Judge Robin Meriweather – Nominee to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather, who has served on the federal bench in D.C. for the past six years has been nominated to a seat on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Background

Meriweather received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1995, and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1998. After graduation, Meriweather clerked for Judge Merrick Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and subsequently joined Jenner & Block as an Associate.

In 2007, Meriweather joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia where she stayed until appointed as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in 2017.

History of the Seat

Meriweather has been nominated for a seat on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (CFC), an Article I court that hears monetary claims against the federal government. Judges to the CFC are appointed for 15-year terms, and can be reappointed. The seat Meriweather was nominated for opened up on September 30, 2023 with the retirement of Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith.

Legal Experience

Meriweather started her legal career at the firm of Jenner and Block, where she worked on a number of communications cases. See, e.g., Consumer Electronics Ass. v. Fed. Communications Comm’n, 347 F.3d 291 (D.C. Cir. 2003); Verizon Pennsylvania v. Pennsylvania Pub. Utility, 380 F. Supp. 2d 627 (E.D. Penn. 2005). Notably, she was appointed as an amicus on behalf of a former D.C. employee on a disability discrimination case. See Smith v. Dist. of Columbia, 430 F.3d (D.C. Cir. 2005). The D.C. Circuit reversed a grant of summary judgment against the plaintiff on the discrimination claim and remanded for trial. See id.

From 2007 to 2017, Meriweather worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. At the office, Meriweather worked in the Civil Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, defending claims brought against the federal government. See, e.g., Boardley v. U.S. Dep’t of Interior, 615 F.3d 508 (D.C. Cir. 2010). Notably, Meriweather argued before the D.C. Circuit on a suit arising from the termination of a contract with Voice of America after a contractor appeared in a music video criticizing the U.S. involvement in Iraq. See Navab-Safavi v. Glassman, 637 F.3d 311 (D.C. Cir. 2011).

Judicial Experience

Meriweather has served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Columbia since her appointment in 2017. As Magistrate Judge, Meriweather handled reports and recommendations for district court judges as well as discovery matters. See, e.g., In re DiGuilian, 314 F. Supp. 3d 1 (D.D.C. 2018). Notably, Meriweather ruled that the District of Columbia had failed to adequately preserve evidence in a suit regarding four individuals who committed suicide in a D.C. jail, finding the District responsible for spoliation of evidence. See Mannina v. Dist. o Columbia, 437 F. Supp. 3d 1 (D.D.C. 2020).

Political Activity

Meriweather has made political contributions only to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who was a classmate of hers at Yale Law School.

Overall Assessment

Meriweather comes to the Court of Federal Claims with extensive experience with civil litigation, particularly that affecting the federal government. She should be able to hit the ground running once confirmed.

90 Comments

  1. Mitch's avatar

    Robin Meriweather has a conventional background and no history that would generate strong opposition that we know of. Also, the court is a very specialized court that generates publicity. She should be confirmed with little fuss.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. keystone's avatar

    Even though she has a fairly straightforward background, I think there could still be some fireworks during her hearing stemming from the fact that she clerked for Merrick Garland.

    The R’s on Judiciary are by no means a fan of Garland and there’s been a lot of McCarthy era guilty by association outrage recently.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Joe's avatar

      Mike, I believe it’s 22 blue state vacancies. There may be 1 or 2 additional vacancies that haven’t been announced yet that I’m missing though. There are also the two circuit vacancies with no nominees as well.

      SD NY
      ED PA
      ED PA
      ED MI
      ND IL
      SD CA
      Massachusetts
      Rhode Island
      ED NY
      Vermont
      MD PA
      Maryland
      WD VA
      ND IL
      CD IL
      Minnesota
      Arizona
      Arizona
      Arizona
      ED CA
      ND CA
      D DC

      Liked by 2 people

      • star0garnet's avatar

        Application deadlines I know of for seats without nominees:

        05/01/23: ED WI (both sens.)
        06/14/23: D MT (both)
        07/03/23: ED MI (both)
        07/27/23: D RI (both)
        08/14/23: WD VA (both)
        09/11/23: ND IL (both, x2)
        09/26/23: D DC (Norton)
        10/31/23: D AZ (both, x3)
        11/20/23: D AK (Sullivan; Murkowski respecting state bar’s recs)
        11/27/23: ED PA (both, x2)
        11/27/23: MD PA (both)
        12/01/23: ND OH (Brown; Vance open-ended)
        12/01/23: SD OH (Brown; Vance open-ended)
        12/01/23: D VT (both)
        12/11/23: D MA (both)
        12/15/23: D ME (King)

        Seats where previous searches hopefully negated necessity of search:

        03/31/23: D MN (both)
        05/23/23: CD IL (both)
        ?: CD CA
        ?: ED CA
        ?: ND CA
        ?: SD CA
        ?: D MD
        ?: ED NY
        ?: SD NY

        Liked by 1 person

      • Dequan's avatar

        @star0garnet

        Thanks for the info. I’m still upset Sullivan started his own commission, going against the normal process to fill vacancies for Alaska after Murkowski recommended four women.

