Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen would be, if confirmed, the only judge from Southern Utah on the federal district court.
Background
The daughter of former Republican State Representative Kay McIff and a Southern Utah native, Ann Marie McIff Allen received a B.A. from Brigham Young University in 1994 and a J.D. from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1997. Allen then went into private practice until 2007 when she became Deputy County Attorney for the Iron County Attorney’s Office. In 2013, she returned to private practice as a solo practitioner, although she also worked with Southern Utah University as Special Counsel and then General Counsel.
In 2020, Allen was appointed to be a judge on Utah’s Fifth District Court, where she has served since.
History of the Seat
Allen has been nominated for a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah to replace Judge David Nuffer, who took senior status on April 2, 2022. Allen was recommended for the vacancy by Sen. Mitt Romney.
Legal Experience
Allen worked in private practice at a number of different firms between 1997 and 2007 and then again between 2013 and 2020, focusing on civil practice. Between 2007 and 2013, by contrast, Allen worked for the Iron County Attorney’s Office, working both as a prosecutor and a public defender (County Attorneys in Utah have broad roles, including serving as a legal advisor, prosecution, and indigent defense).
Between 2017 and 2020, Allen worked as Counsel for Southern Utah University, where she served as a legal advisor to the University on Title IX compliance and other issues.
Jurisprudence
Allen has served as a judge on the Fifth District Court in Southern Utah since Governor Gary Herbert appointed her to the court in 2020. In Utah, District Courts are trial courts of general jurisdiction, which preside over all civil cases and all criminal felonies.
Among the notable cases Allen handled as a judge, Allen presided over a jury trial that found Darcy Anderson to be guilty of three felony counts relating to the sexual abuse of a ten year old victim. See Jeff Richards, Jury Finds Parowan Man Guilty of Sexually Abusing 10-Year-Old Girl in His Home, St. George News, Feb. 25, 2022, https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2022/02/25/jmr-jury-finds-parowan-man-guilty-of-sexually-abusing-10-year-old-girl-in-his-home/. Allen also found Jacob Schmidt, accused of running another man over with a car, to be competent to stand trial. See Jeff Richards, Cedar City Man Accused of Murder in Fatal Hit-and-Run Found Competent to Stand Trial, St. George News, Feb. 24, 2021, https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2021/02/24/jmr-cedar-city-man-accused-of-murder-in-fatal-hit-and-run-found-competent-to-stand-trial/.
Additionally, Allen was one of a group of judges who was sued in federal court by defendants who were challenging the bails set in their cases. See Medina v. Allen, Case No. 4:21-cv-00102-DN-PK (D. Utah Mar. 30, 2023); see also Jessica Miller, Lawsuit Challenges Utah’s Cash-Based Bail System, The Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 4, 2021, https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/10/04/these-utahns-are-too-poor/. The suit was dismissed by Nuffer. See id.
Overall Assessment
The District of Utah has a Salt Lake City focused bench, with the lone Southern Utah judge, Nuffer, having moved there in 2018 when the court opened a new division in Southern Utah. Allen, by contrast, has deep ties to Southern Utah, which would serve her well in building the legal community around the new division.
As for her background, Allen may draw questions about the lawsuit challenging her bail decisions, given that it was supported by a number of progressive organizations, but is nonetheless favored to be confirmed.
The Vetting Room 
You have to wonder how many of these requests to drop noms were in the works and for how long.
Perhaps its less embarrassing to have your name not renominated at the beginning of a new year than to be withdrawn?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Dequan, where did you see this? I follow JP Collins on Twitter, but it doesn’t seem he has posted much. Where is he covering the federal judiciary now?
Doesn’t sound good for Edelman at this rate. For what it is worth, I hope they move quickly with a new nominee.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well I can’t take the credit. It was actually @Ethan who I’m friends with outside this blog that sent it to me. He follows JP Collins on Blue Sky. He wrote it there
LikeLike
JP Collins quit Twitter. He’s now on BlueSky
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good for him. Everyone who can quit Twitter should.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That stinks. If he posts anything good going forward please share here if you don’t mind. I never bothered to make an account there
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ironically Twitter is a lot like Wikipedia. It used to be a great vehicle for everybody to use it. Unfortunately both were taken over by bad actors. In the case of Wikipedia idiots were able to ban together to make the judicial related section of the site much worse off by banning pages until the nominee is confirmed & constantly deleting content. I really hope Harsh considers my suggestion. This would be the perfect place for a Wikipedia style site.
LikeLiked by 1 person
He also said that Gaston had apparently already hired clerks via OSCAR. So Yikes.
LikeLiked by 2 people
For all it’s drawbacks, Twitter is still by far the best platform to share/spread news. I do wish they’d revert the verification back to what it used to be, though. Replacing all the actual journalists and insiders with crypto dorks and provocateurs definitely ruined it a bit.
Nevertheless, lots of great politics/elections stuff as well as sports, entertainment, etc
LikeLiked by 1 person
Once you could mostly no longer access Twitter pages without making an account, I stopped looking at it, except when I saw a link.
I hope more and more people quit Twitter entirely, and Musk’s pile of crap platform either becomes another TruthSocial or just dies.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I found a good article about Robert White’s nomination to Eastern Michigan, including a picture of him. He seems like a conventional nominee.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2024/01/10/president-biden-taps-prosecutor-robert-j-white-for-federal-bench-judge-in-detroit/72165594007/
LikeLiked by 1 person
IMO, I think the reason some of the withdrawn nominees weren’t put up for votes in December is because it was made clear that Democrats besides Manchin/Sinema had issues with them and that the votes weren’t going to be there.
