John Russell – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma

As part of a deal to fill two vacancies on the severely overburdened Northern District of Oklahoma, the White House has agreed to nominate Tulsa litigator John Russell.

Background

A native Oklahoman, John David Russell was born in 1963 in Enid. Russell received a B.S. with honors from Oklahoma State University in 1985 and a J.D. with distinction from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1988. Russell then started at Bracewell & Patterson in Washington D.C. and three years later joined the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division. In 1993, Russell returned to Oklahoma to Sneed Lang Adams & Barnett and two years later became a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

In 2002, he returned to private practice, first briefly at the firm of Gardere Wynne Sewell and then at Fellers Snider Blankesnhip Bailey & Tippens. In 2015, Russell joined the Tulsa office of GableGotwals as a Shareholder. It is a position he currently holds.

History of the Seat

Russell has been nominated to replace Judge John Dowdell on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Dowdell took senior status on June 21, 2021.

Political Activity

Russell has a limited political history, with his sole political donation being one to Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready in 2018.

Legal Experience

Russell has worked as an attorney for around thirty-five years, working both in private practice and with the federal government. He started his career in private practice in Washington D.C. working on regulatory and antitrust matters before he moved to the Department of Justice Tax Division.

From 1995 to 2002, Russell worked as a federal prosecutor in Tulsa, primarily prosecuting white collar cases. Of the cases he handled during this time, Russell headed a four-week jury trial for conspiracy, money laundering, and wire fraud. See United States v. Lorson and Evans, Case No. 97-CR-135-TCK (N.D. Okla. 1998).

Since 2002, Russell has been in private practice in Tulsa, working on both civil litigation and white collar criminal defense. Notably, as a criminal defense attorney, Russell challenged the constitutionality of the federal bar on felons possessing firearms, arguing that the ban violates the Second Amendment under the Supreme Court’s ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. See United States v. Coombes, 629 F. Supp. 3d 1149 (N.D. Okla. 2022). Judge Gregory Frizzell rejected the challenge as applied to the indictment of Russell’s client. See id. at 1152. On the civil side, Russell notably defended United American Insurance Company in a nationwide class action lawsuit alleging fraud in the health insurance policies being offered. See Smith et al. v. Collingsworth et al., Case No. CV-2004-742-2 (Ark. Cir. Ct. Saline Cnty.).

Writings and Statements

Throughout his legal career, Russell has occasionally written on the law. For example, Russell coauthored an article on strategies for fighting criminal tax penalties. See John D. Russell and Andrew J. Hofland, Managing Expectations in Criminal Tax Defense – Yours and Your Client’s, 90 Okla. B.J. 18 (2019) (available at https://www.okbar.org/a2j/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/OBJ2019March.pdf#page=20). In another article, Russell discusses the impact of the Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen on criminal prosecutions, suggesting that criminal defense attorneys use the decision to push back against enhancements or bond conditions involving firearms. See John D. Russell, Andrew J. Hofland, & Justian A. Lollman, The New Second Amendment Frontier: Litigating the Constitutionality of Firearm Offenses Under Bruen’s Text-and-History Standard, 94 Okla. B.J. 7 (Mar. 2023) (available at https://www.okbar.org/barjournal/march-2023/the-new-second-amendment-frontier/).

Overall Assessment

With the strong support of his home state senators, Russell should have a relatively comfortable confirmation process, and will likely join the bench by early next year.

84 Comments

  2. Just saw the news on Kayatta. Good news. I would expect the nominee to be pretty conventional and center left. The WH is going to try and play nice with Susan Collins since they rely on her vote for a lot of confirmations.

    Still, even though it doesn’t shift philosophy much it will be good to get a replacement who is 15-20 years younger.

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  3. On the 1st Circuit news, I don’t expect to get a flaming liberal to replace William Kayatta given that both Susan Collins and Jared Golden (Blue Dog Democrat) will likely have a say in the nomination process.
    As long as he or she is a moderate to slightly left leaning, it’s good enough for me.
    Now if other Obama/Clinton judges would take the hint and take senior status, that would be great.

