Sparkle Sooknanan – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Department of Justice attorney Sparkle Sooknanan is the White House’s second nominee to replace Judge Florence Pan on the D.C. District Court.

Background

A native of Trinidad & Tobago, Sooknanan moved to New York City at age 16 to attend St. Francis College, graduating summa cum laude in 2002. Sooknanan subsequently got an M.B.A. with Distinction from Hofstra College in 2003 and then started work at HIP Health Plan. Sooknanan continued working there while studying in the evenings at Brooklyn Law School, getting a J.D. summa cum laude in 2010.

After graduating, Sooknanan clerked for Judge Eric Vitaliano on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then for Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the U.S. Supreme Court. Sooknanan then joined Jones Day, becoming a Partner in 2020. Sookanan subsequently left Jones Day and joined the U.S. Department of Justice, where she currently serves as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division.

History of the Seat

Sooknanan was nominated, based on the recommendation of Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, to replace Judge Florence Pan, who was elevated to the D.C. Circuit on September 28, 2022. President Biden had previously nominated D.C. Superior Judge Todd Edelman to replace Pan, but despite being approved by the Judiciary Committee multiple times, Edelman never received a floor vote and his nomination was not resubmitted to the Senate in 2024.

Legal Experience

Sooknanan started her career in practice with a brief stint at the Department of Justice between her lower court clerkships and her clerkship with Sotomayor. During this time, Sooknanan had the opportunity to argue before the Ninth Circuit on a Federal Tort Claims Act case. See Dichter-Mad Family Partners, LLP v. United States, 709 F.3d 749 (9th Cir. 2013).

Between 2014 and 2020, Sooknanan practiced at the firm Jones Day. At Jones Day, Sooknanan was part of the legal team representing Everytown for Gun Safety as amici in a suit challenging Colorado’s background check laws. See Colorado Outfitters Ass’n v. Hickenlooper, 823 F.3d 537 (10th Cir. 2016). Sooknanan also represented defendants challenging their convictions relating to the illegal smuggling of drugs (now Judge Trevor McFadden was one of the attorneys representing the government on the suit). See United States v. Mosquera-Murillo, 902 F.3d 285 (D.C. Cir. 2018). One of Sooknanan’s most intensive cases from this time was her involvement in a multi-party litigation related to bonds issued by the Employee Retirement System of the Government of Puerto Rico. See In re Financial Oversight & Manage. Bd. of Puerto Rico, 914 F.3d 694 (1st Cir. 2019).

Notably, Sooknanan, alongside fellow former Supreme Court clerks Benjamin Mizer and Parker Rider-Longmaid, filed amicus briefs in support of the City of Charlottesville’s decision to remove Confederate statues. See City of Charlottesville v. Payne, 856 S.E.2d 203 (Va. 2021). The Virginia Supreme Court ultimately reversed a Circuit Court ruling putting the removal on hold. See id. However, due to Jones Day’s challenges to Pennsylvania election accommodations for the pandemic, Sooknanan resigned from Jones Day.

Since 2021, Sooknanan has been with the Department of Justice, most recently working with the Civil Rights Division.

Political Activity

Sooknanan has a limited political history, including donations to Secretary Hillary Clinton and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.

Overall Assessment

While Sooknanan doesn’t have experience as a public defender as Edelman did, her nomination is likely to prove fairly controversial as well. Her resignation of Jones Day and her work at the Civil Rights Division is likely to draw strong conservative opposition. With an election approaching, it remains to be seen if Sooknanan will be muscled through while Democrats have the attendance to do so.

928 Comments

  1. Wanted to respond to a couple of earlier posts.
    If Manchin was asked about the group Mangi has been linked to being run by Danny Glover, I’m pretty sure he’d give a quote that shows he doesn’t give a crap.
    As for CCM, she would likely respond saying she respects Glover as an actor and person but can’t agree with his group or some of the causes/people it supports.
    Should be noted that she was handpicked by Harry Reid to succeed him and in 2022, largely worked outside of the main NV Democratic Party which had been taken over by Sanders supporters (most of whom were thrown out last year) and still won despite being say she was stupid for blowing them off so it’s not likely she’s going to be moved by progressive groups stating they’ll primary her in 2028 or telling she’s stupid etc.
    Same goes with Rosen, NV isn’t as far left as some folks seem to think it is/want it to be.
    Also as I said before, yes Bob Casey has moved to the left on a lot of issues but he already sunk one nominee (wrongly I might add) because of the Mumia-Abu Jamal case which still causes a lot of anger even today, not a shocker he would do it again.
    I would also add a lot of the people in charge of the Uncommitted movement shot themselves in the foot here with their statements about how nothing Biden/Democrats can do will get them to vote for them because of Gaza.
    Given that, why act shocked vulnerable Senators aren’t going to stick their necks out here?
    Finally, I will say this, it’s nice to see the defense of Mangi by the WH and others but it came way too late.
    It was clear from the start there were going to be attacks on him and it took too long to respond to them.
    That letter he wrote this afternoon is a sign his nomination is toast, only question is when it’s withdrawn (my guess is over Easter.)
    Sucks, let’s just hope the replacement is ready to go whomever it is.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yeah Manchin isn’t going to care (does he even know who Danny Glover is), and all the coverage of Mangi by the NYT, Chris Hayes, etc. would’ve been nice months ago but is too late to make a difference. His nomination was doomed once Cortez Masto moved from “concerned” to “no” in like 4 hours this week – but I applaud Mangi for not being willing to just withdraw his nomination without setting the record straight.

