worked with decades ago, The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, made a statement that the Republicans thought were too pro-Palestine.
According to Mangi’s law firm bio “Mr. Mangi serves on the Advisory Board of the Alliance of Families for Justice, which advocates on behalf of incarcerated individuals and their families. Mr. Mangi previously served on a variety of additional boards, including the Boards of Directors of the Muslim Bar Association of New York, the Legal Aid Society of New York, and Muslims for Progressive Values. He also served multiple terms as an ally Board Member for the National LGBT Bar Association.”
Honestly, there could be any number of statements that one of these boards has made about the Israel and Palestine, criminal justice, trans rights, etc that the Republicans might go after. We’ll just have to see how he fields those attacks.
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I think there’s a 50/50 chance that Hawley or Cruz’s head will explode.
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I’ve always wanted to go to a SJC hearing. This may be the one I want to attend the most. I can’t imagine too many things that would give me more joy in lie then seeing Cruz, Hawley & Blackburn at that hearing in person. And unless we get a nominee for the 4th or 6th, Adeel Mangi would be the only nominee in panel one. Imagine an entire 7 minutes for each of them. My God if they put it on pay per view I would still pay top dollar… Lol
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Murkowski an aye on Kobick, so while Kobick was a party-line vote in committee, she’ll look to also get Collins and Manchin ala Rikelman?
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The three of them have voted, Manchin voted no while Collins and Murkowski were both aye, so it looks like 52 votes is the ceiling for Kobick. I’m from Massachusetts, and this court will be fully staffed once Kobick is confirmed, although there are two Clinton appointees eligible for senior status on that court (and an 85 y/o Bush Sr. appointee who I read is fairly conservative, doubt he steps down during a Democratic presidency).
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Is this the first time Manchin voted no while Collins and Murkowski voted yes on a Biden judicial nominee? I actually don’t mind that at all. Let him get as many no votes out the way on votes that won’t need VP Harris to come in for.
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Not on judicial nominees if I recall, I think every judge where Manchin voted no this year was party-line beyond that (Ho, Abudu, Bloomekatz, Merle, Choudhury). There were two non-judicial nominees earlier in the year that had the Manchin No/Collins+Murkowski yes combination (Uhlmann to be Assistant EPA Administrator and Gupta to be Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues).
Was about to think looking it up was a little difficult but was pretty easy to find thanks to the Senate Press Gallery Twitter feed (which tells you the non-voters and the Senators who crossed party lines on the vote).
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Can someone remind me, what exactly was so controversial about Kobick?
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Sounds like an answer to a 2nd amendment-related question?
From Wikipedia:
During her hearing, she was repeatedly questioned by Senator Josh Hawley about an argument she made before the Supreme Court, claiming the Second Amendment did not apply to stun guns because they did not exist when the Amendment was written; an argument which had previously been rejected unanimously by the Court, and which the Court again rejected when she made it.
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I certainly hope he is included in a batch next week. It would be good to get that hearing out of the way this year at least. As you and I have said many times, it’ll be important to clear the deck as much as possible heading into 2024, particularly with circuit court vacancies that take longer.
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Senator Markey is on the senate floor now speaking in favor of Julia Kobick ahead of her vote. He pointed out she will be Biden’s 150th article III judge. That’s an outstanding feat with the closely divided senate all 3 years Biden has been president. Particularly without ditching blue slips, cancelling recess & a 3-day work week.
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After Reyes is confirmed, there will be only three 2022 nominees remaining–Bjelkengren, Edelman, and Colom. Edelman is probably the one with the best chance of being confirmed. Bjelkengren is probably going to need the VP’s vote. I’m holding my breath for @Dequan’s plan to move Colom to the next MS opening on the 5th Circuit, since Hyde-Smith isn’t budging.
There are only 4 vacancies that predate Biden’s inauguration–IT, EDWI, MDAL, and SDFL. Both IT and SDFL now have nominees, and there have been names floated for EDWI. If we get a nominee soon and RonJo plays nice, expect MDAL to be the only one remaining by the end of January.
This is so much better than the 9th Circuit vacancy that was open from 2004-2013. I’m still holding out hope that we get close to my prediction of 180 by the end of the session, but this week definitely moves the needle in the right direction.