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  5. Some frontrunners for the Maine seats:
    Kate Tierney, 45, district judge and former assistant AG
    Jodi Nofsinger, 54, state ACLU president
    Charles Dow, 50, district judge
    Stacy Stitham, 43, state bar president
    Halliday Moncure, 47, assistant AG

    And while Maine has a very old judiciary, there are a few others who could be considered:
    Deborah Cashman, 54, superior judge
    Jennifer Archer, 48, superior judge
    Julia Lipez, 43, superior judge
    Lea-Anne Sutton, 56, district judge
    Peter Malia, 58, district judge
    Tracy Gorham, 53, district judge
    Tammy Ham-Thompson, 52, district judge
    Sean Ociepka, 44, district judge
    Sarah Gilbert, 40, district judge

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Considering that Judge Barron is only 56 years old, and not eligible for senior status, after Kayatta is replaced, that virtually removes any chances of the GOP flipping seats on the 1st Circuit. Upon the confirmation of Kayatta’s successor, the unanimous liberal majority would likely be set in stone for very long time.

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  7. This is a pretty remarkable statement:
    Stitham, president of the state bar, “is a 5th generation attorney, whose family practiced law at a northern Maine firm for more than a century, and whose grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great grandfather all served in turn as President of the Maine State Bar Association.”

    I’d heard of her, but with the amount of nativism that pervades Maine politics (being a ‘True Mainer’ generally requires several generations), I’d guess one of the seats is hers if she wants it. But that would mean giving up her lucrative ISP practice.

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  8. For our next District-Circuit court search, I’m hoping that Judge Clay (6th) announces senior status, gets succeeded by Judge Grey (EDMI), and that they will be able to quickly fill his role since they are currently interviewing Detroit lawyers to fill another role ont hat court.

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  9. We have the 2024 Senate calendar:

    Looks like the Senate comes back for the 2nd session on the 8th, not the 3rd as I thought. This means we could have a hearing on 1/10, which we would need nominees by 12/13 for that slot. Surprisingly, they’re only out on MLK day, not the week itself. Maybe the tradeoff was that they’re off two weeks for President’s Day instead?

    Not sure what that random week in the middle of July off is for, since it’s in between their 4th of July break and the August break. Same for that one week off in late April, since Easter falls on 3/31 this year, and they’ve got their two weeks out for that.

    Also, not surprising that they took October off, since that tends to be the standard during election years, no?

    Liked by 1 person

    • Haaaaaaa

      @Gavi I think they just leave Friday’s on the calendar in case anybody reading is having a bad day so they can get a good laugh. You know, similar to senator Blackburn’s “hold” on New York judicial nominees After Garnett is confirmed next Tuesday, her hold will go into affect after that… See, didn’t I make you laugh… Lol

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  13. I dont know if this has already being said but Judge De Alba has already got her commission just two days after beint confirmed. Pretty quick. However Johnstone was 4 days and being on the court for over 6 months, not written a single opinion and only being in one set of oral arguments and no en banc hearings.
    In comparison Abudu was on the court for only a couple months and was already in en banc hearings and then opinions. Shes written concurrences and a dissent already. Hopefully De Alba gets influence quickly

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  16. After Bryan and Garnett, want to make any guesses on who will be confirmed next? Just a bit curious because which nominees getting confirmed first seems to getting more and more random.

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    • @CJ

      My guess for the next skate of post Bryan & Garnett nominees to have cloture sent to the floor is any of the 9 district court nominees not from a state with a Republican senator. Schumer seems to be getting all of them confirmed first. We haven’t seen a nominee from a state with a Republican senator confirmed since David Papillion. I think Schumer wants to leave those type of nominees for a potential vote-a-rama at the end of the year.

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  18. I was looking back at the Pamela Harris confimation process (was in a 4th Circuit zone, lol, after the Berner nomination). In any event, she was nominated in May 2014 and confirmed by July 2014. And she was a rather controversial nominee.. Let’s hope the 2024 Senate Democrats can move in an equally fast fashion and have people confirmed in couple months. Maybe even work a Friday (no, I’m just kidding Dequan, you can stop laughing, I know they ain’t working no Friday, lol). The only Fridays they work are the Pro-forma session, where they are in & out in about 2 minutes.

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  19. Kayatta’s announcement adds to this administration’s remarkable success at getting Dem appointees who have newly qualified for senior status to take that option. Looking at the numbers below, I wonder if we have yet to see an upcoming exodus among district judges who have qualified this year or will qualify next year. Or perhaps the new WH counsel hasn’t made generating vacancies a point of emphasis?