IMO, the attacks against Gaston were crap but they stuck and it’s just a reminder of why it’s so hard for public defenders/criminal lawyers to be nominated for judgeships.
Have to say this doesn’t bode well for Edelman, whom more then anyone else has been put through the ringer for nearly eight years now.
Can’t blame him if he decided to call it quits one day altogether.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder if attention-whore Sinema’s no today is a precursor to her being even more of a pain than she already is – and maybe why several of these nominees have “withdrawn” (which we all know really means that someone told them they couldn’t get through the senate). It’s not like Dems are passing any legislation this year, so judicial nominations are really the only reason to placate Sinema – if she’s going to be an obstacle about them now, then any competent majority leader (so not Schumer) would threaten to go all-in on Gallego. Even if the Dems lose the Senate this fall, at least one silver lining will be saying good riddance to a two-faced witch like Sinema. Between being a lackey for billionaires tax cheats and “interning” for a private equity donor’s winery, she’s always been disgusting, even for DC.
Republicans’ attacks on Gaston and Edelman in particular are the same “tough on crime” drivel they’ve tried with other nominees. That BS is starkly ironic given how lenient the Republican judges on DDC have been in sentencing the January 6th insurrectionists, and I’m not convinced that Tester or Brown are dumb enough to think that voting down their colleagues’ judicial recommendations will save their election chances.
LikeLiked by 3 people
And also – Amir Ali’s a great nominee, but I’m concerned about whether he can get confirmed if Gaston (and I assume Edelman) can’t in this senate. I hope they move quickly on his nomination and have a backup nominee ready. The fact that AliKhan (whose background as a Bristol fellow, in big law, and then as an SG is about as typical as you can get) required Harris to break a tie shows how difficult confirmation has become for any nominee who seems even remotely brown/Muslim/Middle Eastern (Pakistan is of course in South Asia, but let’s not pretend any Republican would know the difference or—for the likes of airheads like Blackburn—can even find Pakistan on a map). And then of course there’s the BS the Republicans put Mangi through.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ali might not be voted on until the lame duck session. Also who did Sinema vote no on.
LikeLike
Sinema voted no on Kato Crews.
LikeLiked by 1 person
does it seem it’s gone from almost commonplace to pretty rare for there to be 26 year old (one year post-law school to clerk for a circuit judge) sc clerks?
I think it’s partly due to being more applicants and partly due to people who would otherwise get rejected, trying to hone there resumes by either double clerking or waiting to apply later.
Is the metaphor kind of that the 26 year old sc clerk is a 5 star recruit out of high school while the 30 year old law clerk is more like a four star JUCO transfer?
LikeLike
As far as Democratic senators other than Manchin or Sinema voting no on judges, the first one is Menendez. He is a far more likely culprit than Brown or even Tester.
Bjelkengren, it’s possible that many senators may have expressed they would not support her, including some liberal ones.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have to see if the no vote Sinema did today is going to be a pattern going forward or not.
Democrats are already going in on Gallego so this won’t change a lot other then the small amount of patience Democrats have left with her going to zero.
As for Gaston and Edelman, I think the attacks on them worked because the former had a history of representing unpopular clients (sex offenders) while the issue with crime in DC is going to make any judge from there ripe to attacks.
Also, sad to say but J6 isn’t viewed the same way by a lot of the Trump base so folks from that not getting harsh sentences isn’t viewed as a bad thing by the “tough on crime folks.”
Hypocritical but what else is new with Republicans?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The other thing that worries me a bit is that we still need Sinema to give us not 1, not 2, but 3 nominations for Arizona.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Considering her pushing heavily for Desai. The possibly most liberal judge on the 9th circuit active bench. I think we should be fine, fingers crossed
LikeLiked by 3 people
Sinema’s objections seems perhaps to be based on perceived qualifications to sit on the bench. Considering Kato Crews stumbling on a Brady motion during his hearing.
Obviously Charnelle Bjelkengren had a poor performance at her SJC hearing, so perhaps she was the major objector.
I’m hoping it is largely based on performance at SJC hearings and not some issue regarding tough on crime logic.
I think they were two nominees that I can’t really blame people for having an objection with.
LikeLiked by 5 people
The vote tally for Crews was kinda hilarious. Despite a stumble on a legal question that generated some of the most controversy of any nominees hearing, he got Collins, Murkowski to vote for him. And even Manchin who has been on a roll on voting against Biden’s judicial nominees as of late. Maybe Manchin is just more inclined to vote against female judicial nominees. While getting the first no vote from Sinema on a Biden judicial nominee lol.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah I just don’t think being unable to answer factual questions during a hearing is a disqualification per se. Crews was a magistrate judge, and if he is incompetent we would know that from attorneys who practiced in front of him and from reading their opinions.
A good judge doesn’t need to know everything on the top of their head. They can look things up and determine past precedent, discuss with their clerks and deliberate before coming to a decision. Personally I find Kennedy’s questions to be nothing more than trying to embarrass nominees rather than to try to determine their qualifications and judicial views/style.
LikeLiked by 3 people
This is a similar debate to “are standardized tests a good indicator of qualifications?” Except that Kennedy’s tests seem to be a lot more arbitrary than a typical standardized test. Some people are intelligent but are just not good test takers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Surprisingly, no nomination hearing next week, there’s a hearing on the First Step Act instead. Fortunately they can still have a hearing on 1/24 and not disrupt the schedule and still go for a 2/7 hearing for this week’s nominees.
LikeLiked by 1 person