        I think the next two batches cold produce nominees for California, New York, DC, Wisconsin and/or Illinois. But I believe the WHC office would prioritize any red state nominees in any batch so if the South Dakota recommendation or any other red sate nominees are ready, they would probably be announced first.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Ryan J's avatar

    The 9th circuit today denied en banc in a decision overturning the city of Berkeley’s ban on natural gas in new buildings.

    Click to access 21-16278.pdf

    8 judges dissented: Friedland, Murguia, Wardlaw, Gould, Koh, Sung, Sanchez, Mendoza

    3 senior judges (Berzon, Fletcher, Paez) wrote a short statement saying they agreed with Friedland’s dissent. Notably, Friedland says this is her first time (in 9 years on the court) writing an en banc dissental.

    This means that 7 judges (Rawlinson, Christen, Nguyen, Owens, Desai, Johnstone, de Alba) did not join the dissent. Holly Thomas didn’t vote.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Aiden's avatar

    Thanks for this!

    I am not suprised by Christen’s vote on this at all.

    However Desai does suprise me. She must be very pro federal government in preemption cases. Or she could of not joined the dissent for reasons explained by Friedland about them not being helpful often. However I doubt that considering she has joined many others.

    Johnstone is I guess exepcted. I was hoping he would be a pro states right judge, considering where he came from. Though I cant complain based on Memoranda opinions, he is no conservative.

    I was very hopeful that this case was going to get en banc review. I thought some states rights conservative judges would join and more liberals.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Jamie's avatar

      It is also possible that some of these judges might have thought that this case would be reversed at SCOTUS if they reversed en banc.
      For example, I’m not entirely sure Berkeley would hold Kagan if this case got to SCOTUS. Would any conservative justice other than Gorsuch side with Berkeley here?

      Liked by 1 person

      • Dequan's avatar

        I would hope there’s no Biden circuit court judges (I could see some district court judges doing it) making rulings based on if they think SCOTUS will reverse them. They are one step from SCOTUS themselves. They should be willing to write opinions they think are correct & based in law & if not upheld by THIS SCOTUS, hopefully a future court. Possibly they themselves will get consideration for a future vacancy if they write sound opinions.

        Liked by 3 people

      • Aiden's avatar

        @Dequan
        I just don’t think that should be the case to some degree. I mean judges need to kind of follow the string and direction of precedent for SCOTUS, at least to some degree. I think this has being an issue on the 5th and 9th circuit. I mean the Texas Abortion decision by the 5th in my opinion was completely unacceptable and ran directly afoul of the supreme court precedent. I think there was also a similar situation with a redistricting case. If we had a proper supreme court I wish they would call out ignoring precedent, even if it was precedent the current court disagrees with, it is still precedent. I would of thought at least Roberts would. But the current SCOTUS, doesnt really care about precedent that they dont personally agree with.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Aiden's avatar

        @Dequan I think that the type of mentality is appropriate for SCOTUS, but perhaps should be reserved just for concurrences in the circuit courts.
        Lower courts are bound by supreme court precedent and should care about being reversed. They should always be guessing about how SCOTUS is going to rule. However in some cases that is appropriate.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Aiden's avatar

        Another spelling mistake.
        I was meant to say, they should NOT always be trying to guess how SCOTUS would rule and should be just trying to apply the law. However in some cases that guessing or following of SCOTUS precedent is appropriate

        Like

      • Dequan's avatar

        @Aiden

        I should have specified I’m not saying that for ALL cases. I was talking more about cases where the SCOTUS is taking away rights from Americans (Like Dobbs). In cases like that, I absolutely think circuit court judges should fight the good fight. Even dissents of today can become majority opinions of tomorrow.

        But I do agree with you it shouldn’t be a common practice. Limited but certainly I think it should be done when warranted.

        Like

    • Ryan J's avatar

      Christen’s from an oil state so makes sense. Rawlinson, Nguyen, Owens, & Johnstone are more moderate (Gould is moderate too, but Gould’s dissenting vote was expected given his record on environmental issues).

      Desai & de Alba surprise me the most, both of them seem to be liberal and de Alba couldn’t even get Manchin’s vote.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Aiden's avatar

        Desai seems to just be pro federal government. I think no one disputes that Justice Jackson is very liberal if not the most liberal on Scotus. But in the California Pig case, she joined the conservatives, because she is pro federal government on preemption. So perhaps Desai is similiar.

