Jasmine Yoon – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia

An in-house attorney at Capital One, Jasmine Yoon, would be, if confirmed, the first judge of color on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia.

Background

Yoon’s ties to Virginia go far back, as she received a B.A. from the University of Virginia in 2003 and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2006. Yoon subsequently spent three years as an Associate at Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington D.C. before clerking for Judge James Cacheris on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Subsequently, Yoon became an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which she left in 2016.

In 2019, Yoon joined the University Counsel’s Office for the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. In 2022, she shifted to become Vice President of Corporate Integrity, Ethics, and Investigations at Capital One Financial Corporation.

Yoon’s husband, Christopher Kavanaugh, currently serves as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, and has indicated that he will step down if Yoon is confirmed.

History of the Seat

Yoon has been nominated for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. This seat will open on July 4, 2024, when Judge Michael Urbanski moves to senior status. In November 2023, Senators Warner and Kaine recommended Yoon and Roanoke attorney Patice Holland as potential candidates for the seat. Yoon was ultimately chosen by the White House

Legal Experience

Yoon started her legal career at Crowell & Moring in Washington D.C. Among the notable cases that she handled at the firm, Yoon represented Rodney Edward Brown, who was convicted of first-degree and second-degree assault and of use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. See Brown v. State, 957 A.2d 654 (Md. Ct. Special Appeals 2008). Upon Yoon and her co-counsel’s arguments, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled that the state, at trial, had failed to prove that a handgun was used in the offense, as the ballistics and forensic evidence only established that a firearm had been used, reversing that conviction. See id. at 674.

Between 2010 and 2016, Yoon worked as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia under U.S. Attorney Neil McBride, focusing primarily on the prosecution of financial crimes. Notably, Yoon was part of a team of attorneys prosecuting the “Mega Conspiracy”, a joint criminal action seeking to commit copyright infringement and money laundering, causing over $500 billion in loss. See United States v. Batato, 833 F.3d 413 (4th Cir. 2016).

Yoon has been working as in-house counsel for the past four years, starting with working for the University of Virginia and then, for the past year, for Capital One.

Political Activity

Yoon has a limited political donation history, with a single donation to Warner’s campaign in 2022.

Overall Assessment

Despite her youth, Yoon has handled many of the most complex kinds of cases that she is likely to see as a federal judge, if confirmed. Given the lack of controversy in her background, Yoon should likely see a routine and comfortable confirmation.

236 Comments

  1. Dequan's avatar

    I thought the administration would go with Patice Holland. Particularly to avoid Christopher Kavanaugh having to step down. Either way I believe we are down to 24 districts that have never had a person of color so it will be good to remove anointed district from that list once Yoon is confirmed.

    Like

  3. Dequan's avatar

    **********Amir Ali**********

    Hello all. I wanted to give you all an update. You may or may not have noticed but after the initial days of President Biden’s last batch of nominees announce, I was my usual vocal self, regarding the nominees. After a couple of days, I have not commented on them & in particular, I have not commented on Amir Ali. This was intentional & I want to explain why.

    Early last week I received an email from Harsh, the founder of this great blog The Vetting Room. He asked me would I be interested in being a guest editor & do the judicial write up for Amir Ali. As an avid commentor on this blog for years, I was honored & frankly completely blown away that he would even consider, let alone ask & trust in me to do complete such an important task. I happily accepted.

    At that point, I decided in order to remain independent once the write up is posted later this week, I should cease commenting on his nomination. I am sure you all know how I feel about Mr. Ali as I made my feelings crystal clear prior to being asked to do his write up, but I did want to give some explanation as to why I have not commented on his since.

    So on to the write up itself. I really worked hard to find as much information on Mr. Ali as I could. I want to make sure the write up lives up to the high standard Harsh has set. I want to thank @Ethan for proofreading the initial draft last week & for the suggestion he offered which I accepted & changed in the draft.

    We are waiting for the president to send the nomination to the senate so we know which seat Ali will be nominated for because I wrote two different drafts depending on which seat it is. I have decided I will not comment on the post because again I feel it’s important to remain independent even when you all know where I stand on him. But don’t worry, I will continue to comment on this post until the first post-Ali post is published. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it once Harsh post it.

    Liked by 6 people

    • Dequan's avatar

      @Ben

      Uuuggghhh… I figured Austin would get fast tracked but two more red state nominees jumping the line, one of which who is an outright Republican. I was hoping we would get the party line votes lined up but I’m reading Senator Kelly has Covid now so I guess that’s another week we will have to wait. I hope we at least get a Tuesday/Thursday/Monday cloture motion sent/cloture vote/confirmation vote combo with Kolar starting tomorrow.