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the 9th circuit vacancy from 2004-2014 was open for so long because California and Idaho were fighting over who the seat belonged to. When the seat was finally filled by moderate John Owens, almost the entire GOP opposed him, perhaps in solidarity with Idaho’s senators.
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Oh I’m well aware why the vacancy was open so long, but it’s still some petty nonsense. Runner up was Menendez holding up Patty Shwartz under a Dem President because her partner was a lawyer who had something to do with one of the many corruption cases against him.
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Speaking of Menendez, I was coming on to comment that at least he’s still showing up for all the important votes in the midst of his indictments and his entire caucus calling for his resignation, and I just find that amusing for some reason. Hey, it’s the least we can expect from him, right?
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I think if he just refused to do his job and vote or voted against Dem agenda he would almost automatically lose his primary campaign. The guy wants to stay a democratic senator.
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I’ve been researching Jerusha Adams, a Magistrate Judge whom I believe the Biden Administration would like to nominate for the Middle District of Alabama. She’s done a lot of clerking. To my surprise, she clerked for two Republican-appointed judges, one considered far right, the other a political hack who is also a despicable person behind closed doors. She was also an AUSA and practiced employment law for a locally prominent law firm in Montgomery. I’ve found no contributions by Adams, either.
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@Mitch
I’ve heard Jerusha Adams name mentioned several times before as well. I don’t think anything mentioned matters though because I give Tuberville turning in his blue slip for anybody to the left of Chad Meredith about as close to a zero percent chance as it gets. I actually believe there is a better chance to get a nominee from Missouri, Utah, Montana & maybe even Arkansas over Alabama.
On another note, it will be good to have both the Massachusetts & EDNY courts at full staff again after tomorrow’s Reyes vote.
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EDNY should be full for a while. Joan Azrack is the next judge likely to take senior status and she doesn’t hit that until December 2024. Plenty of time, but hope she’ll announce early.
On the Mass Court, Richard Stearns has been eligible to take senior status for more than a decade and he’s turning 80 next year. Patti Saris has been eligible for senior status since 2016. Could see them both announcing in the near future.
With Kenly Kiya Kato and (fingers crossed) Monica Ramirez Almadani’s confirmations helping to clear out the longstanding CDCA backlog, I wonder if we’ll see 79 year-old David Carter (the last Clinton judge on this court) move over to senior status.
All three of these courts have such deep talent pools that it would be great to get some more openings.
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Last I counted I think the CDCA had about six judges eligible for senior status. Massachusetts had about a handful as well. I agree it would be great if Joan Azrack announced soon , giving Biden a year to get her replacement confirmed.
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I have to cosign what Dequan said, I don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that Tuberville returns a blue slip for anyone to the left of Ayn Rand. Even if Biden, the WHC office and the goddamn state Dem party finds the most boring, bland and centrist magistrate judge, he would still find a way to complain and block the process. Tuberville and senators of his ilk are some of the best examples for why the blue slip needs to be reformed or scrapped altogether.
No shame in trying to find a consensus nominee that Tuberville and Britt can agree on, but I wouldn’t devote too much time to it. The more performative GOP senators would be hard-pressed to allow Biden to nominate a dog catcher to their state, nonetheless a federal judge with the power to veto state laws and procedures. You can find common ground with GOP senators (like Oklahoma, Indiana, Louisiana, etc.,) but some states are lost causes with blue slips still in place. To reach 200, there are gettable states with vacancies (Wisconsin, Missouri, TEXAS!, etc.,) Get those and fight like hell to get reelected to surpass 300 judges.
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Finally got his vote, but Manchin voted yes on Reyes. Reyes, like Kato, will be a pure party-line vote (Collins and Murkowski had voted no earlier).
The other non-Scott Republican absence today if you were curious is Britt.
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In additional news (furiously switching between C-SPAN and Twitter for election results), Munley officially received her commission today. Not counting the confirmations today, we’re down to Hall and DeClercq awaiting commissions, but again, Hall won’t be until after the New Year.