        De alba I am very surprised with

        Like

  8. aangren's avatar

    This whole harvard president claudine gay resignation fiasco and white supremacist christopher rufo resounding victory against black academia and any semblance of diversity or equality in academia, corporations etc encapsulates bidens cowardice at heart and why i refuse to support this man in good conscience any longer.
    Enough is enough. His arrogance and stubbornness first with his continued blanket support of the IDF and israelis as they have murdered over 20000 innocent civilians and caused several grievous injuries to civilians, despite the overwhelmingly majority of his base being against it,(he recently bypassed congress to ship weapons to the israelis weapons) has showed that he doesnt care and neither should we as voters. If this was trump as president or any even bush and a right wing conservative was being faced with this type of pressure campaign to be ousted on baseless and racial grounds they would be using the bully pulpit to fight against it, call the person to the whitehouse and avow and showcase political support. What does biden do? He will say nothing about the claudine gay resignation and not remotely push back against it, he has said nothing about the increasing anti DEI efforts and anti diversity anti woke efforts gaining prominence and getting success which is a direct affront and threat to black people upward trajectory in society, he has shown absolute disdain and contempt for his core voters, the reason he is even president to begin with and not a 3x time loser is because black voters in particular rescued his floundering campaign after he couldnt win the first three primary contests, yet he sits on his ass as there is a full spread frontal assault on diversity and equality efforts down from academia, to wall street to the state governments. No bully pulpit to condemn it, no verbal show of support nothing.
    No amount of centrist crap judges is enough to tolerate this bullshit, the one good thing he was doing appointing great judges has severely reduce so i see no basis or reason to support this man. Its better the democrats get actively wiped out in the general election and it be known that young voters and black people didnt show up, so this candidates know you cant ignore the vast majority of your base opinion and thoughts on critical issues and expect support. People are tired of this abusive relationship, where is the fight? Where is the calling out companies and university eliminating dei and diversity initiatives? I can bet for certain trump or other GOP presidents would have used the pulpit or power of the presidency to push back in some way yet he sits on his ass and does nothing, as more black professors and being in higher academia reason due to targeting harassment and bodies pile up in gaza. All i will say is when its election let people say they weren’t warned, his base begged him to stop this ethnic cleansing in gaza he refused, to push back against this sytematic targeting of black people in academia he did nothing, he doesnt deserve the vote of any single black person no matter what clowns like frank and others say on here. When trump wins michigan maybe the democrats will finally get into their heads that deliberately pissing off arab american muslim voters who are part of your base and a critical coalition in that swing state was a mistake, every objective metric says trump should be the favorite to win this election and the serious malaise of voters aided by biden contempt will help that. Give it up to chris rufo this was a victory for the racists and bigots today a decisive one for that issue.
    The geriatric in the whitehouse will sit on his ass as his own voters who put him in power are being systemically targeted and their brothers killed in gaza.
    There is an all out assault against minorites and what does biden do? nominate milk toast thrash nominees like joshua kolar to important circuit court seats and expect us black folks to be happy for the crumbs. Just dont say you werent warned after election time thats all i ask to everyone and people on here

    Like

    • Dequan's avatar

      @aangren

      Claudine Gay resigned. It’s not like she was fired. Harvard didn’t fire her even weeks after the senate hearing. She made the decision to resign. What was the president of the United States supposed to say about somebody making the decision to resign? What other president has ever commented on a university president getting fired, let alone resigning? I can’t think of any including Obama.

      Speaking as a Black man, it seems as though many of us are putting unfair expectations on President Biden. I am by no means saying he is perfect & of course you can disagree with any number of policy decisions such as the Israel war on Hamas. But do you really think Trump would be to the left of Biden on this issue? Or for that matter ANY issue you care deeply about?

      I am not willing to give up the next four years to have another term of President Trump simply because President Biden isn’t the best thing since sliced bread. I think he is doing a good job. Do I agree with every judge he has nominated? NO. But he still is the best president I’ve ever seen when it comes to judges. He’s passed major legislation with a 50/50 & 51/49 senate. And I don’t go to sleep at night worrying about him sending out a tweet that will start World War 3.

      I hope as the election gets closer, you & many others that feel the way you do realize the fork in the road our country is at. This is a time in history that can decide the fate of our nation. This isn’t the time to let perfect be the enemy of the good in my opinion.