      And your own Islamophobia is showing again – characterizing every Muslim voter as agreeing with the uncommitted campaign in refusing to vote for the Dems no matter what when a lot of them have expressly not said that and instead said that the WH needs to change from its unconditional support of the far-right Netanyahu to win their support. If Biden/Dems were writing off progressives/Muslim voters, why would he suddenly start criticizing Netanyahu in recent days? Why would Schumer expressly disavow the reactionary Netanyahu government and call for elections in Israel.

      You also lack a basic understanding of Nevada – it isn’t Montana or Ohio where the Dems need to win significant numbers of rural voters. Cortez Masto’s own campaign focused heavily on Latino turnout: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/how-catherine-cortez-masto-won-nevada-and-secured-democratic-control-of-the-senate. If anybody looking to get back at Cortez Masto invests some resources in broadcasting how she/Rosen haven’t made any effort to do a damn thing for Latinos since getting elected (and in fact didn’t even bother making any effort to include DACA recipients in Biden’s border deal), you really think that won’t hurt the senators in a state that Cortez Masto won by 0.77% last time? 

      Elections aren’t just won by moving as far to the right as possible—sometimes politicians might actually have to show that they are doing something for the people who voted for them. Anybody looking to make sure Cortez Masto is held accountable for her insolence would do well to point out how much of a failure she & Rosen have been on this front.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Also, the fact that Cortez Masto calls herself Latina yet can’t even be bothered to learn more than a few words in Spanish is honestly quite insulting – which would be especially relevant coming from someone like AOC who has with more credibility among Latinos/immigrants.

        Even all the mainstream press on this mention that Cortez Masto is the one to blame are holding off from holding her to account when there are so many easy attacks:

        1. Not doing anything for DACA recipients, as discussed above
        2. Soft on crime by supporting a Trump judge who defended a cop-killer
        3. Sending billions of taxpayer dollars to Netanyahu’s Israel while working-class Americans are struggling with inflation (works on Rosen too, as she’s been more vocal in the push for Israel aid)
        4. Blocking a historic Asian American judge (Nevada has one of the highest percentage of Asian Americans)
        5. For Rosen: blocking a defender of unions from becoming a judge after relying on union support for her election
        6. Not doing anything as the Republicans/Supreme Court are poised to ban IVF/medication abortion
        7. Sitting there and twiddling her thumbs while Manchin/Sinema blocked the $15 minimum wage

        The goal here isn’t even to do that much damage – it’s just to let Cortez Masto/Rosen know that being a bigot does not come without consequences from people who actually believe in equality and justice for all.

        Liked by 1 person

  2. As the senate’s wrapping up, I had a look at the Tennessee Bar Association’s leadership for some possible candidates for Stranch’s seat. Among 24 women who are based east of the Tennessee River, I found three that are with in the admin’s age range (36-59) and seem to at least be Democrats:

    The previously mentioned Ana Escobar, 53, president of the Nashville Hispanic Bar Association and judge of the Nashville General Sessions Court

    Loretta Cravens, 46, president of the Knoxville Bar Association

    Carolyn Wenzel, 56, president of the TN Board of Law Examiners

    Others Democratic women on the Davidson County Court of General Sessions (5th-highest level of TN judiciary):

    Rachel Bell, 45
    Allegra Walker, 52
    Robin Kimbrough Hayes, 53
    Lynda Jones, 59

    From other non-western counties:

    Rutherford (Murfreesboro): Lisa Eischeid, 57
    Marshall (Lewisburg): Barbara Medley, 59

    And several on the courts of TN’s 20th judicial district in Davidson County (4th-highest level of TN judiciary):

    Khadija Babb, 36
    I’Ashea Myles, 45
    Lynne Ingram, 45
    Andra Hedrick, 51
    Angelita Blackshear Dalton, 52
    Cynthia Chappell, 55
    Anne Martin, 56
    Jennifer Smith, 58

    Camille McMullen, 52, is the only Democratic woman who sits on the three highest levels of the TN judiciary.

