Judge Julie Sneed – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

The judges of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida are among the busiest in the country, and the situation doesn’t seem likely to improve with three additional vacancies looking set to open in the next year, on top of the currently existing vacancy. However, the nomination of Judge Julie Sneed brings President Biden’s first attempt to appoint a judge to the court.

Background

Sneed received a B.S. from the University of Florida in 1991 and a J.D. from Florida State University College of Law in 1994. She then clerked for Judge Chris Altenbernd on Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal and joined Trenan, Kemker, Scharf, Barkin, Frye, O’Neill & Mullis P.A. as a litigation associate.

In 2000, upon the confirmation of Judge James Whittemore to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Sneed joined him as his law clerk, where she stayed for four years before joining Fowler White Boggs Banker P.A. as a Partner. In 2012, Sneed shifted to become a Partner at Akerman L.L.P.

In 2015, Sneed was appointed to be a U.S. Magistrate Judge on the Middle District of Florida, where she serves.

History of the Seat

Sneed has been nominated to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. This seat opened on July 9, 2022 when Judge Roy Dalton moved to senior status.

Legal Experience

While Sneed has moved between multiple offices in her time in private practice, in all of those offices, she worked on various matters of civil litigation. For example, while at Fowler White Boggs, Sneed represented Student Loan Xpress, Inc. in defending against a class action suit, which was eventually settled through mediation. See Holman v. Student Loan XPress, Inc., 778 F. Supp. 2d 1036 (M.D. Fla. 2011). In another notable case, Sneed was part of the legal team representing the defendants in a class action suit brought against Hillsborough County alleging systemic deficiencies in the County’s foster care system. See Smith v. Rainey, 747 F. Supp. 2d 1327 (M.D. Fla. 2010).

Judicial Experience

Sneed has served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida since 2015. In this role, Sneed presides over cases by agreement of the parties, as well as issues of pretrial detention, settlement, and discovery.

Among her most notable cases, Sneed ruled that David Miscavige, a leader in the Church of Scientology, was actively concealing his whereabouts to avoid service of process of a human trafficking lawsuit. See Baxter v. Miscavige, Case No. 8:22-cv-986-TPB-JSS (M.D. Fla. Feb. 14, 2024). Sneed further declined to order a default against Miscavige, instead ruling that he was deemed properly served and was ordered to respond within 21 days. See id.

Political Activity

Before she joined the federal bench, Sneed was an occasional donor to political candidates. Sneed has made political contributions to Democratic gubernatorial candidates Jim Davis and Alex Sink, as well as the Florida Democratic Party and President Obama. In contrast, the sole Republican to whom Sneed has donated was State Representative Shawn Harrison.

Overall Assessment

Sneed would join the federal bench with extensive legal experience as both an attorney and as a magistrate judge. Given this experience, she should be a relatively uncontentious candidate for the federal bench. As long as her home-state senators support her, Sneed should be able to join the bench in due course.

51 Comments

    • dequanhargrove's avatar

      Sneed is one of the rare compromise nominees Biden, Rubio & Rick Scott can agree on. She should be confirmed by a wide margin. I hope we get at least one more nominee for the three remaining vacancies in the MDFL. There’s four vacancies total in Florida without a nominee so even half getting filled by the end of Biden’s term would be nice.

      Like

  3. Ethan's avatar

    Here’s what I tried to comment yesterday on the last post regarding the Illinois recommendations that Durbin and Duckworth sent to the White House:

    Here’s how I’d rank them in terms of preference:

    1. Karyn Bass Ehler: I was able to find out that she was born c. 1977. Despite being older than Sang Walker, she has a longer track record and I even found an article that described her as a “civil rights hero” (it’s old as she’s clearly not 36 anymore since she finished law school in 2005): http://www.oychicago.com/double-chai/bio.aspx?id=23132. I also found out that she received an award from the American Constitution Society (https://cookcountybar.org/events/2023-acs-legal-legends-luncheon).

    2. Grayson Sang Walker: Haven’t found any picture of him but he might be AAPI. Being young (c. 1985) and working at the EEOC are great resume points.

    3. Georgia Alexakis: I give her the slight edge over Harjani since she briefly served as the Northern District of Illinois’s Civil Rights and Hate Crimes Coordinator. Doesn’t hurt that she clerked for liberal lion Marsha Berzon.