      Liked by 2 people

  9. CJ's avatar

    The vote on this case gives a bit of clarity on who the most environmentally friendly judges on the 9th CCA are. I’m not familiar with Judge Christen’s environmental record, but what this ruling and the comments on it suggest is that she has a moderate to moderate conservative tilt on environmental issues, and it sorta makes sense because she’s from Alaska. I’m surprised by Desai and de Alba’s votes too. But now we know that the most environmentally friendly Judges on the 9th CCA are Friedland, Murguia, Wardlaw, Gould, Koh, Sung, Sanchez, Mendoza, Berzon, Fletcher, and Paez, though most of us could have guessed a lot of them.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Aiden's avatar

      I just have to disagree. This case is a preemption case.
      We don’t know anything based of this one case yet. We would need to see many different types of environmental law cases before saying this, especially ones that don’t involve preemption. Preemption cases like this mean that often liberal Justices such as Desai and KBJ, vote with the federal government, even if they don’t agree with the effect of that. This is because they have a stronger view of the federal government. It’s similar to Gorsuch who votes with liberals often in these kinds of cases, due to a strong view on states right even if he doesn’t agree with the affects of that. This case sheds little on positions of environmental law, for De Alba and Desai until we see some other rulings from. If they are more moderate on environmental issues, then we can say that in this case they were more focused on the natural gas issue and not the preemption issue, but we cant yet.

      Liked by 1 person

    • Aiden's avatar

      I would also think that Desai and Sung are the most liberal on the court. Recently Desai dissented from a memoranda majority written by H.A Thomas and Koh on an anti-trust case. Desai has also seemed to be very progressive on environmental issues in a few oral arguments. She also issued a stay I believe in a panel with Koh in an environmental law case, that had a dissent from Bumatay

      Like

  10. Mitch's avatar

    Wow, Claudine Gay is stepping down.

    How could three highly educated women perform so poorly when testifying before Congress? I thought they had experience in public speaking. Liz Magill actually smirked when asked if calling for genocide amounted to harassment.

    About a week ago, a group of alumni strongly condemned Sally Kornbluth. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the alt media come after her now.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. aangren's avatar

    Christoper rufo won and he has issued a warning to other minorities and blacks in academia and corporations your next and the imbecile whose campaign they saved sits on his ass in the whitehouse refusing to move an inch, if this was trump or any other GOP president he would use the bully pulpit forcefully and fight back against this anti dei initiative but in this case we get a geriatric old man whose still wanting to work in good faith with republicans who hate his voters and want to destroy their careers, to appoint appellate judges. Just dont say no one was warned when he loses in 2024 people are tired of this crap, they are fed up seeing bodies pile up in gaza and this administration sits on its ass and backs israel continuously , who is failing to defend his core constituency against such smear campaigns.
    Where is his statement inviting claudine gay to the white house and denouncing anti dei efforts? The man barely has said anysingle thing on this anti woke ie anti black people crusade republicans are on, and black people should show up in polls and young people to re elect? No thank you. No centrist judge is worth that trouble. Again give rufo his props this was surgical he brought down a harvard university president and the coward in the whitehouse wont say a thing.
    He would never be in the WH if blacks in south carolina werent voting for biden after he couldnt win the first three voting primaries. I am angry because we have a coward in the whitehouse who refuses to fight against people who want permanent second class citizen for any that is non white his so called base he thumbs his nose at and ignores their protest. We need a strong backbone in the whitehouse

    Like

    • Aiden's avatar

      @aangren This is a forum specifically dealing with judicial nominations and things that relate to the judiciary. At the moment the issues you refer to are not mostly not relevant to this forums focus.There are plenty of forums to discuss issues of racism, anti semitism and the attacks on higher education. They are very important issues.

      Your race has absolutely nothing to do with what Keystone was saying. Bringing it into it was entirely unnecessary.
      The forums focus applies to everyone. Keystone was also extremely polite in just asking to stay on topic. We all go on tangents. This is a frustrating white house and many of us have issued statments of frustration.

      Liked by 3 people

      • Aiden's avatar

        This is not to say that those issue do not come before the judiciary.

        I also want to say that, yes this forum focus should stay on the judiciary. However, that doesn’t mean shorts tangents on similiar topics or on those issue mentioned cant or dont happen

        Liked by 3 people

  13. Gavi's avatar

    Greetings!
    Aagren is usually my ally in our clear-eyed view of Biden’s judiciary flaws as opposed to the sycophancy of the Dequan wing (haha). However, I disagree with this topic on here as one of my biggest gripes with this blog is the trend of descending into discussions of general politics. Come on, the judicial focus of this blog is precisely what makes it so meaningful to read. Otherwise, this is just another DailyKos or HuffPost comments section.

    Speaking of staying on topic:
    I saw CJ’s post about senior status predictions for 2024. I have a follow up: Who do you folks think (just by guessing, obviously) will be the first new appellate vacancy of 2024?
    A near-future death is unknowable (in that case, I’d go with Pauline Newman), so I can’t predict that.
    But I’d guess Scott Matheson, Jr. (CCA10) might be the first appeals judge to elect to go senior, and soon!

