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 
Desai hasn’t issued many opinions yet, but judging from her oral argument questioning and her en banc votes, she is very liberal, one of the most liberal judges on the entire 9th circuit actually
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That’s good to hear. Desai replaced a very liberal judge, he was just old. Happy to hear she might end up even more liberal than him.
On to the Republican debate… Vivek is more bat shit crazy than even I thought after hearing him tonight. I may secretly hope he’s the nominee against Biden even more than Trump. Haley & DeSantis both had strong nights. Christie to me was as always the most presidential but this is a Republican primary so of course that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Tim Scott is truly underwhelming. I really hope he can stay in throughout the middle of the primaries to keep him missing votes but I’m not confident he will.
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Even though I’m not the biggest truster of polls, the NYT poll on Sunday is very concerning. Sure, Dems keep winning these off year elections, but it’s pretty well known that a lot of people in the cult don’t vote unless the cult leader is on the ballot.
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I haven’t seen much of a mark from the Biden judges on the 9th yet. I’ve seen some major opinions with a Biden judge on the panel but most were unanimous.
The one major decision Desai sat on thus far that was politically charged was a case regarding whether abortion doctors in Arizona could challenge an abortion ban on grounds of monetary loss. The 9th circuit panel (Gould, Hurwitz, Desai) said the doctors could sue for monetary loss but didn’t rule on the merits.
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Crossing my fingers for no Dem absences at SJC tomorrow morning. Lee and Kashubahi should be 11-10 votes.
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I thought that Brandy McMillion would get more controversy and opposition. Her failed prosecution of the doctor drew a lot of criticism.
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Yea but I guess they are holding their fire for more controversial nominees…
I see for tomorrow’s SJC meeting they aren’t listing the nominees from last week’s hearing so they can be held over. I wish they did so at least that’s one less week they have to wait to be voted to the floor.
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Another new vacancy on the Arizona district court. Chief Murray Snow, Bush appointee, next October. So that’s three that can be done for AZ in the next year.
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I was looking at the Roopali Desai’s selection process to try get a sense for where the AZ senators might be with regards to filling the first 2 Arizona seats. Desai’s selection process seems crazy fast.
Late Jan 28, 2022: Hurwitz announced he’d be taking senior status
Feb 2022: Roopali submitted her name to Sinema and Kelly
Sinema and Kelly sent a list of candidates to WH
April 18, ’22: Roopali interviewed with WH Counsel
June 15, 2022: Nom sent to Senate
And then we know she was fast tracked to confirmation
Judge Soto and Judge Rayes announced their senior status on July 20, 2023 and July 25, 2023. So maybe noms~ January-ish, February-ish?
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Oh wow, most of the recent vacancies were in my radar but Murray Snow is a complete surprise to me. I doubt there were too many left over names in the pipeline from the Roopali selection as it seems like she was the only person considered similar to Mike Delaney in New Hampshire.
I am really looking forward to seeing who will be selected for these now three vacancies. I expect all three to be to the left of their predecessors which would be a welcomed relief.
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Yeah it’s nice when more than one vacancy chains together so they can fill multiple spots with a single search/interview process. Wouldn’t be surprised if all three nominees come at once.
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I remember when Obama got the six judges confirmed to the court. I was thinking it sucks there are two Republican senators so we got five old and/or moderate judges for the one really good judge we got out of the deal. But I’m happy to see two of those five go senior status while we have a Democrat president & senate.
Judge Snow is a huge surprise to me. I would say he’s the second time I’ve been surprised since the election last year after Gibbons announcement earlier this year.
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I wouldn’t mind seeing Eunice Lee for the Soto (Tucson) seat. I think her background in immigration law would be really relevant to the court. Also, could see Sinema liking the idea of nominating someone with a LGBT perspective.
Could definitely see them nominating a Native American judge to one of the Phoenix seats.
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It would be pretty cool to see Biden pick two Eunice Lee‘s for federal judges. And both would be solid picks despite me wishing Melissa Murray was the pick for the 2nd circuit instead. I do believe one of the three vacancies will likely be a Native American.
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Hi Guys, I’m new to posting. I have being a longtime viewer of Vetting Room and love the comments so far. Unlike most of you, I have more interest in not the confirmation but about how translates in terms of rulings and judicial Ideology. Judge Desai has so far joined the progressive bloc in En Banc dissents notably not containing almost any Obama or Clinton judges. Judge Koh has also turned out to be a solidly very progressive Judge, continuously siding with the progressive bloc in both en banc polls and opinions. Along with show a proven progressive ideology in memoranda dispositions and standard opinions so far. The Judge that has surprised me as being by the far the least progressive of his appointees on the court, is Judge Holly Thomas. She noticeably hasn’t joined almost any of the en banc poll dissents bar one, that the progressive bloc have signed onto. Furthermore, one of her immigration cases where she denied a petition for review, sparked a dissent from Trump appointee Judge Forrest for being unjust. She also joined with a conservative Judge to in a premeption case sparking a dissent from Humetewa regarding I believe Meal Breaks and Preemption
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Also what I’ve noticed so far from 1st Circuit Judge Gelpi and 4th Circuit Judge Heyten is that both of them seem to be more pretty conservative on criminal issues and pretty liberal on civil etc issues. In the 1st Circuit Judge Montecalvo and Gelpi ended up on opposite sides of a criminal en banc issue. http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/19-2204EB-01A.pdf
Judge Rikelman has no ideology of note so far, bar seeming to join conservatives in advocating for parental rights and the outing of trans people during oral arguments in a case. However, it is obviously unclear how that will translate.
In the 4th Circuit it seems that Judge Benjamin has a more liberal streak on criminal issues so far compared to Heyten with them also ending up on the opposite side of at least two en banc criminal polls.
In the 2nd Circuit the Judges are all progressive with the only liberal Judge not being Biden Appointed Judge Lohier showing a comparatively more center left ideology.
In the 6th Circuit Judge Davis and Judge Mathis seem to be more conservative than Judge Bloomekatz. With the two siding against her in an en banc decision that limited habeus corpus rights. However, they did join the liberals in another criminal case.
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In terms of most liberal to least. I’d just note that this is based of oral arguments and one Habeaus corpus case, where Mendoza dissented from reversing it, in a decision written by Judge Sanchez.
Just randomly, I also agree that Judge Desai is the most liberal, and also the best at engaging in en banc oral argument battles with conservative judges, such as Judge Bress. Whereas Mendoza tends to get slapped down for poor arguments by the Trump Judges.