    Dem-appointed circuit judges by when they qualified for senior status:
    pre-2021: 37 as of 1/20/2021 → 10 now who have not announced
    2021: 3 → 0
    2022: 8 → 5 (including 4 with GOP senators)
    2023: 1 (Kayatta) → 0
    2024: 0 → 0
    Clinton appointees: 31 → 10
    Obama appointees: 18 → 5

    District judges:
    pre-2021: 50 → 19
    2021: 20 → 1
    2022: 15 → 2
    2023: 27 → 8
    2024: 28 → 15
    Carter appointees: 1 → 0
    Clinton appointees: 55 → 20
    Obama appointees: 84 → 25

    Kayatta’s announcement leaves Jimmie Reyna of the Federal Circuit as the only senior-qualified Obama circuit appointee whose replacement would/should be a breeze, compared to 6/10 of the remaining Clinton appointees. That >90% senior rate for district appointees that qualified in 2021/2 is remarkable, and Obama’s appointees that have qualified this year/will next year have far more in common (judgeship being a career capstone) with that >90% group than with the 60% group of Clinton appointees (judgeship being a second or even principal career).

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    • The pool of district judges who will become eligible between now and the end of 2024 and are likely to take it is a little tricky.

      There are a bunch of Obama and Clinton judges in places like FL, NC, TX, LA whose chances of getting replaced in an election year are iffy, so I think they’ll stay put.

      There are a several Chief judges (eg Hornak, Seeborg) who become eligible. Some leave early and some remain until they hit the 70 limit. Judge Swain (SNDY) is Chief Judge and is only turning 65 later on this month, so there’s a good chance she’ll stick around for a bit. Judge Simon (OR) would be a likely candidate to take senior, but if the two current OR noms get confirmed, he becomes Chief for a couple years. Not sure how important that is to him.

      Not a ton of Dem eligibility in the middle of the year but there’s a group of NY and PA judges (Azrack, Schofield, McHugh, Caproni) that become eligible in Nov/Dec. If those judges don’t announce super early, I think it will be hard to fill those before the election.

      The good news is that the lull will create space for the back log of already eligible District and Circuit judges to take it.

      Liked by 2 people

      • One judge I’m very curious about is Juan Ramon Sánchez, Chief Justice of EDPA. He’s currently eligible for senior status. He was appointed by GW Bush and recommended by two Republican Senators (Guessing Arlen Spector prob had more of a say in this one).

        Prior to becoming a judge, he was a staff attorney at Legal Aid and spent 13 years as a Public Defender. He’s also a vocal advocate for the need for diversity in juries, on the bench, and in clerkship and internship hiring.

        He’s a Republican Judge, but I could imagine him preferring to have the current WH pick his successor rather than Trump admin.

        Liked by 1 person

      • I hadn’t realized that Hernandez’s announcement put Simon in line for two years chief judgeship. Among Obama appointees, that still leaves four in NY, three in PA, two in GA (M.D. Ga. isn’t a major circuit to be chief of), and one each in MI and CA who will hopefully make announcements in the next few months.

        Liked by 1 person

      • @star0garnet

        Something to keep in mind with the PA judges is that you can’t always tell the political leanings based on the appointing President. Sens Casey and Toomey had a long standing deal where by for every 4 vacancies the senator who shared the President’s party could appoint 3 and the other Senator got to appoint 1. So some of the Obama PA nominated judges are actually Republicans and some of the Bush and Trump PA judges are Democrats.

        Judge Schmehl is a Republican, even thought he’s an Obama judge. So I wouldn’t count on him taking senior.

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    • Isn’t Middle District of Florida Judge Timothy Corrigan the one that had the assassination attempt? I believe the bullet shot through his living room sliding door just missed him? The would be assassin received hundreds of years in prison if I remember correctly. I had always figured he would take senior status not long after eligible if that’s the same judge I’m thinking about.

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    • With a Nov 2024 date, it’s unlikely the Florida senators will fill this ahead of the election.

      Jacksonville is not only the largest city in the region but also the largest city in Florida and 2 of its 3 seats are prob gonna be empty for a while.

      Also, Tampa has A LOT more seats in this district than I was expecting.

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      • Unless the district gets additional judgeships, Jville should, if anything, probably lose a judgeship to the Ocala division, particularly with its skyrocketing population. Tampa serves 38% of the population and has 40% of the judgeships, Orlando 27% and 27%, Jville 15% and 20%, Fort Myers 11% and 13%, and Ocala 8% and 0%. One dedicated magistrate judge is insufficient for 1.1 million people, even if they’re primarily retirees.