    4. Sunil Harjani: I rank him slightly below Alexakis since he’s older and doesn’t have the civil rights prosecution background.

    5. Amol Parikh: Nothing progressive on his resume. Also doesn’t help that he externed for G.W. Bush/ Trump appointee Amy St. Eve. He’d be an okay pick for the Federal Circuit though since it seems he specialized in IP law.

    6. Heather McShain: Nothing progressive whatsoever. Also seems that both of the judges she clerked for were Reagan appointees and she worked at the notoriously conservative law firm Jones Day. She seems like another Jennifer Rearden that Trump would’ve agreed to.

    *I know clerking for a Republican appointed judge and working for Jones Day does not inherently make one conservative. But it certainly downgrades them from my perspective.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Aiden's avatar

      I perhaps get the Jones Day comments. But in what world, would there be a basis for downgrading someone, based on clerking for a republican Judge.
      For example Judge Garcia (Dc Circuit) Clerked for Judge Griffith, Jusge Griffith explicitly said that he hires from all ideologies and that there were very liberal and very conservative clerks. Many conservative Judges hire liberal clerks and vice verse.
      It may sharpen arguments you make, due to hearing and debating competing interpretations, but it certainly doesnt make you a conservative.
      I also think that many appointed Judges have clerked for opposite parties clerks and proven to be strong progressives.

      For Heather Mcshain it may make sense cause looking at it overall she does seem comservative

      Liked by 1 person

    • EJ's avatar

      Hey Ethan, I wanted to mention a couple names I’ve turned up while looking over law school faculty lists. Biden hasn’t generally seemed to favor appointments directly from academia (I think Johnstone might be the only one at the appellate level? Someone can correct me if I’m wrong) but they might be worth a look over for the spreadsheet anyhow.

      Holning Lau (b. c. 1978) – Specializes in comparative and constitutional law at UNC and co-directs their human rights law program. He’s AAPI and LGBT. Could be a James Wynn replacement (although Ryan Park is also AAPI and younger so maybe he’s more likely).

      Carolina Nunez (b. c. 1979) – Teaches immigration law at BYU. She’s Latina (daughter of a Venezuelan immigrant), LDS, and clerked for Clinton appointee Fortunato Benavides. Matheson’s eligible to go senior now and McHugh will be in a couple of years, so there could well be multiple Utah vacancies by the end of the next presidential term.

      Liked by 1 person

    • keystone's avatar

      I think that Karyn Bass Ehler’s birth year might actually be 1979.

      I was able to find a picture of Grayson (I think)… but it’s from his college days and the resolution is not great. I think he’s the tall guy in the photo. Also, I don’t think the picture really helps to answer your question, https://hls.harvard.edu/today/changing-the-culture-peer-to-peer/

      I was also thrown a bit for a loop by Parikh interning for St. Eve, but I think @Aiden makes some good points about not penalizing him solely for that. I was intrigued by the fact that he has a degree in engineering, which kind of explains why he would focus on IP law. He’s not my favorite candidate in this bunch, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more IP lawyers be nominated, particularly in some of the courts in places like California, Seattle, etc.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. keystone's avatar

    In the last few week, we were able to see nominee lists from VA and IL.

    I just realized that the Rhode Island Senators’ application process started before both of these. I think there’s a high likelihood that the WH might also have names for that seat and that things are progressing.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Mitch's avatar

    IMHO, Judge Sunil Harjani is the front-runner, though not a shoo in. The Biden Administration has made a big deal out of diversity and there are no South Asian Democrats on the court. Also, with the Presidential election coming up in a year, I think that the White House Counsel’s Office will put greater emphasis on fast confirmations. Harjani seems to have nothing in his background which would generate strong opposition.

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  7. keystone's avatar

    Something I just noticed…

    It seems like both Ronald Gould and Kim McLane Wardlaw have pulled back a bit in terms of clerk positions (at least from what I can see in OSCAR).

    They both have consistently listed ~4 clerk slots.

    For the cohort of clerks slated to start in mid 2024, Wardaw only listed 2 clerk spots, and for 2025, she listed 3 clerk spots.

    Gould only listed 2 openings for the group that started mid this year and listed 2 clerk spots for 2024.

    Not sure if there’s anything to read into here, but I do wonder if this is a signal that they are moving towards Senior Status.