      Like

      • SEPA's avatar

        Cantwell and now Kelly lol. There goes two weeks. It’s so predictable how nearly every senator who tests *reports their* positive test for COVID is a Dem. The quarantine rules have vastly changed so Kelly doesn’t have to be away for a week but he will so down 1 we will be for another week. Good on us being the ultra responsible party… not. Frank will find some way to respond to that like good on Dems for displaying responsible behavior, we shouldn’t display GOP’s pattern of carelessness.

        Dems better hope the polls are wrong. Good luck filling these vacancies especially vacancies that don’t even have a nominee going into February of an election year.

        Liked by 1 person

  11. jayem6624's avatar

    Congrats Dequan! I use the federal judicial cycle to teach U.S. law and politics abraod (and occasionally in the U.S.) and so I really enjoy the community here. So many great contributors. I had tried multiple times to comment over the last year but I think they got stuck in the system. Hoping this time it works and to be more involved in 2024!

    Liked by 1 person

      • Dequan's avatar

        Yes yes yes yes yes. This is spectacular news. Happy retirement judge Wilson.

        I truly wish my dream scenario would play out. I know it won’t, but I would love for Nancy Abudu to say she is moving back to Florida & changing her duty station, therefore moving the Wilson seat to Georgia for the two Democrat senators to fill. Of course Rubio & Scott would complain until they are blue in the face. Now ask me how much I would care… Haaaaaaa

        Ok back to reality. With yet another Black man leaving the circuit courts, I actually think there’s three Black men Rubio could offer up that the administration would agree to in order to fast track filling the seat.

        Darrin P. Gayles would be the first openly LGBT Black man circuit court judge. He’s 57 so I could see Rubio pushing hard for him, believing Biden wouldn’t turn him down.

        Rodney Smith turns 50 around the time judge Wilson steps down so an elevation could be the perfect birthday present. Despite being a Trump appointee, he’s actually the perfect compromise nominee.

        Lastly US attorney Markenzy Lapointe could be recommended. I believe he would be the second Haitian American circuit court judge. & judge Greenway retired last year. The administration already tried to get the second Haitian American circuit court judge but she chose to stay in the New Jersey Supreme Court instead.

        My hope is this vacancy leads to filling more of the district court seats that are currently vacant in the SD & MD districts. The administration should initially push hard for somebody like Merritt McAlister & then let Rubio & Scott know they will go with one of the people I mentioned above along with filling somebodies district court seats in return.

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      • Ethan's avatar

        I certainly hope we don’t have yet another net loss of Black men on the circuit courts. But I also wonder if duty station will play a role in who gets this seat. Wilson is based in Tampa and all the names @Dequan mentioned are based in south Florida. Here’s some Tampa names I’d keep an eye on:

        -Long shot that Julie Sneed’s district court nomination is pulled and she is re-nominated for the 11th circuit.

        -Magistrate Judge Amanda Arnold Sansone (born c. 1976) is a former clerk to Wilson.

        -Alec Fitzgerald Hall (born c. 1967) is a Black man who serves as the Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Florida. Normally there’s no way Rubio/ Scott would agree to that but he’s almost 57 and he also has a Master’s of Divinity degree (not sure if that means he’s an ordained minister). He’d be an A+ pick if he were 10+ years younger.

        Tampa isn’t the only Middle District of Florida city that could get this seat. Jacksonville has no active judges on the 11th circuit (Senior Judges Gerald Bard Tjoflat and Susan H. Black are based there) and Orlando has NEVER had a judge on the 11th circuit.

        I’m sure Rubio/ Scott would agree to Orlando based US Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Roger Handberg (born c. 1969). They’d probably also be fine with Holland & Knight Partner Suzanne Gilbert (born c. 1970), who serves as a member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. Florida 9th Judicial Circuit Judge Luis Calderon (born c. 1979), may have an outside chance but he’s probably too young for Rubio/ Scott’s liking.

        Merritt McAllister (Gainesville based UF law professor; born c. 1980) would be another dream pick. She’s a former clerk to Justice Stevens with a strong pro bono record.

        In Jacksonville, I’d keep an eye on Magistrate Judges Laura Lothman Lambert (born c. 1979) and Philip Lammens (born c. 1977), a rejected Obama nominee.