So most Liberal to least is how i’ll rank them;
Judge Desai
Judge Mendoza
Judge Sung
Judge Koh
Judge Sanchez
Judge H Thomas
So far, the first four are pretty aligned as the most progressive bloc. Followed by Judge Sanchez who I would I say is slightly more conservative. Then Judge H Thomas.
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I don’t think De Alba will be voted on Monday as they tend to let bi partisan nominations get Monday votes in case senators are missing (e.g ill or missed a flight)
I remember I think it was last year reading about a interview with Sen Tester when he was deciding to run or not again and he said it takes him 12 hours to get to the senate from his farm in Montana.
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I agree. Monday vote will probably be cloture on someone with bipartisan support, like Garnett (SDNY) or Bryan (MN).
Then first two votes on Tues would be confirmation of that person and deAlba. In this scenario, there’s a they could do cloture and confirmation votes on 2 other judges in the afternoon and evening, so, Tuesday could end up being be a 4 confirmed judge day.
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Unfortunately at some point next week they’ll need to turn back to passing another CR which expires next Friday. That can take a lot of time.
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Republicans are in full blown outrage mode already at the SJC meeting over the votes for subpoenas for Harland Crow & Leonard Leo. Graham just said “Today is going to be a shit show”
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After more stalling, both nominees have finally been voted to the floor.
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Did the subpoena get voted on? I’m in and out of meetings all day so I caught the Kasubhai/Lee votes, unless it’s not done on-camera?
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Now I’m forgetting who was the really good nominee of the bunch–was it Humetawa? I remember there was a hiccup around Marquez, though.
Weird how Arizona vacancies occur in bunches.
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@tsb1991
No they didn’t vote on the subpoenas today. Durbin said they would but no explanation was given as to why not when the meeting abruptly adjourned after the fire on the two nominees.
@ raylodato
Marquez was the great nominee out of the bunch. Humetawa was good but certainly wouldn’t be had Arizona had two Democrat senators then like they do now.
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Thanks, I combed over the hearing when I had the chance but didn’t see it. I’m curious if they put up a business meeting next week, which all that would be up most likely would be the subpoenas and to hold over the nominees from the 11/1 hearing. Maybe attendance was getting a little flaky? Both Coons and Klobuchar did have to run out and initially voted by proxy on the two judicial nominees but got back and had their votes changed to being as recorded in-person.
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Here’s an article about the SJC meeting & no subpoena vote for those that missed it.
(https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/supreme-court-patrons-risk-subpoenas-in-democrats-ethics-probe?source=newsletter&item=read-text®ion=digest)
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Cloture on de Alba happening now. Manchin voted no, so that does leave 50 Ds voting yes with at least one Republican absence (Scott), so the VP shouldn’t be needed.
Schumer also filed cloture on the CR before the vote, so that’s likely to consume the week after de Alba is confirmed, and then they’re off for Thanksgiving after that.
The judiciary news we can look forward to next week will largely amount to: The confirmation of de Alba, the hearings on Wednesday which could have up to four nominees, the 11/1 nominees probably being held over which would set them up for a committee vote on the 30th, and then any possible new nominations as next week is the deadline for any nominees for the final hearing slot of the year, 12/13.
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Yes, it should be a busy week. Hoping for another strong batch of nominees, including a potential 3rd circuit nominee.
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So Manchin isn’t running for re-election but will instead be “traveling the country to see if there’s an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle”. Ugh, does this mean he’ll be missing votes.
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Sad to see Manchin retire. I really do wish he and Romney had decided to run again because their replacements will be significant downgrades.
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Any chance the three judges on the SDWV who are ready for senior status will take it and be replaced?
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With a lack of time until 2024 and blue slips in play, it is likely too late for that to happen now.
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Shelley Moore Capito would still have to return her blue slip. She is usually one of the more reasonable republican senators though, so it wouldn’t shock me to see her and Manchin come up with some good nominees if there was a vacancy.
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Roopali Desai confirmation was super quick because she worked with/for Sinema. 3 vacancies makes me really nervous in AZ as the 3 way race might complicate Sinemas working relationship with Dems as they’re bound to support Ruben to ensure Kari Lake doesn’t become a senator.
I’m glad we finally had a good week for confirmations but really feels like they could’ve invoked another district nominee to tee up a future confirmation before invoking cloture on Ana de Alba at 4pm.
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OMG, senator Kaine is making a unanimous consent request for over 300 military promotions on a person by person basis. Senator Tuberville is objecting one by one. Senator Fetterman is the presiding officer & the facial expressions in disgust after each Tuberville objection is classic. He tried to hide it at first. It now he’s straight up throwing his hands up, putting his head in his hands & laughing after almost every objection.
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Senate’s wrapped up. De Alba will be confirmed Monday, barring any attendance problems. After that the week will be spent with the CR.
I alluded to it last week and it was one of the slight disappointments from when the Senate wrapped up last Friday, but Kazen probably won’t have a voice vote. It would have happened last week if going by the precedent of Brailfords/Brookman’s voice votes earlier in the year (the Thursday the week after their committee vote). I held out hope for this week, but someone most likely is requesting a roll call vote on it.
An SJC meeting has been posted for next week. Since no judicial nominees will be eligible for a vote next week, the entirety of the meeting will likely be dedicated to the subpoena and its amendments, since the subpoena is listed for next week. I read on Twitter earlier that the reason the subpoenas didn’t get voted on were that Republicans were set to offer a ton of amendments to the subpoena (like going after Sotomayor). Aside from the subpoena, the nominees from the 11/1 hearing should be held over next Thursday.
Since no judicial nominees are expected to be confirmed next week aside from de Alba, the biggest thing next week IMO is if we get any new nominees from the President, so we’d have nominees for the final possible hearing of the year at 12/13. We should hopefully see Sherriff sent to the Senate after Monday, and possibly into the 11/15 hearing, which should have up to four nominees.
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Now that Manchin doesn’t have to worry about another election, I wonder if he’ll be an easier get for every judicial nominee.
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As much as folks dislike Manchin, we wouldn’t have seen Myrna Perez or Jennifer Sung among others be nominated without him (even if he did vote against many of them.)
Why I hope against hope Democrats can hang onto the Senate 50/50 next year.
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I like Joe Manchin very much. Much more than senator Meendez who is from a bright blue state & has absolutely no reason to be as shitty on judges amongst other things.