    Overall, not a lot of youth, but hopefully Escobar is already being prepped for the nomination.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I don’t think it’ll be a sitting judge – too easy for Blackburn to find something in their record to attack, whether it’s being reversed by a higher court, some leniency towards a criminal defendant, etc. 

      And although I’d be perfectly happy with Ana Escobar, I think going from state court trial judge to the Sixth Circuit will be tough. Of Biden’s judges, only Holly Thomas did that, and she had the elite (I hate that word) clerkship/credentials that, in the eyes of many lawyers, Escobar does not have. For example, I’d be concerned how the ABA would rate Escobar, and as much as I think the ABA ratings underweight public service compared to BigLaw, ABA ratings have been a problem for several nominees now.

      This is a Nashville seat that is staying in Nashville, so it won’t be Steve Cohen but instead Jim Cooper. Cooper was an investment banker and pretty moderate when he was in Congress, but if he played a part in getting Stranch selected, then there’s some hope.

      Honestly, I’d love it if the WH just ignored the whole Nashville vs. Memphis thing and picked McMullen for this seat, just to see how Blackburn somehow contorts herself into opposing McMullen too. 

      Liked by 2 people

      • Definitely a fair point. It’s hard to scrounge candidates in a state where even the legal community is largely aligned with this modern GOP. Ingram and Hedrick hold equivalent positions to what DeAndrea Benjamin. But while she didn’t have an elite clerkship, she had Graham shepherding her nomination. The ABA hasn’t had many opportunities to rate many lower state court judges for circuit judgeships recently, but they’ve seemed to be pretty fair when evaluating them for district judgeships.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Schumer just brought up the budget bill for a final vote. All other amendments have been withdrawn & the senate is now voting on the Motion to Concur with the House bill.

    A nice touching moment just now as well. Schumer gave a condolences book to Collins signed by the other senators then asked for a moment of silence for her mother’s passing.

    Like

    • White was expected, sucks that we have to dedicate a whole day for Bazis and Allen. Senate is coming back on Monday 4/8, so thankfully no time is lost for sticking around past midnight on a Saturday. I’m sure there’s risk in filing cloture on party-line nominees that won’t be voted on for two weeks.

      There’s still the possibility cloture is filed for the remaining three district nominees on Monday the 8th for Wednesday’s votes. If that were to actually happen the entire slate of pending district court nominees would be cleared before the 4/11 SJC meeting (which only four nominees would be reported out and could easily be cleared the following week).

      Liked by 2 people

      • Yea my guess is Schumer didn’t want to risk any party line votes two weeks out as well. Besides, to be honest with the budget out the way, the senate can now focus almost unilaterally on judges for a bit now. I did hear Schumer bring up the Alejandro Mayorkas impeachment in his wrap up so I am not sure how much time that will take up, but I would assume not too much.

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  8. I’m still coming up short trying to identify the MDTN Appeals Chief.

    One interesting name I came across is Ellen Bowden McIntyre

    • Deputy Civil Chief for MDTN
    • C ~1970
    • Trial Attorney for Dept of Justice, Consumer Protection branch
    • 18yr+ AUSA in MDTN
    • Trial Attorney for Dept Justice, Civil Rights Division
    • Staff Attorney for Southern Poverty Law Center (mid 90’s)
    • Seems to be very involved with Girl Scouts of America

    Long career mainly focused in MDTN. She is a bit older than I’d like but the same age(ish) as McMullen and Escobar. Her SPLC and Civil Rights Division would cause alarms but it was a long time ago.

    Another name is Amanda Klopf. I think she is Senior Litigation Counsel. She recently successfully prosecuted a high profile case involving anti-abortiion activist illegally blockading clinic. I can’t tell for sure, but I think she might be a bit young for an Appeals seat.

    Although, I’d prefer to see a woman get the nom, I think you could make a case for nominating US Attorney Henry Leventis.

    Pro-Lifers HATE him bc of the aforementioned abortion clinic trial. Nominating him could potentially raise the abortion issue right ahead of the election. Let’s see Ted Cruz put his foot in his mouth. Manchin will be. a no, but could C & M be yeses?

    The other two explosive areas for Leventis would be that he was an attorney for the Justice Dept Criminal section, civil rights division (I haven’t really examined much there yet). He also signed onto the Justice Dept’s Challenge to the TN Law banning medical necessary care for trans youth.

    Liked by 2 people

    • I thought Henry Leventis was the likely front runner for the second seat just like I thought Ritz was the front runner for Gibbon seat. I thought that because I figured Blackburn & Haggerty would support them both.