        Liked by 1 person

  16. Zack's avatar

    Of the three Circuit court judges put on the 11th Circuit under Clinton after Republicans took control, Wilson was the only Democrat/moderate of the bunch.
    Both Frank Hull and Stanley Marcus were Orrin Hatch specials Bill Clinton had to accept in order to get other nominees through which is why they took senior status under Trump.
    While I’m happy to see this, I wish it had been done earlier, as there will be fireworks over this and it could impact the Florida district court nominees depending on who’s picked to replace him.

    Liked by 2 people

  18. star0garnet's avatar

    Wilson was the youngest of the 14 senior-eligible Dem circuit appointees we were waiting on. I echo Zack; happy to have this news but wish he’d done it a year ago. I wasn’t expecting this mini-flood of circuit vacancy announcements. While I’m still confident in the senate’s ability to handle at least the currently known circuit and blue state district vacancies, if we get too many more circuit vacancies, the math gets dicier. But the senate managed to confirm 15 circuit judges in 2021, with less notice and less of a deadline, and they’re currently only being asked to confirm 9 (plus at least 48 district seats).

    Liked by 1 person

  19. tsb1991's avatar

    To further comment on the cloture motions filed today, it sucks that neither Austin nor Lund could get voice votes, given their near-unanimous committee votes. Since Kelly has COVID as I’ve found out here, if cloture is filed on an appeals court nominee, it’s definitely going to be Kolar then. Why not go the extra step and make it an Indiana-themed week in the Senate?

    In other Senate news, there’s a possibility that next week may not be dedicated to confirming nominations, it’s been reported that both sides are close to a border/Ukraine/Israel deal, so if a deal is reached, all of next week would likely be dedicated to force-feeding that bill through the Senate.

    On the topic of votes voices, it’s crazy to go to Bush Sr or Clinton’s judicial nomination Wiki pages and see that almost all of their nominees were confirmed on voice votes or UC, and even before that, you’d have Carter or Nixon appeals court nominees confirmed within a month of their nomination (would they just not get a hearing and get zipped out of committee?). Were the only nominations actually voted on in those days just all of the top-level cabinet nominations and SCOTUS nominees, and that the Senate was more legislatively-focused and didn’t want to spend time voting on nominations?

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Zack's avatar

    Rodney Smith is a member of the Federalist Society which should automatically take him out of the running.
    Also, I know he’s a white man and a prosecutor (a progressive one though) but if you really wanted to see Republican heads explode, Andrew Warren would be a good nominee.
    Back to reality, of the names you mentioned Markenzy Lapointe sounds like the best choice to me.
    We’ll have to wait and see.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dequan's avatar

      I saw that too but being a member of the Federalist Society isn’t an automatic disqualifier. Biden circuit court judge (And my first choice) Anthony Johnstone was also a member. Also Jennifer Nou who was considered for the 7th-IL. John Rappaport is another liberal who is a member. I thought the same thing you did initially until it was pointed out to me several liberals are actually members because the organization surprisingly encourages liberal view points.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Hank's avatar

        Fed Soc most definitely does not, by any means, “encourage liberal viewpoints” – all the names you’ve mentioned are law professors, and sometimes they invite liberal law profs to “debate” issues and those liberals will do it. Johnstone was part of both ACS and Fed Soc, which at least made it a little better – and he was Tester’s pick anyways.

        All the votes against Smith’s confirmation to the district court came from Dems, so he’s not a Stephanie Davis who was the Dem pick in a package deal. We don’t need a Clarence Thomas wannabe on CA11 – especially not under a Dem president.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Dequan's avatar

        Don’t get me wrong, I’m not by any means saying the Federalist Society is the second coming of the ACLU or ACS. But to say they don’t encourage liberal view points is not accurate. They often invite liberals to their panel discussions. I don’t know Rodney Smith’s background too deeply so I’m talking more along the lines of in general than his specifically.

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  21. Hank's avatar

    Great to hear about Wilson, though I really wish he (and Rovner) would have done this last year. Perhaps some of the older liberals are realizing this is likely their last chance for a while to be replaced by someone other than a Fed Soc hack. I’m now wondering if we’ll see any more circuit vacancies in the next few weeks (days?) – if we do, this administration MUST fill all of them, even if that means they run out of time to confirm some district nominees (which shouldn’t happen, but never underestimate the Dems’ incompetence when it comes to the judiciary).

    With this being a Florida seat and Biden having nominated Abudu to the other CA11 vacancy, there’s going to be significant pressure to name a Hispanic/Latina nominee. I’d expect the Florida equivalent of Irma Ramirez to get the nomination, which at this point is fine.