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I don’t want to talk too much electoral politics here, but with judicial nominations and confirmations tied to which direction the political winds are blowing, I fear it’s impossible to ignore it. Quite frankly, control of the senate is at stake in 2024 and it would make it that much harder to continue confirming liberal judges if Biden is reelected but stuck with an obstructionist GOP senate majority.
As unlikely as it may seem at the moment, I think Justice Thomas is feeling the pressure from his GOP billionaire handlers to retire soon to keep that seat in conservative’s hands. I have no doubt that he would retire in the first year of a 2nd Trump term or the first of any GOP president’s term. The only way to realistically achieve a more balanced SCOTUS is to have a Dem president and senate work together to flip that seat. If there is even a chance to achieve a majority on SCOTUS, it’s getting Thomas’ seat and waiting out Alito or Roberts (extremely unlikely, but bear with me). I just fear that with the advantage the GOP has in 2024 in the senate map and with a guaranteed flip of WV’s senate seat, at best there will be a 50-50 senate again, and at worst, Dems will lose majority and will be at the mercy of McConnell for any judicial vacancy in the country.
A 50-50 senate isn’t the end of the world, but it would make every individual democratic senator’s illness or absence render the senate’s daily agenda moot. It’s unlikely that Biden would even have a senate majority during his entire 2 terms (if he wins reelection), but the thought of having a 2014-2016 rerun of judicial vacancy fuckery scares me.
That’s why it’s important to fill every vacancy now so that there is no chance of a GOP president filling multiple vacancies in blue or purple states.
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For me, the key is Biden winning next year. The 2026 senate map looks really good for Democrats so even a 49-51 minority between 2025 & 2026 wouldn’t be the end of the world. I feel they could get red state & compromise nominees done those years & fight like Hell to gain the majority back in 2027. The key is making sure Biden is re-elected while limiting the damage next year to me.
I still say Democrats should invest in Texas, Florida & Tennessee. An upset win in even just one of those states would almost guarantee at worst a 50/50 senate majority.
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I feel like Biden might be trying to work with GOP senators to fill in red state vacancies, including in appeals courts, to soften the blow of possibly losing the senate in 2024. And considering that Graham will likely be SJC Chair under the next GOP Senate, and how he sometimes tries to work in a bipartisan fashion for judicial nominees, I feel like he might put a little bit of pressure on McConnell to confirm more nominees than he did in 2015-2016. That might be just wishful thinking, but it’s a thought.
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If it’s year 1 of a presidential term with a Dem president and GOP senate, there will definitely be more pressure on McConnell than in 2015-16 as he will have to come up with some excuse other than “it’s an election year”. If there is a narrow GOP senate majority during a 2nd Biden term and Dems have a serious shot at taking back the Senate in 2026, McConnell might be more inclined to cooperate; I think that the GOP would want to cooperate while they have veto power if they think that they will lose that veto power.
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Good point, but I just don’t trust McConnell with power after what he did to Obama and during his time as ML during Trump’s years. A 49-51 senate is not the end of the world at all, but the chances of getting clearly liberal judges goes down to 0%. I’m not convinced that McConnell would allow consensus nominees in red states (Brailsford, Papillion, Locher, etc.,) not to mention blue state district court nominees. If control of the senate flips, Biden will be lucky to get 30 judges every year.
You are right about the 2026 map though. Susan Collins *has* to retire eventually, right?!? With her retiring and a Dem/Ind (caucusing with the dems) taking her place, that’s a flip and room for more. States like Montana, Iowa, and Kentucky could be states with expensive and gettable races. This might be my wild thinking, but what’s Gov. Beshear doing after his second term? Think he would enjoy being a senator? (Yes, I know the difference between a state voting for Dem governors and its record voting for Dem senators). Someone call former Gov. Bullock and see what he’s up to. Iowa….. can any Dem win there? Grassley will be gone by then, get anyone. And North Carolina is the Democratic party’s white whale. Will they ever win that state in an election year or get a senator there? Just need one. And I’m aware Sen. Johnson isn’t up for reelection until 2028, but he has to be in his last term. Find a clone of Tammy Baldwin and have him/her run for that seat. 2 flips guaranteed puts you in the best position to strengthen the majority or flip the chamber.
Point is, the 2026 map looks great and that would hopefully give Biden his majority back or completely thwart the second half of Trump’s last term or the first term of the new GOP prez. I got my eye on Justice Thomas’s seat. Gotta wait him out and trap him like the GOP did with Justice Thurgood Marshall. (Just imagine if his seat never flipped, ugh)
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I feel like Susan Collins’s chances of retiring will skyrocket if she has some kind of health scare that causes her to miss a vote or almost miss a vote. If this happened and I were Chuck Schumer, I would make a deal with Susan Collins in which I agree to not hold any roll call votes until Susan Collins is able to return in exchange for Collins agreeing to retire in 2026 (most Republicans would abuse this privilege if offered it but I trust that Collins would not).
If Susan Collins agreed to such a deal and she couldn’t return to the Senate for a month, I would give the senators a month off with the expectation that they get this recess INSTEAD of the August recess and/or work Fridays (I’m sure that a lot of the Senators are rigid, for example I could imagine a Senator with an August birthday throwing a fit over not being able to spend their birthday at home with their family — perhaps they would fly across the country to be home for their birthday despite the Senate being in session — compound this with other senators wanting to be home to celebrate loved’ ones August birthdays and it quickly shows how difficult cancelling the August recess is).
If Collins was absent as much as Feinstein, I would renege on the deal.
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I know Susan Collins has worked well with Democrats & wants to continue her streak if not missing any floor votes, but the business can’t stop for any one person, not even the most centrist senator. Besides, I don’t know senator Collins but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t even want the redid for most votes without missing any of it took changing senate protocol, schedule & precedent by cancelling all votes until she recovered while never doing that for the hundreds of other senators that have missed time during her tenure for any number of reasons.
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Yeah it’s not practical, the more I wrote about it, the more I thought about it being impractical, and finally I added the last line about having the option to renege. I think it’s only worth it if Collins has a short-lasting emergency that isn’t expected to cause further absences. She might be inclined to retire out of fearing missing votes in her next term.
I suppose Collins also has an option B (not something that can be conditioned on her retirement): she has shown up for every vote for 26 years and has worked with both parties. I think that Collins may be the one senator to which 60+ senators are willing to let vote by proxy. To avoid giving her special treatment, if they wanted to let Collins vote by proxy, they would allow any senator to do so for a time. The GOP would further be interested in allowing proxy votes if they had multiple senators frequently missing votes because of health issues.