    Liked by 3 people

    • keystone's avatar

      Hmmm… For Circuit, I’d say either Gould (CCA9) for health/age reasons or Eric Clay (CCA6). Clay is friends with the Clintons from their Yale law school days. I could imagine a scenario where the WH has Bill broker a deal for Clay to go senior with understanding that someone like Jonathan Grey or Luttrell Livingstone would succeed.

      For District Judges, I’d say my top 5 (i’ll limit it to that number) that I think will go senior this year are:

      – Beth Labson Freeman (NDCA)
      – Lorna G. Schofield (SDNY)
      – Richard G. Stearns (Mass)
      – Steve C. Jones (NDGA)
      – Michael H. Simon (Oregon)

      Liked by 1 person

      • Dequan's avatar

        Steve C. Jones & Michael H. Simon are two district court judges I really hope to senior too as well. Especially Simon since we have 4 pending recommendations & 4 of the 4 would be outstanding picks. I would love to see Ossoff & Warnock get another pick. They are 3 for 3 so far. I’ve given the 3 Georgia woman picked by them an A+, A & A.

        Like

  14. Dequan's avatar

    If I had to guess which circuit court seat will be the first to become vacant this year, I think Newman would be where I put my money. She has so many reasons why she could be first due to her age & not being able to hear cases. But if I had to bet on a second seat, I would put my money on Roger Gregory.

    From what I understand, he didn’t even want to be a judge in the first place. He had to be convinced by the Clinton administration. Also his term as chief judge is up. Plus with the net loss of Black men on the circuit courts under Biden, I figure it’s likely another Black man will leave before the end of the year.

    The federal judiciary vacancy website often is behind days & even weeks when it comes to announcing vacancies so perhaps the vacancy of the next seat has already been submitted to the WH & just hasn’t been posted yet. Maybe we will find out the answer to this question soon.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. star0garnet's avatar

    I doubt the trio of Newman, Lourie, and Dyk sees another full year together. But I’ll go with someone out of left field and say that Kent Jordan feels called to spend more time as a law professor and with his ever-growing family.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Joe's avatar

      I would be surprised to see 97 year old, 89 year old, and 87 year old all make it through the year without at least one retirement, but that trio seems fervently committed to the job. It’s a strange circumstance.

      Thankfully the Federal Circuit isn’t very partisan and Democrat appointees have a significant majority anyway.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Thomas's avatar

        Especially from this trio I expect none of them will leave voluntarily – they see the lifetime appointment as that what it literally means.
        And what should they do at home with their free time? Kids, pets, more time for hobbies, they all could have those things long time ago, but they have decided to stay, and that by intention.
        On the other side, the Federal Circuit isn’t that important and two-thirds of its judges are appointed by Democratic presidents.
        A further party flip or maybe even two would be nice, and yes, further counting on Biden’s appealate judges statistics, but elsewhere it would be much more relevant.
        I have already stated, that I don’t think there will be more vacancies on the appelate level – maybe one or two, and those are leaving involuntary.

        Liked by 2 people

  16. Joe's avatar

    In other news, it appears there’s no new batch today. As someone suggested the other day, my guess is we’ll see some new names on January 10. This sets up the next nomination hearing on February 7.

    Following a potential February 7 hearing, there is really only room for 3 more dates before May 1, and only 14 more total the rest of 2024. When to take into account that December nominees won’t be able to be confirmed in time and the likelihood that part/all of Septembers session is cancelled, you begin to see that the window is really pretty narrow to get remaining nominees through the SJC process.

    Liked by 1 person

    • star0garnet's avatar

      The application deadline for the Scranton and Philly seats was 11/27, and the Lehigh Valley deadline was yesterday. These will be the first three produced by a Fetterman-Casey team, which will be a much simpler process than the Toomey-Casey system that involved 5+ rounds of interviews. I’d guess we’ll see nominees in June.

      Liked by 2 people

      • keystone's avatar

        Ohhhh. I missed the Lehigh Valley deadline. Nice catch @star0garnet.

        I have no idea who they’ll name to that seat. When Judge Smith died a few months ago, I looked around for Easton based judges and wasn’t finding many candidates. Based on the search, it sounds like they’ll also be looking at people in the other LV cities, e.g. Allentown, Bethlehem, Lehigh, etc.

        The Philly based seat is gonna be interesting. I know people have previously thrown around Sandra Mayson and Jasmine Harris’ names but after the Liz Magill fiasco, I think they’ll be wary of putting a UPENN professor in front of the grandstanders on the judiciary committee.

        The open seat in MDPA, is replacing a Scranton based judge, but one of the recent nominees is Scranton based and filled a Harrisburg opening. Since Harrisburg previously lost a judge, I think the new nominee will come from there.