    I am positive Rubio and Scott will try to hold things up in the hopes Trump can fill this seat next year. I really, really hope the administration is not stupid enough to let that happen – even if they have to leave all the FL district court vacancies open, that would be worth getting this CA11 seat filled with a sane person.

    Liked by 1 person

    • CJ's avatar

      Some folks in the blog said that they think the only reason why Cornyn and Cruz agreed to Ramirez was because they no longer had blue slip veto power on Circuit Courts, but knew they could negotiate to get a moderate nominee. That could be the same situation with replacing Wilson with Rubio and Scott, though considering that they managed to agree to 4 District Court nominees, they’ll probably work something out for the 11th CCA seat.

      Liked by 2 people

  22. Mitch's avatar

    With Judge Wilson’s announcement, there could possibly a solution to the backlog on southern Florida nominees. Biden could nominate U.S. Markenzy Lapointe to the Circuit and Detra Shaw-Wilder to the District Court.

    It’s true that Lapointe is from Miami while Wilson’s courthouse is in central Florida, but there’s no law against him being the nominee anyway.

    Liked by 1 person

    • keystone's avatar

      I kind of wonder if Wilson may have even given the WH a heads up before the official notice.

      When the FL district noms came out, a lot of people were confused that neither Lapointe nor Detra Shaw-Wilder were named despite the fact that they both seemed to have support form Rubio and the WH. I wonder if the WH knew that the Wilson opening was coming and purposely held one or both of these noms since either would be a good replacement (geography aside).

      Also, we keep talking about male nominees. Given what a big deal was made about the need to appoint a black woman to SDFL, I wouldn’t be surprised if saw a black woman nom for the Circuit seat.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Dequan's avatar

        @Keystone

        That’s very possible. The White House could have been given a heads up by Wilson since he’s a Democrat appointee & unlike a couple other Clinton appointees to the 11th, an actual Democrat. And as much as I have been advocating for at least a second Black man since 2014 to be put on a circuit court in addition to Andre Mathis, a Black woman is very possible for this seat. Especially given the backlash of no Black woman on the SDFL.

        Somebody earlier mentioned if any other circuit court judge has already given Biden a heads up & irs just not been announced yet. That’s also possible. I will still stick with my prediction of there’s no way Biden ties Trump’s 54 circuit court judges in one term but I must admit this is the first time I have some pause & believe I could actually end up wrong (Happily of course). With the five pending vacancies with no nominee, that puts Biden at a potential 48. Even that number would be incredible given there were only two vacancies the day Biden took office. Truly incredible job.

        Liked by 1 person

  25. Gavi's avatar

    I get nervous seeing these late breaking retirement announcements, so little is my confidence in this WH.

    1: Maybe it’s just my pessimistic self, but I fear *this* WH either won’t pick awesome nominees to replace the retiring circuit judges or will allow Republicans to string them along.
    2: Add the time crunch to the fact that the WH may want to use the Charles Wilson vacancy as leverage to fill some of the other district court seat; this is Trump’s home circuit and all that entails for his trial/appeals down there; and then some: we could be looking at a nominee in their 60s and as bland as bland. The only thing this replacement may have going for them is that they aren’t a Fed Soc hack. I guess that would be something, but not much.
    3: Someone mentioned a possible nomination from the ABA Standing Committee on Judicial Nomination. The ABA has a rule all members sign up to when they join the Committee: No member can accept a judicial appointment before they have left the committee for at least one year.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. Unknown's avatar

    The White House better name someone quickly or else Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle who clerked for Thomas and was the judge that struck down the CDC’s federal COVID-19 mask mandate on airplanes and public transportation will 1000% be nominated

    Liked by 1 person

    • Hank's avatar

      Yeah that’s a pipe dream – where judges have moved to different states (McKeown from WA to CA for example), it has been for personal/family reasons and not political. And the state from which they were nominated wouldn’t get a seat again until that judge retired/went senior.

      Now there’s nothing on the books saying that circuit seats “belong” to a certain state, so Biden doesn’t actually need Abudu to move to nominate someone from Georgia. A Dem administration with more backbone (so not this one) could (1) threaten to move the seat to Georgia as leverage to get the FL senators to agree to a decent liberal, or (2) nominate some DC liberal lawyer who’s willing to move back to Florida for the seat. Obama (hardly a president who was focused on the judiciary) did the former when he moved a South Carolina seat on CA4 to North Carolina, while Trump did the later with Bress and Rushing.

      Are there any “moderate”-seeming Hispanic magistrate judges who would be plausible candidates?