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Hi Guys, I’m new to posting. I have being a longtime viewer of Vetting Room and love the comments so far. Unlike most of you, I have more interest in not the confirmation but about how translates in terms of rulings and judicial Ideology. Judge Desai has so far joined the progressive bloc in En Banc dissents notably not containing almost any Obama or Clinton judges. Judge Koh has also turned out to be a solidly very progressive Judge, continuously siding with the progressive bloc in both en banc polls and opinions. Along with showing a proven progressive ideology in memoranda dispositions and standard opinions so far. The w Judge that has surprised me as being by the far the least progressive of his appointees on the court, is Judge Holly Thomas. She noticeably hasn’t joined almost any of the en banc poll dissents bar one, that the progressive bloc have signed onto. Furthermore, one of her immigration cases where she denied a petition for review, sparked a dissent from Trump appointee Judge Forrest for being unjust. She also joined with a conservative Judge to in a premeption case sparking a dissent from Humetewa regarding I believe Meal Breaks and Preemption
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Also what I’ve noticed so far from 1st Circuit Judge Gelpi and 4th Circuit Judge Heyten is that both of them seem to be more pretty conservative on criminal issues and pretty liberal on civil etc issues. In the 1st Circuit Judge Montecalvo and Gelpi ended up on opposite sides of a criminal en banc issue. http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/19-2204EB-01A.pdf
Judge Rikelman has no ideology of note so far, bar seeming to join conservatives in advocating for parental rights and the outing of trans people during oral arguments in a case. However, it is obviously unclear how that will translate.
In the 4th Circuit it seems that Judge Benjamin has a more liberal streak on criminal issues so far compared to Heyten with them also ending up on the opposite side of at least two en banc criminal polls.
In the 2nd Circuit the Judges are all progressive with the only liberal Judge not being Biden Appointed Judge Lohier showing a comparatively more center left ideology.
In the 6th Circuit Judge Davis and Judge Mathis seem to be more conservative than Judge Bloomekatz. With the two siding against her in an en banc decision that limited habeus corpus rights. However, they did join the liberals in another criminal case.
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For 9th circuit. In terms of most liberal to least. I’d just note that this is based of oral arguments and one Habeaus corpus case, where Mendoza dissented from reversing it, where the majority decision was written by Judge Sanchez.
Just randomly, I also agree that Judge Desai is the most liberal, and also the best at engaging in en banc oral argument battles with conservative judges, such as Judge Bress. Whereas Mendoza tends to get slapped down for poor arguments by the Trump Judges.
So most Liberal to least is how i’ll rank them;
Judge Desai
Judge Mendoza
Judge Sung
Judge Koh
Judge Sanchez
Judge H Thomas
So far, the first four are pretty aligned as the most progressive bloc. Followed by Judge Sanchez who I would I say is slightly more conservative. Then Judge H Thomas.
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It sure would be nice if a couple more Clinton judges would take senior status between now and next year, just so we can fill their seats instead of a Republican doing it.
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Unfortunately, there are a bunch of Clinton District judges in Red and Purple states: Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin.
I think we’ll likely see Pallmeyer (NDIL) announce senior status soon since her term as Chief justice ends next year.
Saris and Stearns (Mass) have both been eligible for senior a while. They’re both about to hit the 30 year court anniversary later on this month. I could see them maybe announcing after that, esp since the MA vacancy queue is currently empty.
Koeltl (SNDY) and Carter (CDCA) are both on courts that have had long backlog of nominees. Those backlogs have been whittled down, so there’s a possibility that these judges (who are nearing 80) might be eyeing senior soon.
With Manchin’s announcement, I wonder if we’ll see Goodwin (SDWV) and Chambers (SDWV) announce. I’m sure Manchin would love to fill one one of those with a friend.
The wild cards are Swain (SDNY) who is turning 65 but she’s Chief Justice and will prob stay on until that is over, Hurd (NDNY) who has been openly resistant to stepping down, and Brinkema (EDVA) who is in her 80’s but seems to just really like being a judge.
On the Obama judges side, I think this is the likely pool of possibilities.
McHugh (EDPA)
Quinones Alejandro (EDPA)
Jones (NDGA)
Treadwell (MDGA)
Schofield (SDNY)
Caproni (SDNY)
Azrack (EDNY)
D’agostino (NDNY)
Freeman (NDCA)
Seeborg (NDCA)
Goldsmith (EDMI)
Simon (OR)
Berger (SDWV)
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Pallmeyer (NDIL) going senior would be great because there is currently one vacancy & two recommendations still pending out of the seven Durbin sent to Biden. Both Nicholas Gowen & Karen Shelly would be great picks so I would love to see two vacancies.
I said before I was surprised we haven’t seen additional vacancies in Massachusetts. After seeing young progressives finally being nominated in the state after years of underwhelming Democrat appointees, I hope we get at least one more vacancy.
The West Virginia & SDNY judges that are eligible, I’m a little less hopeful about. And David Hurd is garbage. I hope he is out of that seat before Biden’s term for whatever reason. As soon as he found out Gonzalez was the last name of the judge that Biden was gonna replace him with, all of a sudden he withdrew his senior status plans. He’s garbage.
Little would excite me more than additional Georgia vacancies. Ossoff & Warnock are amongst the best senators when it comes to judges & it’s sad they have only had three seats to fill.
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Here are my top choices for the Arizona vacancies with their approximate years of births;
Victoria Lopez (born c. 1976)
Justin Pidot (born c. 1977)
Eunice Lee (born c. 1981)
Jared Keenan (born c. 1981)
Laura St. John (born c. 1983)
Joshua Bendor (born c. 1983)
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The one good note about a potential 50/50 senate is it would still be a good bit more reliably progressive than what we had from 2021-2022. Assuming that happens we would basically be swapping out Manchin/Sinema for Fetterman/Gallego.
I do think Biden could probably get some consensus district nominees through in a 51-49 or even 52-48 R senate. Nothing exciting of course but packages like the ones we saw in FL or OK would be achievable and between home state senators and Collins/Murkowski there would probably be enough to get them floor votes.
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The other night we were talking about Obama appointments to the 9th circuit & judge John Owens came up because it took from 2004 to 2014 to fill the seat due to a dispute between Idaho & California senators over which state deserved to fill the seat.