        Liked by 3 people

      • Jamie's avatar

        Based on the judges we have seen so far, my guess for the MDPA opening would be a black nominee from Harrisburg. One local judge there is Royce Morris, but he has a lot of donations to Republicans.
        For the Philly seat, perhaps another state court judge. The top three vote getters in the 2019 court of common pleas elections all seem to be a pretty good fit. Jacqueline Romero, the US Atty would be another obvious choice.

        Liked by 2 people

  19. Jamie's avatar

    Here are my predictions of the most likely replacements for the potential replacements in CJ’s post. With time running out, most of these are not going to be A+ home runs, but district judges and state court judges.

    Roger Gregory (4th CCA): EDVA Judge Jamar Walker.

    James Andrew Wynn (4th CCA): Former NCSC Chief Cheri Beasley if she wants it, but I doubt she does after a Senate run.
    Jennifer May Parker, failed judge under Obama and Appellate Chief for the US Atty office. There’s a chance that Biden may try to go with Ryan Park, the NC solicitor general.

    Carl Stewart (5th CCA): WDLA Judge Jerry Edwards. Maybe failed Obama judge Stephanie Finley.

    James Graves (5th CCA): This one should be Scott Colom. Otherwise maybe state appellate court judge Latrice Westbrooks

    Karen Moore (6th CCA): NDOH Judges Bridget Brennan or David Ruiz.

    Eric Clay (6th CCA): EDMI Judge Jonathan Grey. The state SC justices are too valuable to remove right now. Richard Bernstein (as a blind judge) could have been a favorite but his feud with Kyra Harris Bolden makes him unacceptable right now.

    Ilana Rovner (7th CCA): Any number of NDIL judges would be possible here. Andrea Wood, Lindsay Jenkins, Nancy Maldonado, Jeremy Daniel.

    Kim McLane Wardlaw (9th CCA): This should be a Hispanic from Southern CA. CDCA judges Sunshine Sykes, Hernan Vera, or Monica Almadani or SDCA judge Ruth Montenegro. One other option is US Atty Martin Estrada. Another would be CA appeals court judge Victor Viramontes, Jose Castillo, or Roberto Gonzales.

    Scott Matheson (10th CCA): UT SC justice Paige Petersen would be the favorite. Or Diana Hagen from the same court. UT district judge Jill Parrish is probably too old, but if Biden feels he needs Lee’s support then it is a possibility.

    Charles Wilson (11th CCA): Magistrate judge from MDFL Embry Kidd would be best to realistically hope for. Otherwise US Atty Roger Handberg.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dequan's avatar

      @Jaime

      Very good list. I do agree with you the likelihood of many if any A+ circuit court nominees this year as the election gets closer, gets slimmer with each passing month. I’ll give my opinion on who I think would get heavy consideration for each seat you mentioned;

      Roger Gregory (4th CCA): Jamar Walker would be the prohibitive front runner. I think Elizabeth Hanes would get consideration too.

      James Andrew Wynn (4th CCA): Ryan Park, Allison Riggs or Christopher Brook.

      Carl Stewart (5th CCA): Ronald Gathe, Brandon B. Brown, Angel Harris & David Papillion (Senator Kennedy recommended him for the 5th seat that went Dana Douglas).

      James Graves (5th CCA): Scott Colom. That should be the end of discussion unless Hyde-Smith agrees to turn in her blue slip for him to the district court. If so, then Todd Gee, Latrice Westbrooks or Tiffany Graves (Judge Graves daughter in law).

      Karen Moore (6th CCA): Alexandra Schimmer, Michael Meuti or David Ruiz.

      Eric Clay (6th CCA): EDMI Judge Jonathan Grey, Kyra Harris Bolden, Noah Hood, Luttrell Levingston, Michael Carter, Philip Mayor & my dream pick Leah Litman.

      Ilana Rovner (7th CCA): Biden would almost certainly use this pick to put the first Hispanic on the 7th circuit. Therefore, my picks would be Nico Martinez or Nancy Maldonado.

      Kim McLane Wardlaw (9th CCA): So many great options here. I’ll list some;

      Monica Ramirez Almadani, Brian E. Nelson, Bryant Yang,
      Victor A. Rodriguez, Lamar Baker, Araceli Martinez-Olguin, Sunshine Sykes, Martin Estrada, Rei Onishi &
      Jose Castillo.

      Scott Matheson (10th CCA): Michalyn Steele, Cecilia Romero, Paige Petersen or Michael W. Young

      Charles Wilson (11th CCA): Let me first start off with my dream scenario. That would be Nancy Abudu announces she’s moving to Florida, therefore this becomes a Georgia seat for Ossoff & Warnock to fill, hopefully with a fourth phenomenal Georgia nominee such as Professor Fred Smith.