      Liked by 1 person

  29. Gavi's avatar

    William Kayatta did *not* get an exception to this rule. In fact, when Judge Kermit Lipez announced that he was going senior in April 2011 (to take effect at the end of that year), Kayatta himself said that he didn’t apply for the job because he’d be in violation of this rule. Kayatta left the ABA in August 2010 and therefore had to wait a year and a day after that date to accept the nomination, which wasn’t announced until the following January.

    Liked by 2 people

  31. pj91's avatar

    does anyone here think there should be a concerted (though obviously covert) operation to try to infiltrate fedsoc? Given the makeup of the student body at the ivies, it would probably be pretty easy to have a bunch of students infiltrate the group.

    Like if you’re top of your class at harvard and join fedsoc – there’s no way someone like Pryor or Katsas won’t hire you. If there can be a “cambridge five” type network – eventually you can get a foothold in those guys chambers and eventually at the sc.

    My view is this – if you can join fedsoc, clerk for conservative judges/justices and maybe work at a conservative coded firm (Kirkland or Jones-Day) but other than that not do anything too political, you might have the opportunity to, 20 years down the road, get a circuit court nomination from an R president.

    If you want to increase future Blackmun/Stevens type situations, that would be an idea. The only worry is that someone who clerked for the right judges but other than that doesn’t have a paper trail – might be a red flag under a republican administration of someone who is a stealth. They might try going for ADF/Becket types who they see as more willing to drink the koolaid.

    Liked by 2 people

  32. Hank's avatar

    Oh and now that someone has mentioned it, I’m also disappointed (though not surprised) at the lack of environmental law experts among Biden’s nominees – I don’t think any of the appellate nominees have such a background, but do any of the district nominees? I assume Manchin would’ve blocked any back when it was a 50-50 senate, but since he’s now voting against every other nominee anyways, the admin might as well nominate some folks with that background. At the very least they can’t be accused of being soft on crime.

    Earthjustice has some smart and well-credentialed lawyers – I mean from her bio, Kirti Datla is totally the type of lawyer Dems should be nominating: https://earthjustice.org/staff/kirti-datla#:~:text=Kirti%20Datla%20is%20Earthjustice's%20Director%20of%20Strategic%20Legal%20Advocacy.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Dequan's avatar

      @Ethan & me were just talking about that the other day. There’s been no majority environmental nominee to date which is astonishing. As for Kirti Datla, I can’t remember ever seeing somebody clerk for Sonia Sotomayor, Jeffrey S. Sutton and Amul R. Thapar. Perhaps she could hold Manchin or pick up Collins or Murkoski.

      Like

    • Hank's avatar

      Murkowski’s pretty conservative on environmental issues (not surprising, since she’s from Alaska), so any environmental law nominee would have need Collins’ vote for confirmation last Congress (or Graham’s, but that seems less likely than Collins). If I’m being generous to the administration, I would’ve guessed that they thought that was too risky/would waste time if it failed.
      They don’t really have a good excuse this Congress, and some environmental justice nominees for the district courts in CA9 and CA10 would’ve been great.

      Though to be fair, it’s not like any environmental law circuit or district court judge can do much – especially with SCOTUS about to overturn Chevron and the utter drivel that is the “major questions doctrine.” State courts are probably the way to go for environmental justice advocacy these days.

      Liked by 1 person

  34. Aiden's avatar

    On the note of ABA designations, I must say I am a little perplexed. Specifically, as it relates to a few nominees.

    Dana Douglas spent 10 years on the civil service commission, spent another 4 years as a Federal Magistrate Judge, President of the New Orleans Bar Association and according to Senator Kennedy worked for one of the top law firms in Louisiana but only received a Q rating.

    Jeffrey Bryan spent 4 years on the Minnesota Court of Appeals, 6 years as a state trial judge and many years in both private practise and the US attorneys office. Yet received only a majority WQ.

    However, Bradley Garcia with not even a resemblance of Judicial experience received a majority WQ rating?

    Also as much as I am no fan of De Alba’s nomination. She spent 18 months a Federal District judge, 4 years as a state trial judge and a Partner at a Law Firm for over 10 years.
    How did she not receive a single vote of WQ.

    Shalyn Parka and Eumi Lee are others that on their face, both have credentials that warrant a full WQ. At least compared to similarly experienced nominees giving that same designation.

    I understand the process used but it still comes out very perplexing especially looking at on paper qualifications.