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  23. Apparently Jasmine Yoon, one of the recommend candidates for WDVA, is married to Chris Kavanaugh, the US Attorney for WDVA. Sounds like they’ve already said he’ll leave that position if she gets confirmed to avoid conflict of interest.

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  24. Kato got her commission yesterday, down to Almadani and a post-New Year Jennifer Hall.

    So I learned that week that Senate randomly has off in the middle of July next year is for the Republican National Convention. Is there precedent for cancelling a week for a party convention?

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  29. Also just a note that Tammy Murphy, Wife of NJ Governer Murphy has entered the Federal Senate race and has in my opinion a decent chance.

    So if by a miraculous chance democrats win the senate and presidency.
    Maybe we could just slightly better nomineess. Considering how good her husbands nomineees to the New Nersey Supreme court have being . Even though Booker will be senior.

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      • Schimmer would be less controversial than Bloomekatz but she’s still progressive. Vance would likely push back & refuse to turn in his blue slip so it would come down to if The White House wanted a redo of the Bloomekatz confirmation process or would they go with a blander pick to expedite it in an election year. Of course, I would hope for the former & not the latter.

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      • I have some doubts as to whether Schimmer would be selected to replace Karen Nelson Moore, as Judge Moore is the only remaining active Sixth Circuit judge to hail from the Northern District of Ohio and Schimmer is from Columbus. It seems a lot of senators would prefer equitable representation of the different districts within their states (we saw this with the de Alba nomination among others.)

        If I’m right and Moore is replaced by someone who also hails from the Cleveland area, I’d love to see Jason Bristol or Marques Hillman Richeson. Either would be Biden’s first male LGBTQ appointee to the courts of appeals.

        Liked by 1 person

      • @EJ

        A couple of good names I hadn’t previously heard of.

        Jason Bristol sits on the board of directors of The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland I see. The administration already picked Noe judge David Ruiz from Ohio who also worked with them so perhaps they would give Bristol a look at too.

        As for Marques Hillman Richeson, with only one Black man added to the circuit courts since 2014, he would be a great pick. I see he’s a Jones Day partner & has a very nice pro bono portfolio including working to free innocent prisoners which is one of the things I like most about Andre Mathis, the only other Black circuit court judge since 2014. Two really good names you threw out there.

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      • So many good options.

        I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned B. Jessie Hill. She’s similar to Karen Nelson Moore in that they both are academics form Case Western. Hill’s area of expertise seems to be abortion rights and she worked on that area at the ACLU. Her nom would no doubt set off a lot of fireworks and I’m sure Vance would freak out but she’d be a good judge or the suggestion of her nom could make some of the other mentioned candidates more palatable.

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  31. So if any nominees aren’t confirmed by year end, do they pick up where thy left off in Jan? Since this isn’t the end of a Congress, if the nominees awaiting a final floor vote don’t get confirmed by Dec when they recess, do they have to go thru the SJC again or will they still just need a final floor vote?

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    • All unconfirmed nominees must be sent back to the president by January 8th (I think that’s when they return next year).
      The president may renominate them again starting that same day.
      Once received by the Senate, those nominations are then sent back to SJC. Those who’ve had hearings don’t need another hearing. But everyone needs to be voted out of SJC. It does not matter if it’s the end of a congress or just an end of year recess. The same rules apply.

      Finally, of course, UC trumps all rules in the senate. But it’s no longer the 1990’s, so there won’t be many UC agreements on judicial nominations to forgo the SJC.

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  32. I mean, they’ll prob have that issue with whomever they nominate to replace either Moore or Graves – One senator willing to give a blue slip and one one withholding. And truthfully, will also run into that if they get the chance to replace Matheson or Wynn.

    A benefit of choosing Colom and Schimmer is that they have both already been though the WH vetting process. The WH would probably need to do a review for recent activity, but if Moore or Graves did go senior, they could prob get those noms moving very quickly.

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  33. Barring unprecedented obstructionism (possible, I know), plenty of nominations won’t be returned to the president. In 2021, 181 of the 304 pending civilian nominations were by UC not returned, including 12 of the 31 judicial nominations that were routed through the judiciary committee. In 2019, those figures were 87 of 173 and 10 of 41 respectively.

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