      Now back to reality. My dream nominee would be Merritt McAlister. However, I can see Rubio suggesting a few Black men I think would be acceptable to Biden. Rodney Smith, Darrin P. Gayles & to a lesser extent Markenzy Lapointe.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Jamie's avatar

        Good catch on Papillion, I agree with you, he should be at the top of the list for Stewart’s seat. I agree on Alexandra Schimmer for the Moore seat, and Hood/Levingston for the Clay seat. Todd Gee is a possible compromise if Hyde-Smith turns in a blue slip for Colom. But Biden would probably rather elevate judges (since the process for the background check and other things will be faster), but someone like Schimmer or Levingston could pass muster.

        But a lot of the people you have are not going to be considered at this late stage. I don’t think Biden is going to nominate anyone on par with Nicole Berner who is 15 years younger. If we hold the Senate, maybe. But not in an election year. If they are a 50/50 vote, probably not happening. I don’t see any movement liberal attorneys, no Riggs, Brook, A. Harris, Carter, Mayor, Litman, or Steele being nominated. Bolden is probably not ready for the 6th Circuit (and her seat too valuable right now on the MI SC).
        The other thing is that location and geographic diversity probably still matter at this point. Wardlaw’s replacement would most likely to be from So Cal, and Wilson’s replacement would most likely be from Northern/Central FL (so McAllister would actually fit). The three that you have listed are all from south FL.

        Liked by 2 people

    • Ethan's avatar

      @Jamie,

      Here’s my predictions:

      Gregory (4th CCA): Agreed that Walker is the clear favorite.

      Wynn (4th CCA): I think Park is the favorite but I’d also throw in NC Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs and former NC Court of Appeals Judge (and ACLU of NC Legal Director) Christopher Brook.

      Stewart (5th CCA): I’d also throw in US Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana Brandon B. Brown and maybe even Stewart’s daughter Karelia Stewart, a state judge in Shreveport.

      Graves (5th CCA): I’d also throw in Angela Givens Williams, the Civil Chief for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

      Moore (6th CCA): I’d also throw in Alexandra Schimmer but she’s probably not likely since Moore’s chambers are in Cleveland. Michael Meuti, a former clerk to Moore who also served as Deputy Solicitor of Ohio and is currently a law firm partner, might be in the mix.

      Rovner (7th CCA): Agree on Wood, Maldonado, and Daniel.

      Wardlaw (9th CCA): I’m actually not certain it would be a Hispanic considering the net of loss of Black men on the circuit courts in recent years but I do agree that if it were a Hispanic person, the names you mentioned would be in the mix but Montenegro would be the least likely since she’s in San Diego. I think Lamar Baker would be the favorite over Brian E. Nelson if it were a Black man. Sunshine Sykes makes sense too since she’s Native American. I’d also throw in Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, who is Ghanian-American even though I’m not sure they’d appoint another Black woman in southern California. I also do wonder if they’d move another seat away Pasadena like they did when de Alba (Fresno based) replaced Watford. If they were to move it elsewhere, it would be Sacramento since Callahan is the only 9th circuit with chambers there. For Sacramento, I’d keep an eye on Daniel Calabretta, Lisa Powell (SUPER progressive), and Shama Hakim Mesiwala.

      Scott Matheson (10th CCA): I agree with your names but I’d also mix in US Attorney Trina Higgins and Utah Court of Appeals Judge Amy Oliver.

      Charles Wilson (11th CCA): If the seat remains in central Florida, I agree on Kidd and Handberg. But if it doesn’t, I’d throw in SDFL Judge Rodney Smith (@Dequan thinks he’d be a favorite) and UF Law Professor Merritt McAlister (a former SCOTUS clerk). Federal Public Defender Alec Fitzgerald Hall, a Black man, also deserves a mention, as does newly nominated MDFL Judge Julie Sneed (currently a Magistrate Judge; and a Black woman).

      Liked by 2 people

      • Dequan's avatar

        @Ethan

        Definitely some names I hadn’t heard before. I have to look up Angela Givens Williams, Lisa Powell), Shama Hakim Mesiwala & Alec Fitzgerald Hall.

        Some of the names you & Jaime mentioned I could see being throw in the mix if Biden wins & the Dems hold on to the senate with a 50/50 split or if Republicans take the senate. I’m really interested in the behind the scenes going on right now with Blackburn & Haggerty for the Gibbons seat. As I’ve said it will be hard to play hard ball this time around like they did with Andre Mathis because Gibbons is a Republican & you don’t want to scare her off into withdrawing. I just hope they are negotiating the district court vacancy as well.