I looked into the judge who Owens replaced which was Stephen Trott. Since I had some extra time on my hands at work, I decided to look up the judge who Trott replaced which is Joseph Tyree Sneed III. I was getting ready to X his page off the computer figuring there’s nothing special about him but then I looked at his family members & noticed his daughter is Carly Fiorina who ran for both president & the US senate in the past. Interesting family connection I never knew about.
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When do we think the deadline is for circuit court vacancies to be announced in order for Biden to fill them this congress? Certainly any vacancy from any of the 27 senior-eligible GOP appointees would be welcome; the most moderate among them I’d probably say are Rovner, Newman, Lourie, and Milan Smith. A retirement by Niemeyer would be particularly helpful to settle the Maryland debacle.
Among the 16 senior-eligible Dem appointees, I’d guess the deadline in states with reticent GOP senators is very close to passing if it hasn’t already, so that would be Wynn (NC), Stewart (LA), Graves (MS), Moore (OH), Stranch (TN), Matheson (UT), and Wilson (FL). But I’m guessing with more hospitable or no senators, the deadline may be in February or March? That would be Kayatta (ME), Gregory (VA), King (WV), Clay (MI), Wardlaw (CA), Rawlinson (NV), Gould (WA), Dyk (Fed), and Reyna (Fed).
Among the seven confirmed/currently pending from states with two GOP senators, only two (Mathis and Pryor) got involved on a reasonable timeline (within two months of the vacancy announcement). Meanwhile, that’s true for 5/7 without home state senators, and of the other two, Gelpí was a special circumstance (pre-existing vacancy) and Childs I don’t believe was the original choice. It’s also true of 22/27 from states with at least one Dem senator; among the others, Merriam was close to meeting the two-month mark, Montgomery-Reeves was for a vacancy announced a full year in advance, Kahn probably had to satisfy Cabranes, Chung had to satisfy Toomey, and Aframe was of course the second choice after the hand-picked Delaney. With rare exceptions (Bloomekatz, Freeman, Montecalvo, Abudu), those without two GOP senators were announced within three months of applying/being invited.
So that brings us to a reasonable expectation of five months from vacancy announcement to nominee announcement. Once they’re announced, nominees from GOP states again take longer (confirmation in 6 months for Pryor, Benjamin, and Douglas; 10 months for Mathis). Among the 32 other confirmations, announcement to confirmation took: 1.5 months for one (Desai); 2.5-3.5 months for 6; 3.5-4.5 months for nine; 4.5-5.5 months for seven; 7-9 months for five; and 10+ months for four (Abudu, Bloomekatz, Garcia, Rikelman). If Democrats were intent on fast-tracking a nomination and weren’t waiting for cooperation from GOP home state senators, I don’t believe there’s anything the GOP could do to prevent a confirmation in ~3.5-4 months? So five months (usually less) for selection/vetting and four months for confirmation, and I’d put the chance of a vacancy (not relying on reticent GOPers) announced in late March being filled at at least 85% before accounting for fast-tracking. But I’m not sure exactly how much the election season is going to impact this.
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@star0garnet
@Gavi & myself have gone back & fourth on the latest a circuit court judge could announce senior status & Biden realistically could fill the seat before the end of next year. @Gavi gave a timeline of around this month if I remember correctly.
My end date is the end of January. I think once February comes, a Republican senator will stall long enough to block the seat form getting filled.
@dawsont825
Thurgood Marshall not staying on the bench until he died (I believe six days after Clinton took office) will forever be a stain on our rights. Not much would give me more joy than to see a Democrat president replace Thomas.
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What could a GOP senator do to effectively slow-track a nominee outside of their own state? Barring Manchin ramping up his rebellious streak and either the same for Sinema or disability/illness/death of another Democrat, it’s unlikely Democrats will even need to resort to a discharge or (slightly likelier) a Harris tiebreaker, particularly as the White House would likely avoid more controversial figures like Rikelman or Sung if their primary goal was to fill the seat in a timely manner.
Unrelated question: how high is the risk of Gibbons revoking her planned senior status if she doesn’t like whomever gets nominated? I believe Karen Caldwell was the only other GOP appointee to have announced under Biden their intention to go senior on the confirmation of a successor.
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@star0garnet
Here’s what I envision when it comes to GOP obstruction for any red state circuit court vacancy announced after January. If a vacancy is announced February 1st, I can see a GOP senator taking 3 months to look for, interview & vet possible nominees. That brings us to May.
Now the GOP senators can say they agree to a nominee but want to interview him & another nominee one more time. That will take a month or so, bringing us to June. Now the GOP senators will find something that they find completely unacceptable in the nominee’s background. They will demand the administration go with a backup nominee, certainly somebody much more moderate & possibly unacceptable to the administration.
The administration & senators could go back & fourth another month. That brings us to the Augst recess. The senators say they are close to a final recommendation. They give it to the president in September. Now the FBI has to vet the nominee. At best, that takes about a month which brings us to October. The election is a couple of weeks after that so I can assure you if Biden loses, the senators will forget all about 2020 & demand the vacancy wait until the new president is in power.
As for you question at the bottom, I doubt Gibbons will withdraw. She could have just waited until after the election to announce but she didn’t for some reason. My guess is the administration will pick somebody in the mold of Kolar, getting the Indiana senator’s support. Perhaps a Us attorney, a veteran or a local attorney without too much of a progressive background. Camille McMullin is still a possibility but I’m not sure Haggerty & Blackburn will want two of the three Tennessee circuit court judges to be Black.
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I truly believe if a circuit seat becomes available before 7/1/24 then it will be filled this Congress. Even in a red state. I don’t think the WH is going to waste too much time, particularly given that there should be relatively few if any circuit nominees left to confirm at that point.
A June announcement would give the WH 3 months or so (until about late September) until they’d need to make a nominee in order to get them confirmed prior to the end of the year.
This WH has mostly played nice with GOP senators but I think during an election and with the clock running out they will move much faster.
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Hard disagree here. If it is past even January, a red state circuit court seat isn’t going to be filled until the next Congress. The Biden administration will make every effort to work in good faith with the home state senators, and they won’t move faster just because there is an election upcoming.
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@Frank
Absolutely. If the question is COULD a red state circuit court vacancy announced after January be filled before the end of next year, then the answer is yes. If the question is WILL a red state circuit court vacancy announced after January be filled before the end of next year by THIS White House, then the answer is most likely not.