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Interesting schedule for tomorrow. Six votes, but one of them on a resolution (a Congressional Review Act vote). Reyes will be confirmed first thing, cloture/confirmation of Burrows (EEOC commission), and cloture of both Almadani and Brandy McMillion, so on net one judge will be confirmed tomorrow.
This most likely means the Thursday schedule will be the confirmations of Alamdani and McMillion, and then cloture on de Alba.
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Where the Hell did this resolution come from. My God it feels like we have more of these now then when we had a Democrat House. I hope they are gonna have three votes Thursday because de Alba needs her cloture vote before the weekend.
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Is the Senate adjourned on Friday?
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Haaaaaa… Did you say the words “senate” & “Friday” in the same sentence. That’s hilarious… Lmao
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There’s typically three votes on a Thursday, no? Two 11:30AM votes and then a 1:45PM vote? I was actually curious since without that CRA vote, there would have been an empty voting slot on Thursday, so I’m sure that was shuffled in with whatever reeling and dealing Schumer does with McConnell on the schedule.
I’d think you’d see a lot of these CRAs due to the narrow Democratic majority and that you only need to pick off two Democrats to pass them in the Senate (easy to do with the red state and purple state Democrats up next year), which even if it passes and gets through the House Biden would veto it. They are free votes for these Democrats too since they won’t get signed by the President anyway.
I remember seeing these CRAs in the last two years of Obama’s presidency with a Republican Congress, which of course were vetoed by Obama at the time. I’m surprised you didn’t see many, if any of these in 2011/2012, when Democrats had 53 Senate seats but that majority consisted of a ton of red state Democrats (Manchin, Ben Nelson, Mark Pryor, Mark Begich, Mary Landrieu, etc) who all would have been very ripe targets for Republicans.
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The CRAs are mainly Republican-backed and aimed at undoing Biden executive orders. Even though most of them have zero chance of passing, the GOP can at least waste the Senate’s time.
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It looks like my first comment was rejected by moderators. But Id just like to push back against critiscm of Judge Koh, and say that so far she has being very progressive judge. Constantly siding with the progressive bloc in en banc poll dissents or in actual decisions. However the A+ rate Judge H Thomas, has regularly not sided with progressive in their en banc polls dissents. And in denying a petition for review in an immigration even Trump appointee Judge Forrest called that plain wrong. So i guess its interesting that the cristiscm continues despite Judge Kohs now proven progressive record. Also im beginning to think that on thise type of appointees unless their is alterior motiviation for appointment. The White House should get some deference as they do those investigations for ideological hints
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Now on to 200 & beyond
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/11/07/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-150th-judicial-confirmation/)
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Could I ask why are people still critical of Judge Koh’s nomination considering she has known shown to be a very progressive circuit judge. Whereas Judge H Thomas had not.
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If the senate can confirm the 4 appellate, 17 district, and 2 international trade nominees currently on the floor by the end of the year that would be 173 confirmed Article III judges. If they can squeeze in Lee and Kasubhai that gives them 175.
That would be a realistic goal and would be great message heading into 2024.
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I don’t think there is nearly enough time for that with the other things on their docket. 165-170 seems like a more realistic goal.
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For those interested in state Supreme Court seats, Democrat Daniel McCaffery defeated Republican Carolyn Carluccio in Pennsylvania last night to expand their majority there to 5-2.
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The PA appellate courts also saw some notable wins.
Democrats Jill Beck and Timika Lane flipped two seats on the PA Superior Court giving Dems control. Democrat Matt Wolf flipped a seat on the Commonwealth Court.
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We have a SJC nominations hearing next Wednesday
(https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/11/15/2023/nominations)
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I am hoping we see Holland, the two OK nominees, and possibly even Kirk Sherriff. Maybe the NMI nominee as well. I know that is five panelists, but it’s been done before.
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If the White House sends Sherriff’s name to the senate Monday night as soon as de Alba is confirmed, he’s possible. I guess even if they send it on Tuesday it’s possible. But knowing how nice they are, it’s more than likely Sherriff will miss this hearing. But I hope I’m wrong & Sherriff is in Wednesday’s hearing.