    Like

    • star0garnet's avatar

      Because ABA ratings aren’t participation trophies? From 40+ interviews, you’re going to gain greater insight into a person than a resume will afford. Being a judge in and of itself does not mean you are well-suited to be a judge; it is simply an indication that you may possess the desired qualities of one. I’m not saying that the primary evaluator can’t influence things to a degree or that personal biases don’t come into play, simply that the process isn’t biased toward judges, nor should it be.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Aiden's avatar

        I don’t think weighing heavily the fact that he spent 6 years as a Trial Judge and was elevated to the Court of Appeals, should be seen as treating the rating as a participation trophy. Being elevated to the Court of Appeals, after the state’s examination process should be of extreme significance.
        I also just have to disagree that being a judge for that long, could just be boiled down to an indicator that you may possibly have the desired qualities of a judge.

        In my belief, Judges with that much experience should start at a WQ rating, so that unless there are negative inferences about the person can be drawn from interviews or materials. A WQ should be the expectation

        Also, nominees like Eumi Lee have extensive writing that has likely been peer-reviewed and she is also well respected within her field. Along with been a judge for many years.

        I do understand the extensive interview and material review process that supposedly underpins the basis for these nominees. However seeing some of these ABA ratings and comparing them to designations given to other Judges, can at least raise some questions.

        Liked by 1 person

      • star0garnet's avatar

        He satisfied 2/3 of the criteria in his first go-round, but had next to no trial or litigation experience and so failed the third criterion almost by default. That led to a NQsm/Qmin rating, then apparently he performed well enough in his first nine months on the bench to satisfy that concern. But it didn’t convince everyone on the committee; he received an extraordinarily rare WQm/Qmin/NQmin rating.

        Liked by 2 people

  35. Dequan's avatar

    I was thinking about the Wilson vacancy on the 11th. Here’s another possibility that I may give a 2% chance at happening. Biden could nominate Ben Crump. He probably more than any other nominee could energize Black men in the state of Florida. Again, not saying he will be the nominee but I wouldn’t completely rule it out.

    Like

    • Gavi's avatar

      Then let me do it for you: I completely rule out the possibility that Biden would nominate Benjamin Crump.
      Rick Scott as governor did something that his two previous Republican predecessors didn’t do, repeatedly rejected his state bar’s lists of judicial recommendations. Guess who was one of the recommended lawyers on one of those lists: Benjamin Crump.
      Crump is too immersed in Dem politics for those two particular senators to give their sign off. Remember that Florida is Trump’s home state, Scott wouldn’t want to risk upsetting his dear leader in the middle of his reelection.

      Dequan, I’m a high aimer like you, but I have learned better with this WH.
      If this vacancy lingers for too long, it may be a clue that the nominee won’t be Markenzy Lapointe, since he should have been previously vetted. At 56ish, he’s older than I like circuit court nominees so I wouldn’t complain, but that risks the seat going to someone worse than Irma Ramirez, or not filled at all.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Dequan's avatar

        Yea, Ben Crump would definitely be a shove it down their throat pick, not one that either Rubio or Scott signs off on. And as you said, I don’t expect that from this WH.

        My reasoning is a little different than yours despite us agreeing on the end result. I don’t agree this WHC office (Unlike the last one) wouldn’t shove a nominee down red state senators throats. I more so see it as I believe they will agree on a nominee with Rubio & Scott. If they recommend somebody such as Markenzy Lapointe, the administration would agree versus going with a hard line liberal & tough confirmation process in an election year.

        Liked by 1 person

    • Hank's avatar

      Yeah I agree with Gavi that Republicans would fight tooth and nail to stop a Ben Crump nomination – and if the recent withdrawals have shown us anything, it’s that Dems have no spine (especially in an election year) and Schumer will fold like a cheap suit instead of acting like a real majority leader.

      If this vacancy had occurred in January 2021 instead of January 2024, maybe the administration would threaten to nominate Crump to get some leverage with the Florida senators for a less “controversial” nominee. That’s not going to work now with (1) the tight timeline before the election, (2) Manchin voting like a Republican, and (3) Sinema being Sinema.

      Also, between making no efforts on voting rights/police violence and shutting Hispanic lawmakers out of immigration negotiations, this administration is pretty clearly taking minority votes for granted at this point. Hardly surprising since Biden is who he is, but I can’t see them prioritizing any nominees that energize any part of the base (which, to be fair, is hard to do with any judicial nominee).

      And to my point yesterday about SCOTUS undermining environmental justice, here’s an article on that exact issue: https://theintercept.com/2024/01/19/epa-environmental-justice-lawsuits/. It’s also another indication of the Biden administration abandoning minority communities once it becomes difficult/inconvenient.