The days of Andre Mathis are over. This White House is not trying to nominate circuit court judges that won’t get at least one, but more than likely both home state senators blue slips. Not something I agree with or am happy about, just stating the reality.
So with that reality we need to look at what’s likely to happen. A vacancy announced on February 1st gives 11 months to fill. Home state Republicans can drag their feet & pretend to act in good faith for 11 months.
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We will have to wait and see. But I do not believe the WH would simply let a circuit seat go vacant if it opened prior to July 1.
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Ah, yes, I certainly agree that a vacancy in a GOP state can and likely will be slow-tracked. But because the circuit courts are more like the electoral college than the senate, despite only 8/44 circuit vacancies under Biden having been in states with two GOP senators, such seats only constitute 14 of the 43 other senior-eligible circuit judges. (6 with no senators, 19 with two Democratic senators, 4 with split delegations, including Maine) So at worst, 17/43 would be slow-tracked barring Cardin-level obstructionism from a Democrat.
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Oh finally reached a milestone I’d been waiting for, there’s now more Dem appointed district judges than at any point in like the last 30 years.
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Remember Robert King on the 4th Circuit was to take senior status then because of a disagreement with the WH and/or Sen Manchin, he ended up staying full time
Well, regardless of what the senate make up is in Jan 2025, West Virginia will have 2 GOP senators, so if Judge wants a Democratic president to replace him, time is now to take senior status. And though blue slips aren’t needed for circuit court seats, still be easier to replace him now than if WV has 2 Republican senators
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King might think he’s likelier to get his preferred successor if Manchin isn’t involved. But the state’s district court judges should get a move on. Joseph Goodwin (80, Clinton, conservative?), Chuck Chambers (71, Clinton, moderate liberal?), John Preston Bailey (72, Bush, moderate conservative?) and Irene Berger (69, Obama, moderate liberal?) are all eligible and comprise half of the state’s bench.
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They already would have be able to quit long time ago, but they didn’t, maybe they won’t play Bingo at the nursery home and going on wielding the gavel instead.
Circuit judges as well as district courts judges.
Although some folks here speculate that there are some ‘less conservative’ or ‘more liberal’ judges might go senior under Biden, but I don’t believe that, those who are already here now, will stay until the very last day of their lives, and speculating about that date, is not appropriate. I see no further voluntary vacancies among circuit court judges until 2024.
But there is always some movement among the district judges, but the number of vacancies is slowly decreasing, we had between 65 and 70 vacancies in 2021 and 2022 and have now 60 or a little less in 2023, the number of future vacancies is constantly around 30. So there is a point, when it might be better, facing an election in 2024, with a possible GOP President and Senate majority, that the incumbent won’t leave.
I know the Senate could theoretically work on Fridays and cancel state work periods, but this idea is not popular among the senators as you know.
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Gerald Bard Tjoflat and Carlos Bea, who were both very old (Bea is quite conservative while Tjoflat is more moderate) both waited until the middle of 2019 to announce senior status upon the confirmation of their successors. So it could still happen. Some judges still want Dem successors but also want to maximize the amount of time they can stay in office for.
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1 judge that I often think about is Ronald Gould (9th CCA), and if or when he’ll assume senior status. He’s 77 years old, has MS, and has been serving since 1999. He’s also a more moderate liberal. I don’t know if he’ll go senior soon under Biden (his seat is in Washington state), if he wants to go under the next Democratic president, or live out the rest of his rest of his life as an active judge.
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I don’t think he will do, because he is a fighter. He has fought hard to adapt to his various disabilities for such long time, that is admirable.
At the Ninth Circuit none of the judges become eligible for retirement for the next years, so there are just the three Clinton and three Bush appointees on the list, what is bitter, because Trump has shifted the court so much to the right.
But as I said, it’s not impossible that there are a few judges taking senior status within the next year, and yes, there are some surprise moves, like Charles Norgle jr. at the ND of Illinois. But if you desire to leave, you do it close when you become eligible or you are likely to stay, if illness, a good job offer or the need of your family might convince you to go.
Here the argument is that the President of the same party may appoint the successor or going for the sake of the country is very dominant, that’s right, but there are other ones, too. The judicial legacy is also one, like Judge Yeakel from the SD of Texas said, you will be remembered when you go while you can do the job well.
Under these circumstances there is absolute no reason why Pauline Newman should go senior now, although she’s 96 years old, she has no family left, her reputation is damaged, not to mention her conviction, that she’s irreplacable.
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In case anyone’s interested in the status of some of the current vacancies, I was able to find info on a few of them.
Maryland – Senators Cardin and Van Hollen have set a Nov. 13, 2023 end date for collecting applications to replace Judge James Bredar.
Pennsylvania – Senators Casey and Fetterman are using a single selection board to evaluate candidates. I believe that Casey and Toomey previously used separate evaluation boards. Casey and Fetterman have set a Nov. 27, 2023 end date for applications to fill vacancies on EDPA and MDPA.
Vermont – Senators Welch and Sanders have set a Dec. 1, 2023 deadline for applications to replace Judge Geoffrey Crawford.
Alaska – Senator Sullivan has set up an application committee independent of Senator Murkowski. His committee’s deadline for applications is Nov. 20, 2023.
Ohio – Senator Sherrod Brown has set a Dec 1, 2023 deadline for applications to fill vacancies in NDOH and SDOH. However,Senator Vance doesn’t seem to be involved in this process so not sure how far these will go.
Rhode Island – Senators Whitehouse and Reed set a July 28, 2023 deadline for applications to replace Judge William E. Smith.
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@keystone
Thanks for the update. Here’s my thoughts on each;
Maryland – I’m surprised they didn’t have a back up nominee for the vacancies that went to Hurson & Maddox. Since those two seats went to two of the three young magistrate judges, I hope this seat goes to the third one, Ajmel Quereshi.
He’s my hope for the 4th circuit vacancy. Perhaps with all the push back Biden is getting from the Muslim community, perhaps he will push harder for Ajmel for either vacancy. It’s way past time for Cardin to drop whatever lame old prosecutor he’s probably pushing for & let’s get really good nominees for both the district & circuit court vacancies.
Pennsylvania – I still don’t understand how they are just now starting the process of filling the EDPA vacancy. The great news is they are now using a single selection board to evaluate candidates. I hope California follows suit either now with Padilla & Butler & whoever is going to replace Butler.