        Liked by 1 person

  20. Rick's avatar

    There is a hearing next Wed at the SJC but it is not a nomination hearing. . So I guess first nomination hearing would be Jan 18th. We will need some new nominees soon so as to be able to having hearing in early Feb

    Liked by 2 people

    • keystone's avatar

      Cool. I wasn’t familiar with him. Interesting that he’s a dem and his father-in-law was a GOP judge, but looks like he was an Arlen Spector pick so he was prob moderate.

      I think Susan Hutnik might be a potential pick for the EDPA Lehigh Valley seat. She’s a magistrate for Northampton County (the current opening technically sits there in Easton). She’s been a magistrate for a few years and prior to that spent 20 years as a public defender. Seems to have a great reputation.

      Liked by 1 person

    • star0garnet's avatar

      Not sure if Cohen’s actually a Dem or if he just managed to win the Dem primary while losing the GOP one (but he’s about 46). While the Lehigh Court of Common Pleas is GOP-dominated, the Northampton Court of Common Pleas does have three judges under 60 who I believe are actually Dems: Michael Koury Jr. (c. 55, judge since 1997), Paula Roscioli (c. 58, judge since 2006), and Abe Kassis (c. 56, prosecutor 1999-2019, judge since 2020).

      Liked by 1 person

  23. Ethan's avatar

    For Louisiana, here’s three names I’d keep an eye, all of whom are Black women:

    1. Tiffany Gautier Chase (born c. 1970), a Judge on Louisiana’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal.

    2. Nakisha Ervin-Knott (born c. 1973), also a
    Judge on Louisiana’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal.

    3. Kelly McNeil Legier (born c. 1967, an Administrative Law Judge for the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals. She might be the frontrunner. She previously clerked for Judge Ivan Lemelle and Judge Carl Stewart. She also was Director of Member Outreach and Diversity for the Louisiana State Bar Association, a staff attorney for the 5th circuit, and served as a Constitutional Law Exam Writer for Louisiana’s bar exam, so she’d ace Kennedy’s quizzes.

    Liked by 2 people

  24. Lillie's avatar

    This is probably an unpopular take but I actually do kind of feel like judge Newman is being done dirty. Even if she shouldn’t be a judge the investigation should be transferred to another circuit. And who knows? She may well be capable of continuing. But I’m generally against term limits and such.

    Also, I am admittedly sympathetic because of being forced out of a job due to FMLA because of a temporary injury.

    With that said, the judicial disability stuff may want a reexamination in general.

    Liked by 4 people

  25. star0garnet's avatar

    So Vance has chosen her 74th birthday to go senior. That makes for three Louisiana vacancies, four more senior-eligible, two qualifying this year, four qualifying in the next presidential term, five more in the term beyond that, and only four ineligible for over a decade. And that’s with seven (previously eight) Trump and three Biden appointees! Seems that Louisiana senators have long held a bias towards older appointees, and also shows they almost have to work with whoever’s president.

    I was going to say “Hopefully this can help get Foote’s seat filled on the WD, as that’s the only judicial emergency outside of Texas seemingly not being addressed,” but apparently it takes three vacancies on MD FL to push the filings/judge over 600, and we got our third vacancy on 12/30. There’s a nominee for one of those seats, and they’ll hopefully get confirmed in a few months, but then we’ll get a third vacancy again in November.

    Liked by 1 person

    • tsb1991's avatar

      Was coming on to post this, we probably won’t have the list of nominees until sometime next week since the President will need to resubmit everybody not confirmed. At a minimum, the nominees from the 12/13 hearing (Berner, Mangi, and then the Indiana/Oregon district court nominees) will likely be held over, in addition to the South Carolina and Florida nominees as this will be their first time being listed.

      For the remaining nominees, they may be held over as well, I’m not entirely sure. I checked some SJC meetings from January 2022 (the 2nd session of the previous Congress) to see which nominees were voted out in the first meeting and which were held over, and I couldn’t see any consistent trend on who got to get voted on and who was held over.

      Liked by 1 person

  27. Zack's avatar

    IF Charles Wilson of the 11th Circuit took senior status, a dark horse candidate could be Andrew Warren, the former progressive prosecutor whom Ron DeSantis fired.
    I do think that’s unlikely though, as that would be ticking off both Rubio and Scott as well as the optics of replacing a Black Circuit court judge with a white male is probably not something Biden/Harris will want to do at this point.
    Moot point though, as I think at this point if someone hasn’t taken senior status, they aren’t going to.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Ryan J's avatar

      I agree that pretty much all of the judges who wanted to go senior for political reasons have already done so. Any vacancies that arise this year would be either to becoming eligible, waiting for other vacancies to be filled, or health reasons. Ideology still is a factor though — for example, a cancer diagnosis that is unlikely to be fatal might be enough for a liberal judge to go senior “just in case”, while a conservative judge could be dying and would try to hold on until the presidency or senate flips.

      Liked by 1 person

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