      Liked by 2 people

  36. Hank's avatar

    Also with 3/5 Florida seats in South Florida right now, I’m sure Rubio/Scott will use that as an excuse to oppose Lapointe or anybody out of South Florida (where the Dems likely have more options).

    Roger Handberg, the current US Attorney for MDFL, seems like a more likely pick than some of the SDFL names – he’s a big law lawyer/former prosecutor who (as far as I can tell) has nothing progressive on his resume. Other than the fact that Biden nominated him to the US attorney position, I couldn’t even tell if he’s a liberal or a Democrat. And the fact that he’s a white male would likely also be more acceptable to the Republicans, to be honest.

    Liked by 2 people

  37. tsb1991's avatar

    Today’s Senate session is dedicated to those Amtrak Board of Directors nominees. Slight update, looks like cloture was withdrawn on one of them and will just have an outright confirmation vote instead today. This means the first vote on Wednesday should be cloture on a judicial nominee, rather than a confirmation vote for the final Amtrak nominee. Still worth hanging around tonight to see if cloture is filed on an appeals court nominee for a Thursday afternoon vote.

    Outside of the judicial nominees, the other possible votes for the remainder of the week could be a veto override (Tina Smith mentioned that when she wrapped up last night) and Fetterman mentioning bringing some resolution up for a vote this week (forgot what it was about).

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dequan's avatar

      I really hope Kolar’s cloture motion is sent today. He could be confirmed Monday if so. I know he’s the least exciting of the circuit court nominees pending but 30 hours is 30 hours. Democrats really need to clear as many hours off the senate floor calendar over the next two minus before the recess weeks start rolling in.

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      • tsb1991's avatar

        Yeah, Kolar is definitely the odds-on favorite for the next appeals court nominee to be confirmed, given that his confirmation will be pretty easy. I’m most curious about Aframe and if he’s possible without perfect attendance. My baseline for Mangi and Berner is that both will need 50 + the VP, but while Aframe was a party-line vote in committee, I’m curious if he can still get some combination of Manchin/Collins/Murkowski (even support from one of them takes a ton of stress off attendance). I don’t feel like he was hammered at his hearing the way Mangi and Berner were, and given Maine is in the First Circuit, would that make Collins more inclined to support him? If she has any relationship with Shaheen/Hassan, her colleagues across the state line, that may also help as well.

        Liked by 1 person

      • tsb1991's avatar

        The veto override would be one of those Congressional Review Act votes, which are not subject to filibusters and can pass with a majority vote. Considering most of them have passed with slim majorities (the only Democrats who really vote on these are the ones with tough re-election campaigns this year), whatever veto is attempted to be overridden will get nowhere near the 67 votes needed.

        Liked by 2 people

  38. keystone's avatar

    @tsb1991

    Interesting. I feel better about Berner’s chances TBH. Their attacks on her felt a little all over the place. The fact that they seem to be going with “this lesbian lawyer isn’t going to be advocate for women if we make her a judge” feels like a weird and frankly weak attack. I could imagine a scenarios were Collins or Murkowski might vote for Berner.

    Something else that worries me about Mangi is that Fetterman has been steering right on a lot of issues pertaining to the current problems in the mid east. This coupled with the fact that he’s been actively going after Menendez pretty hard makes me wonder if there’s a chance he could vote against Mangi.

    Liked by 1 person

  40. Zack's avatar

    I won’t rehash the primary because it’s over and done nor will I get into Middle East politics too much with but Fetterman was never as progressives as some folks thought he was even though he liked weed and wore hoodies.
    As for the Middle East, many folks who couldn’t find it on a map a few months ago now think there’s a simple solution to a region that has been at war for thousands of years.
    But if they aren’t going to vote Biden, nothing we can do about that, focus on those who will.

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Zack's avatar

    The Eastern District of California really needs a couple of more seats down the line.
    As for Kolar, yes, he’s not as liberal as many folks would have liked but he is still world’s better then who he’s replacing.
    Just a shame Posner couldn’t have held on or that Ann Williams didn’t wait to retire or if Leahy hadn’t been an idiot.
    The 7th would have flipped but still, 6-5 is better then what it was.

    Liked by 1 person

      • Hank's avatar

        Yeah Williams is a hard one to understand – she was one of the Seventh Circuit’s liberals, but didn’t take senior status when she could have (under Obama) and then essentially “sold out” while Trump was president to collect a big paycheck at Jones Day. Maybe she (like all of us) thought Hillary would win and didn’t want to stick it out for at least another 4 years after Trump won. Can’t blame her for that, but this is all the more reason for liberal judges to go senior ASAP when there’s a Dem pres/senate.