Vermont – As I mentioned last week I have high hopes for this future nominee.
Alaska – Senator Sullivan is going to stall & this seat will not be filled before the end of next year.
Ohio – Senator Vance is not involved in the process because he has no interest in filling either vacancy. Senator Portman would have worked in good faith but Vance is going to wait for the election results.
Rhode Island – My initial hopes were high for this vacancy. But then I saw judge Smith set his retirement date for January 2025. Being that Smith is a Republican appointee & that date will be after the election, the senators will probably not go with a nominee too progressive out of fear Smith will rescind his retirement three more weeks until after the swearing in, in the event Biden loses.
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@Dequan
It’s been almost a year since they interviewed Hurson & Maddox. I think this might be a way of making sure applicants are still interested/to give any new people a chance to apply. I’m encouraged by the fact that the MD senators are moving so quickly after Bredar’s notice and I share your hope that Ajmel Quereshi will get it.
I’m also hopeful that we’ll get a 4th Circuit nom soon. Cardin’s made it clear that he wants to have some say in the matter and he’s running out of time. I think he’ll want to save face and at least name somebody rather than have the clock run out and have no say in the matter. I like Erek Barron but I could see him preferring to go a political career route rather than a judicial one. My pick would be Jessie Weber- progressive background, plus she’d be one of a very small handful of LGBT judges on the Circuit level.
For PA, I saw an interview with Judge John E. Jones III from earlier this year where he was discussing the PA nomination process and how it might change with the Fetterman election. This interview occurred before successors to Judges Jones and Mariani’s seats had been named. He talked about the obvious stuff about how there was more of a chance that his successor would be a Democrat since Toomey was no longer there and that they would be looking at a more diverse roster of candidates. He also said something about how the Senators had been actively interviewing and how if Casey remained in charge of running things that noms would probably come out quickly but if Fetterman decided to play more of an active role that there would probably be a noticeable slow down in the process. I think they let Casey run with the MDPA candidates since that’s his home turf and that Fetterman wants some more say in the ones going forward. I understand it, but I just wish this had occurred a few months earlier.
I know we’ve discussed a lot of names for the EDPA seat, but if Fetterman is gonna play more of a role in the selection process, I could see him pushing for Shanon Levin or Lauren DeBruicker since they both focus so much on disability rights and that’s an area for which he’s been advocating a lot since his stroke.
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While Ajmel Quereshi is my first choice for the 4th, I would have no problem with Erek Barron. Especially since he’s still in his late 40’s & we have only had one Black man confirmed to any circuit court since January 2014. He’s already been confirmed by this senate & he was an early backer of Biden so he certainly could be the pick. But I too wonder if he would rather have a future in politics & not a judge.
Jessie Weber has been on my radar too albeit I didn’t know she was LGBT so that may move her up the list slightly. I would love to wait this long to fill the seat & get a 40 year old progressive. Despite her youth, with her being a state Circuit Court of Appeals judge, her credentials should be without question.
I’m familiar with Shanon Levin but never heard of Lauren DeBruicker. I’ll have to look her up.
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Although Smith ruled against students suing to get a civics education, he admired them and in his ruling he effectively gave them a civics lesson and lamented that he had to rule against them. I think that Smith isn’t as conservative as people think he might be.
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Thanks @keystone. It’s good to know that some recommendations may be going to the WH early in the new year.
OK, if this week is de Alba and CR, we’re probably not getting any more judges. And who knows what will be on their plate when they get back from Thanksgiving? The CR will probably not be clean and there will be residual issues. How many nominees do we expect will get returned to the WH when the session ends?
I think @Joe is probably right that we’re going to get to 170 by 12/31 (180, my earlier guess, is now probably out of the question), but that leaves a bunch for January. Is Schumer likely to go for numbers and push to confirm the easier/relatively easier nominees next month, or tee up the harder ones while he has 50-51 votes?
Thoughts?
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A lot of it will come down to attendance and whether or not the VP is in town.
I’m guessing Schumer will prioritize the Circuit noms. Based on Dec ’21 and Dec ’22, I think the District noms will prob skew more towards the easier votes since December attendance can be iffy. However, I think we’ll get a couple more party like votes before the end of the year. I hope Schumer cherrypicks the party line votes based on impact. Hoping that Gaston gets through since she’s great and CA has a lot of openings and Edelman since that court is gonna have 3 vacancies very soon.
Something I’m curious about is International Trade Court nominees. I know that one of them is a Dem and one’s a Rep due to the way that court is structured. Is there a chance that they could roll call vote the Dem nom and get the everyone to agree to a voice vote for the Rep nom?
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With regard to the vacancies, here are my thoughts.
Pennsylvania- Bob Casey and Patrick Toomey had a good working relationship. They produced a package which many found satisfactory. I don’t think John Fetterman will be involved in judicial selections.
Ohio- to everyone’s surprise, Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance get along. Maybe they can agree on a nominee. Vance will be more assertive than Rob Portman was.
Maryland- the vacancy on the Fourth remains. I still think that the Biden Administration wants a D.C. insider and Ben Cardin wants someone with someone with Maryland roots.
Vermont- most likely the nominee will be a progressive. I don’t know who it will be, though.
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Fetterman may get a courtesy interview with whomever Casey chooses, but I agree on PA. As for OH, I simply can’t see Vance turning in a blue slip for anyone to the left of the FedSoc. I also agree with you regarding MD and VT.
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Just had a look at some Trial Judges in Vermont. As the Supreme court is full of 60+ year olds, we will hopefully rule them out. Elizabeth Novotny stands out to me.
She currently serves as general counsel to the Mosaic Learning Center, an independent school for students with developmental disabilities, and is specialistin the areas of special education and criminal justice.
She is also on the board of Outright Vermont, an LGBT youth organisation, Criminal defense lawyers association, special education boards and on the Vermont Sentencing Commission.
I have no indication of an actual age, though im still guessing in her 50s which may be a negative.
I will have a deeper look, just thought id mention one so far
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The Vermont spot has me particulary interested. I feel like there is hopefully an option for a union lawyer, similiar to Judge Pitt in California.
Also a Public Defender attorney would still be great. I remember reading somewhere that Vermont was a more lenient and homogenous court when it came to sentencing.