    Liked by 1 person

    • dequanhargrove's avatar

      @Keystone

      That usually is a BIG indicator of a judge seriously considering senior status. And since both are Clinton appointees, it would make all the sense in the world. The only thing that does not make sense is why continuing to wait to announce. The election is less than a year away. I would hope they are planning on a Christmas present for Biden.

      Great investigative work. How did you look up future clerkship? I was just curious…

      Like

      • CJ's avatar

        Ronald Gould, and a lesser extant Kim McLane Wardlaw, going into senior status is been something I’ve been wondering about. If they go senior in December or January, Biden better act quick because it took 10 months to nominate and confirm someone to Watford’s seat, and over a year to nominate confirm someone to Sidney Thomas’ seat.

        Liked by 2 people

      • keystone's avatar

        OSCAR is a system for finding and applying to federal clerk positions. They lists new openings on a weekly basis.

        Not every judge uses the system but some have consistently used it for years. I noticed some situations where a judge would still recruit a full slate of clerks even up to and beyond the point they go senior. But Gould and Wardlaw slightly reducing spots seems like it could be something.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. keystone's avatar

    For timing, I believe that there were a lot of senior status announcements in Dec 2021 and Jan/Feb 2022, i.e. ahead of the midterm election. I’m expecting/hoping we’ll see an uptick in announcements across the Circuit and District level in the next couple months.

    Liked by 1 person

    • star0garnet's avatar

      Jan-May 2021 saw 16 announcements from circuit judges
      Jul-Nov 2021 saw 7
      Dec 2021-Jan 2022 saw 11
      Feb 2022-present have seen 7, plus one death and one promotion

      December and January would be a great time for any or all of Gregory (70, VA), Clay (75, MI), Rovner (85, IL), Wardlaw (69, CA), Smith (81, CA), Rawlinson (70, NV), Gould (77, WA), Moore (75, OH), King (83, WV), Newman (96, Fed), Lourie (88, Fed), Dyk (86, Fed), and Reyna (71, Fed) to make announcements.

      Liked by 2 people

      • dequanhargrove's avatar

        Sadly both Newman, King & to a certain extent Rawlinson have made every indication they will likely die on the bench. If Gregory or Clay goes, I certainly hope we see an equal number of Black men nominated either to their seats (Jamar K. Walker & Jonathan J. C. Grey would be strong candidates). We don’t want a further net deficit on the circuit courts. We have only had one (Andre Mathis) confirmed since January 2014).

        If Biden gets a second term, the Federal Circuit will probably look a lot like the 1st Circuit with the advanced age of the judges. I really hope Gould & Wardlaw retires soon.

        Liked by 1 person

  9. keystone's avatar

    @dequan I could see them replacing Wardlaw with someone like Brian E. Nelson, esp since De Alba replaced Watford. I know the CA district judges have lots of great candidates, but there’s already a big backlog in that state so this would have the added benefit of not adding another seat to backfill.

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    • dequanhargrove's avatar

      Brian E. Nelson was my first choice. Although others such as @Ethan have mentioned Lamar Baker as a more likely Black man to be picked. He’s a sitting judge & likely wouldn’t need the VP to break the tie like Nelson.

      With Butler in the senate now, she likely will have some names we haven’t heard of. A couple will likely be LGBT as well.

      Liked by 1 person

    • dequanhargrove's avatar

      @Daisyoodle

      Welcome to the blog. I hope this week will be judge week but I doubt it. Mrs. Carter is having her funeral Tuesday & being buried Wednesday so perhaps both Georgia senators along with others might be out of town for one if not both of those days. It’s more likely we will see other non-judicial nominees teed up for votes, albeit if I were Schumer I would tee up the three circuit court nominees. Each should get both Republican home state senators yes votes to compensate for the Georgia senators possible absence.

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    • dequanhargrove's avatar

      I am in favor of putting young progressives in most circuit court seats with few exceptions. Unfortunately the 6th vacancy is one of the few exceptions for several reasons.

      First, it’s a Republican judge that is retiring & she conditioned her retirement on the confirmation of her successor. We don’t want a repeat of judge Karen Caldwell who rescinded her retirement when the deal fell through for her successor. I’m happy the deal fell through because I would rather Caldwell stay in the seat in her late 60’s versus a young right-wing conservative in his low 40’s.