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Yes, I suspect you’re right Dequan. A shame, because I think the sooner we get these nominees through SJC the better. You never know what could come up during an election year to derail the senate.
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Yes, that was a huge election result. Could have a potentially big impact next November.
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I dont get reyes close vote, he was a prosecutor for nearly 10 years and a professor and has been a magistrate judge for decades, i just dont see how he got 48 republican no votes. insane
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@aangren
I was thinking the same thing. And the Reyes vote further dilutes the argument Biden needs to nominate more centrist candidates even in blue states to get confirmed.
Biden could have nominated Melissa Murray or any number of younger, more progressive nominees & list only one vote today.
On another note, I wish Schumer would have used today all for votes on judges. Democrats have a 51-48 advantage today, no reason wasting that on this resolution or a vote on yet another position I never heard of for a nominee that could be confirmed easily.
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In fairness, that EEOC chair is also going to be confirmed on a party-line vote, so at least the vote is not going to be wasted on someone who’d get 70+ votes or something while we have everyone in attendance.
With Reyes confirmed, I believe we are down to two judges initially nominated in the last Congress that are awaiting confirmation, Edelman and Bjelkengren. We’ll see what tomorrow’s cloture motions bring, although I’m dreading whenever we go back to working on appropriations bills and whatnot, lol.
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Maybe go back and rewatch the hearing. There’s a reason he didn’t get bipartisan support, and it’s pretty justifiable compared to other nominees.
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Is it possible that they might do Almadani’s confirmation and deAlba’s cloture and confirmation tomorrow and then hold McMillion’s confirmation for Monday since she’s probably the most likely to get bipartisan support?
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de Alba is a nominee for a circuit court judgeship so the post cloture time for that is 30 hours, not 2 hours like district court nominees. Republicans haven’t been making Democrats burn all 30 hours for every nominee, but I suburbia they will reduce it enough for both a cloture & confirmation vote in the same day.
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After cloture was invoked on McMillion earlier, Stabenow spoke on the floor right after and mentioned she was getting confirmed tomorrow. That should track with three votes tomorrow (most likely McMillion and Almadani get confirmed at 11:30AM tomorrow, and then cloture on de Alba at 1:45PM for the last vote of the day).
We’ll see the official schedule for tomorrow when the Senate closes up shop tonight, but I’d be surprised if it was any different than what I mentioned.
On the judiciary front tomorrow, in addition to above, we should get Kasubhai and Lee reported out of committee on party line votes tomorrow, and hopefully cloture will be filed on a few more nominees before the end of the day.
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Dequan is right, there is 30 hours of debate time for circuit court nominees. Sometimes they’ll agree to reduce it to 18 hours or so to vote on the nominee the next day, but almost never on the same day. Ironically, I believe KBJs SCOTUS confirmation was the only one under Biden so far.
Either way, de Alba will be confirmed on Monday.
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Roopali Desai is the only Biden circuit court nominee that was fast tracked to a few hours. We assume that’s because of senator Sinema’s behind the scenes pressure/request.
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Speaking of Desai, does anyone know how she has ruled since joining the 9th? Of all of the Biden circuit court nominees, she may be the one I’m most interested in seeing opinions from now.
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I honestly don’t follow the opinions or the judges as a whole nearly as much as I do prior to them being confirmed. I’m interested as well if any of the other bloggers had any info
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Yeah, they actually skipped cloture altogether for her. Rare indeed. There were a few district nominees who have gotten the same treatment when the senate wanted to leave early on a Thursday.
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Thought they were going to do McMillion’s confirmation before cloture for Ramirez Almandani. 2 confirmations and de Alba cloture tomorrow?
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Cloture invoked on Almandani. Surprisingly, just Graham voted for her, no Collins or Murkowski.
Whitehouse came out to wrap up today after being the final vote for cloture and as expected, McMillion and Almandani will be confirmed tomorrow, and then cloture on de Alba at 1:45PM.
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Good deal. As I’ve said in the past many times, a cloture vote should happen every Thursday for a circuit court nominee with confirmation the following Monday until they are all confirmed. This is the most efficient way to use senate floor time but it should happen every Thursday.
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Glad to see more and more judges being confirmed after a lull.
May it continue.
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