        6-5 is the most liberal CA7 has been in living memory – and as long as Rovner’s replacement gets confirmed before next year, the 5-vote liberal minority will be around for a while. And Scudder/sometimes St Eve will break from the conservatives, so it really will be a pretty moderate court. I’m just crossing my fingers that Kolar turns out to be more liberal (or at least not more conservative) than he appears.

        Liked by 1 person

  44. tsb1991's avatar

    No surprises in the nominees appearing at tomorrow’s hearing, everybody nominated from that batch in December will be appearing:

    https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/01/24/2024/nominations

    Also obviously not surprised we got the Kolar cloture, was more surprised we got the Sherriff cloture. We’ll have to see what tomorrow’s vote schedule looks like (since the first vote will likely be a cloture vote and not confirmation, one of the nominees will likely be confirmed Thursday morning). If that’s the case, do we get four votes on Thursday (confirmation of the third nominee from Wednesday, cloture/confirmation on Sherriff, and then cloture on Kolar)? Or does Sherriff get shunted into next week?

    Liked by 1 person

  45. Zack's avatar

    Ann Williams was first put on the courts under Reagan and gave enough hints over the years that she was a Republican, a very liberal one but still a Republican nonetheless.
    And in the end, unlike Rovner, she choose party loyalty over ensuring her seat wouldn’t go to someone to the right of her.
    Like Dequan said, glad she wasn’t picked to be on SCOTUS under Obama given what she did in the end.
    The fact she is now working for Jones Day, which is more or less the law firm for Republicans (although others work there too) says it all.

    Liked by 2 people

  46. raylodato's avatar

    So, Austin and Brisco have cloture votes starting at 11:30, then confirmation votes at 2:15, and Lund has her cloture vote at 6:15, which I assume sets her up for a confirmation vote on Thursday. Possible cloture vote on Kolar on Thursday and/or Sherriff on Thursday, too.

    If I didn’t know better, I’d say Schumer is paying attention to judicial confirmations.

    Liked by 2 people

  48. Dequan's avatar

    Two things about tomorrow. First, are we expecting another batch? Second, it will be the first SJC hearing I will miss live since Biden became president. I’m out of state training so I won’t be able to send my usual recap. I’m happy it’s all red state nominees that I’ll be missing.

    Liked by 1 person

    • tsb1991's avatar

      I’m sure you won’t be missing much anyway. Would have to imagine pretty light attendance at this hearing. I’m sure Cruz, Cornyn, and Lee on the SJC will be there at the beginning to introduce their nominees but I can’t picture any of them going after the other nominees. You’ll probably get a few questions from Graham as the Ranking Member and more likely the usual questions from Kennedy. On the Democratic side, probably Hirono asking her usual sexual harassment question to the nominee. I’m sure Durbin will probably leave the hearing early too and another SJC Democrat will get to act as chair for the remainder of the hearing.

      For the possibility of a batch tomorrow, there’s always the chance, but I’d bet against it. The next possible hearing after 2/7 (in which nominees are lined up for) would be 2/28 when the Senate gets back from its two week break, followed by a possible 3/13 hearing. The White House would have until 1/31 to get in nominees for a 2/28 hearing, and 2/14 for a 3/13 hearing. If not 2/28 and 3/13, 3/6 and 3/20 would also work as hearing pairings when the Senate comes back for a four-week stint at the end of February (2/7 and 2/21 deadlines for those weeks).

      So 1/31 would be the ideal date for nominees, if not 2/7 would be the complete drop dead date if they wanted to use both hearing slots when they get back for March.

      Liked by 2 people

    • Zack's avatar

      If I’m a guessing person with Cramer and his wife, it’s likely that they reached the end of their ropes with their son and aren’t going to help him anymore.
      Sucks but at some point, there’s nothing else you can do.
      As to tomorrow’s hearing, not expecting any fireworks.
      Only thing is whether they get voice votes or not.

      Liked by 1 person

  50. Jamie's avatar

    For the Wilson seat on the 11th Circuit, I’d push hard for magistrate judge Embry Kidd. He’s a black male who is from Central FL and pretty young (41?)

    Also Judge Rodney Smith is a conservative Republican nominated by Rick Scott to the FL courts and then recommended by Rubio for SDFL. He should not be considered.

    Liked by 1 person

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