      Second, now that the election is less than a year away, we don’t want Gibbons to rethink he retirement & hold it off until after the next inauguration.  

      Last, there is a WDTN vacancy so hopefully a package deal can be struck to fill both the circuit & district court vacancies.

      So the nominees I would most like to see for this seat probably won’t be picked. They include…
      Stephen Ross Johnson
      Dumaka Shabazz
      Tricia Herzfeld
      Maha Ayesh

      I think there are still good nominees who, while I would give them an A+ or maybe an A, would still be a good replacement for a Republican judge & fill the district court vacancy as well. Below are good compromise nominees in my opinion…

      Edward L. Stanton III
      U. Peter Oh
      Camille McMullen
      Danielle Mitchell Sims
      Henry Leventis
      Kevin Ritz

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      • dawsont825's avatar

        I know who Biden is at this point in his life and political career, so I know he doesn’t think like most of us here on this blog lol. With that said, I would absolutely LOVE for Biden to pick one of your A+ liberal judges to place on the 6th circuit and give both Hagerty and the wicked witch of the senate… er, I meant Blackburn the middle finger at the same time.

        I sound like a broken record, so excuse me for singing the same tune again, but Booker and Menendez weren’t consulted with for the vacancies on the 3rd circuit. The 9th circuit is now filled with complete hacks like Bress, Nelson, Van Dyke, Miller, Bade, etc., and not ONE Republican senator asked to pump the brakes and respect decorum or tradition regarding blue slips for circuit court judges. But now we have to waste time asking Blackburn and Hagerty for recommendations? Why can’t we find young ACLU and ACS lawyers and put them in these seats? Blue state circuit courts get good to great nominees and red states get meh to decent judges. If Biden is going to make bring the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th circuits to heel if/when he wins reelection, there needs to be some hardball played. Liberal senators rightfully complained when Trump and McConnell teamed up to turn the senate into a FedSoc confirmation factory in their states, and the world kept spinning the day after.

        Who gives a flying shit what GOP senators run to Fox News to say? I for one would get the biggest kick out of hearing Ted Cruz, Blackburn, Hawley, Cotton, Sullivan, Johnson, etc., throw hissy fits because Dems ignored them and confirmed judges anyway. I have to hold my breath every time there’s a ruling from the 9th circuit because of what Trump did to that circuit. Time to do the same thing to the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th.

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      • dequanhargrove's avatar

        @dawsont825

        I don’t disagree with anything you said. The issue is you left two things out of your otherwise great points.

        You left out the judge & the time. The judge is a Republican appointee who timed her retirement based on the confirmation of her successor. Had she given a hard date such as December 31st, I absolutely would agree with what you’re saying as soon as the calendar flipped to January 1st. But since she said she will retire upon the confirmation of her successor, that means she could pull another judge Kanne or King & simply rescind if the nominee is an A+.

        And the timing you also left out. We are less than one year from the election. While I’ve heard Gibbons has health issues, anything short of her being on her death bed could result in her simply staying on the bench until after Biden’s term ends if he loses next year. Judge Newman is a clear example of somebody taking lifetime tenure to the max.

        So while I agree with your take in most cases, I’m agreed in this case it could lead to the cancans no longer existing. I’d much rather a B nominee like Edward Stanton in that seat than Gibbons & hoping for Biden & the Dems to hold the senate next year.

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  14. CJ's avatar

    Here’s who’s going to be voted on at the next SJC hearing:
    Mustafa Kasubhai (D OR)
    Eumi Lee (ND CA)
    Seth Aframe (1st CCA)
    Edward Keil (D NJ)
    Sarah Russel (D CT)

    The Democrats have to have perfect attendance if they want to advance at least 3 of 5 of the judges.

    Like

  15. star0garnet's avatar

    Had a look through OSCAR to see what tea leaves it might hold in the form of clerkship hirings. Forty-two circuit judges will qualify for senior status by the end of next year. Hirings are for 2021-2→2022-3→2023-4→2024-5→2025-6, with two-year hires counted under both years. There is a degree of uncertainty here; I go off of a judge’s highest number of clerkships of a given term starting on a given date. In most cases where (what is at least feasibly) the same clerkship is listed multiple times, it is almost always due to the judge wanting a new applicant pool or having a future clerk back out (who may or may not have been selected through/listed on OSCAR the first time around) rather than adding a clerkship, but it adds some guesswork to the system. One noteworthy instance is Roger Gregory’s clerkships that begin next summer; he listed four in June 2022 and then three in June 2023. Did he get one hire from the 2022 pool, or did he decide to scrap the 2022 pool entirely?