I think a concern for me with the appointees so far, is that on anti trust and union issues they arent particulary progressive. With the DOJ pursuing more aggresive anti trust policy, surely that should be replicated in appointees to the judiciary similiar to the FCC
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Also just a random note. The New York Court of Appeals is hearing arguments on a redistrcting case this week. Catilian halligan the new appointee and moderate swing vote has recused. I think new york has some the worst appointees by democrats. With Hochul complaning about New York Courts being the last defence then trying to appoint a moderate centre right to the court as if that would fix it, thank god he was rejected. Anyway back from tangent. She had being replaced by Justice Renwick who has previously sided with democrats in redistricting cases. So fingers crossed maybe democrats could pick up a few seats next cycle.
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@Aiden
Uuuggghhh… Catilian halligan recused. Sucks but I know she worked on the redistricting so I guess she really needed to. Governor Hochul sucks so bad along with her predecessor when it comes to judges.
And thanks for the Elizabeth Novotny suggestion. I never heard of her as Vermont is one of those states I don’t have too many recommendations for.
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I made a slight mistake, Elizabeth Novotny is a current trial judge in Vermont. Above was her prior experience
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I’m new to posting. I have being a longtime viewer of Vetting Room and love the comments so far. Unlike most of you, I have more interest in not the confirmation but about how translates in terms of rulings and judicial Ideology. Judge Desai has so far joined the progressive bloc in En Banc dissents notably not containing almost any Obama or Clinton judges. Judge Koh has also turned out to be a solidly very progressive Judge, continuously siding with the progressive bloc in both en banc polls and opinions. Along with showing a proven progressive ideology in memoranda dispositions and standard opinions so far. The w Judge that has surprised me as being by the far the least progressive of his appointees on the court, is Judge Holly Thomas. She noticeably hasn’t joined almost any of the en banc poll dissents bar one, that the progressive bloc have signed onto. Furthermore, one of her immigration cases where she denied a petition for review, sparked a dissent from Trump appointee Judge Forrest for being unjust. She also joined with a conservative Judge to in a case sparking a dissent from Humetewa regarding I believe Meal Breaks and Preemption
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@Aiden, while I do pay a lot of attention to the confirmation processes, I do agree that judge ideology is much more interesting. On one of the previous posts on the blog, I ranked the 9th Circuit judges (who are not in senior status) from most liberal to conservative. On that list, I put Koh at #4, I feel like she isn’t seen as liberal as she actually is.
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Yes couldnt agree more. I will try and find that comment. Do you perhaps no what nominee it was under. Very interested in the ranking. Have u being suprised about Judge H Thomas so far? I was expecting her to be the most liberal or on par with Desai at least
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So that so don’t have to look for it, here’s the list:
1. Sung
2. Wardlaw
3. H. Thomas
4. Koh
5. Mendoza
6. Sanchez
7. Desai
8. Murguia
9. Nguyen
10. Christen
11. Friedland
12. Owens
13. Johnstone
14. Gould
15. Rawlinson
16. Bennett
17. M. Smith
18. Callahan
19. Bade
20. Ikuta
21. Miller
22. Lee
23. Forrest
24. Bress
25. Nelson
26. Collins
27. Bumatay
28. VanDyke
(Upon the confirmation of de Alba, I think she would probably go to Number 3 or 4)
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I would probably change a couple of the ratings now.
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For fun I did a ranking too.
1. Sung
2. Mendoza
3. Desai
4. Koh
5. Murguia
6. Sanchez
7. Wardlaw
8. Rawlinson
9. H Thomas
10. Nguyen
11. Friedland
12. Christen
13. Johnstone
14. Owens
15. Gould
16. Milan Smith
17. Forrest
18. Bennett
19. Miller
20. Bade
21. Ikuta
22. Callahan
23. Lee
24. Bress
25. Nelson
26. Bumatay
27. Collins
28. VanDyke
I think Callahan, Bade and Sanchez, I made more conservative and Rawlinson more liberal.
I am unsure about the accuraccy of my ranking Ikuta, she is hard to precisely pin. Also whether Forrest or Bennett is more liberal.
De Alba will be between 3 and 5 hopefully.
It will be interesting to see how Johnstone actually rules on certain issues
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Also what I’ve noticed so far from 1st Circuit Judge Gelpi and 4th Circuit Judge Heyten is that both of them seem to be more pretty conservative on criminal issues and pretty liberal on civil etc issues. In the 1st Circuit Judge Montecalvo and Gelpi ended up on opposite sides of a criminal en banc issue. http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/19-2204EB-01A.pdf
Judge Rikelman has no ideology of note so far, bar seeming to join conservatives in advocating for parental rights and the outing of trans people during oral arguments in a case. However, it is obviously unclear how that will translate.
In the 4th Circuit it seems that Judge Benjamin has a more liberal streak on criminal issues so far compared to Heyten with them also ending up on the opposite side of at least two en banc criminal polls.
In the 2nd Circuit the Biden Judges are all progressive, with the only liberal Judge not being Biden Appointed, is Judge Lohier who has a comparatively more center left ideology.
In the 6th Circuit Judge Davis and Judge Mathis seem to be more conservative than Judge Bloomekatz. With the two siding against her in an en banc decision that limited habeus corpus rights. However, they did join the liberals in another criminal case.
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That reminds me, there is another Tennessee vacancy on the Sixth Circuit. There is another vacancy on West Tennessee District Court. The Biden Administration and the state’s Senators have gotten off to a bad start with the 2021 nomination of Andre Mathis. Three names which come up are state Appellate Judge Camille McMullen, U.S Attorney Kevin Ritz, and U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough. None of the three seem to be controversial.
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Hopefully the Tennesse Senators will drag this process. Do you know roughly how long you think itll be for the district or appellate seat till thete is an announcment?
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I’d expect for the WH to try and come up with a reasonable package for the Tennessee vacancies. However if there’s been no progress by January or so I expect them to get more aggressive even if it means leaving the district seat vacant.
I ultimately expect the nominee to be pretty moderate either way for a variety of reasons.
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@Aiden
I have no idea how long it will take. The Andre Mathis nomination and the poor way Democrats pushed it created some bad blood.
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Will not drag this process*
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Oh nooooooooooooooooooooo
Horrible news
(https://www.yahoo.com/news/tim-scott-lone-black-republican-024534437.html)
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Not at all surprising. For those who don’t wish to click on the link, Tim Scott is suspending his campaign for president.
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So frustrating that we all saw this coming. Sick and tired of democrats attempting to please republicans. They didnt give us that with Garland nor 9th circuit appointees etc.
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