    Hirings for 2025-6 are known for fifteen, of whom seven at least hold steady with past figures:
    James Graves: 3→3→3→3→3
    Edith Jones: 2→2→1→1→3
    Paul Niemeyer: 2→2→0→2→2
    Sharon Prost: 4→2→2→2→3
    Jerry Smith: 4→4→4→4→4
    Milan Smith: 3→4→1→4→4
    Harvie Wilkinson: 0→1→0→1→1

    The other eight, at least so far, have lower hirings via OSCAR:
    Reduction in 2024:
    Scott Matheson: 4→4→4→3→3
    Reduction in 2025:
    Steven Agee: 3→2→1→3→2
    Consuelo Callahan: 2→1→2→3→1
    Richard Griffin: 2→2→3→3→1
    Harris Hartz: 5→4→4→4→3
    Alan Lourie: 3→3→5→5→2
    Timothy Tymkovich: 4→4→4→4→3
    Kim Wardlaw: 4→4→4→4→3

    Another fifteen use OSCAR, but their hirings are unknown for 2025-6:
    Two with a reduction already in the books:
    Ronald Gould: 4→4→2→2→?
    Jimmie Reyna: 1→4→0→3→?
    Thirteen at least holding steady:
    Timothy Dyk: 4→2→4→4→?
    Frank Easterbrook: 2→2→2→2→?
    Roger Gregory: 4→0→4→4→?
    Karen Henderson: 4→4→4→4→?
    Sandra Ikuta: 1→1→1→4→?
    Debra Livingston: 3→1→4→4→?
    James Loken: 3→3→3→3→?
    Karen Moore: 4→4→4→4→?
    Johnnie Rawlinson: 3→3→3→3→?
    Priscilla Richman: 0→0→1→4→?
    Leslie Southwick: 4→4→4→4→?
    Jane Stranch: 3→4→4→4→?
    Diane Sykes: 4→4→4→4→?

    Twelve don’t use OSCAR, or at least haven’t recently:
    Duane Benton
    Eric Clay
    Robert King
    Pauline Newman
    Ilana Rovner
    Bobby Shepherd
    Lavenski Smith
    Carl Stewart
    Charles Wilson
    James Wynn
    Ralph Erickson: 0→2→3→0→?
    Kent Jordan: 0→0→4→0→?

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Zack's avatar

    If Gould takes senior status (and I hope he does), I can see Lauren King being the front runner easily, especially since she would be the first Native American on a Circuit Court.
    Wardlaw and Gregory among others should take senior status as well.
    If Gregory goes senior, I can see Jamar Walker being nominated to replace him.
    Have to wait and see.

    Like

  17. Zack's avatar

    With the Gibbons seat Dequan, you’re 100% on the money.
    The reality is that in this case she holds all the cards and if a flaming liberal is nominated, could easily choose to take her senior status back as we’ve seen with other judges.
    I’ll take a Camille McMullen over someone who would be well to the right of Gibbons if Trump won and Republicans took back the Senate.

    Like

    • dequanhargrove's avatar

      @Keystone

      I’m not but no surprise if you are. Word Press is horrible. We have been hoping the blog gets switched to another platform. Unfortunately glitches pop up without rhythm or reason so unless it’s switched we will probably have to continue to hope it’s not our turn for the glitch… Lol

      Like

      • keystone's avatar

        @Dequon

        I tried posting but the comment seems to be awaiting moderation.

        I was actually trying to respond to your message about the CDIL seat. I just discovered a press release from February 2023 from Durbin and Duckworth announcing a committee to review candidates for CDIL seats.

        The timing is after Colleen Lawless’ confirmation but way ahead of Shadid’s announcement.

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      • dequanhargrove's avatar

        Ah yes, the famous awaiting moderation message. Your post will probably show in a couple weeks. We’ll probably get a couple dozen old post in quick succession. Word Press really sucks but it must be difficult for Hatsh to switch platforms. I’m not technically sound so I don’t know how easy or hard it would be.

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