      Now that I see they are not supporting Ritz, I think it’s less likely Leventis will be the nominee. If Blackburn & Haggerty are not going to return their blue slips for anybody to the left of Chad Meredith, I think Biden will at least go for a woman & maybe somebody slightly more progressive too. I highly doubt Biden would name two White men in a row to replace two woman if he’s not going to get blue slips & he’s voted for either of them.

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    • McIntyre would fit the profile of who the WH is looking for – good find.

      I also think Karla Campbell from Stranch’s old firm (who was Stranch’s first law clerk) is another option: https://stranchlaw.com/our-attorneys/karla-m-campbell/. She’s a younger version of Stranch/Berner, and if there is any concern about Stranch retracting, I’m sure nominating Campbell would fix the problem.

      No matter who the nominee is, they’re going to be a party-line vote because (1) Blackburn/Hagerty won’t return a blue slip, (2) Collins/Murk/Graham (and thus Manchin) will likely vote no on this basis as they did with Mathis. All Biden really needs to do is find a nominee who Cortez Masto/Rosen/etc. won’t betray – so basically a nominee who isn’t Muslim. Given that the non-Manchin Dems voted for Berner, they’d likely back Campbell (and probably McIntyre) too.

      Liked by 4 people

      • Vermont’s an unusual case where the other judge, Christina Reiss, will return to the Chief Judgeship she held from 2010 to 2017. She’ll take over when Crawford hits 70 in July, and hold it until Crawford’s successor has been on the bench for a year. So even the 58-year old would get a full 7 years as chief.

        Liked by 2 people

      • I didn’t realize just how rare it’s been to satisfy the criteria necessary for a former chief judges to get a second chief judgeship. Under the current rules, it can only happen when the former chief judge is the youngest judge on the court who’s served at least a year. (Although as written, but not in practice, a former chief judge would have to be at least 65 in order to qualify for a second chief judgeship.) I can’t guarantee that I didn’t miss an instance, but I believe it’s only happened four times previously on Art. III courts:

        1. WD NC: Wilson Warlick, 1961-1962, 1966-1968; the court had two judges and his counterpart got elevated
        2. WD WI: Barbara Crabb, 1980-1996, 2001-2010; the court has two judges and she took over again when her older counterpart turned 70; for her last year on the court, she was its only judge; she went senior upon confirmation of her successor, who had the rare distinction of immediately becoming chief; her 25 years as a chief judge may be a record; presumably her counterpart initially declined the chief judgeship when it would have passed to him in 1987
        3. D ND: Daniel Hovland, 2002-2009, 2016-2019; the court has two judges and his counterpart got elevated; he went senior upon confirmation of his successor, who had the rare distinction of immediately becoming chief
        4. ED NC: Terrence Boyle, 1997-2004, 2018-2021; the court has four judges but one seat was open from 2005 to 2019; his two counterparts (17 years younger than him) served full terms as chief and presumably deferred to allow Boyle another go

        Liked by 3 people

    • @Keystone

      Thanks for the article. I hope the pick is Stephen L. Barth. It would be nice to get a Vermont judge in their 40’s, as they have traditionally had older judges. Of course his federal defender background is wonderfully too.

      Jessica C. Brown would be a phenomenal pick as well despite her being 5 years older. Her associate director of the Center for Justice Reform background plus being the first Black woman on the federal bench in the state would probably push me to hope she’s the pick but I’m fine with either of the two.

      I’m not sure why Michael P. Drescher is on the list. He’s almost 60 & don’t have much progressive background. He would be a bad pick for sure, particularly with two solid other choices. I hope the White House doesn’t scree this one up.

      Liked by 1 person

      • IDK. Jessica Brown has potential for an really rough confirmation process. WH is def gonna be combing through every event, speaker, and donor the Center for Justice Reform has had.

        Age aside, Drescher isn’t terrible. I like his Peace Corp experience. It looks like he’s previously overseen Vermont’s Election. I’m curious to hear more about his Sheehey, Furlong, Rendell & Behm work. But the age is big eye opener for sure.

        Stephen L. Barth at 49 and a Public Defender work is prob my fave atm.

        Although, honestly, I wish the VT senators would have just picked Ella Spottsworth rather than having her be on the selection panel.

        Liked by 2 people

  11. There seem to be a few nominees in trouble. Mustafa Kasubhai and Sarah French Russell got battered in committee and haven’t been voted on yet, and Suzanne Kanter hasn’t had a hearing yet. Ali Amir will likely get confirmed on a party-line vote, with Joe Manchin possibly opposing him.

    Robin Meriweather is likely to be confirmed, I wonder when she’ll be voted on?

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Mitch, I am hoping all three get votes in April when the senate returns.

    I am actually more bullish on Ali and Kasubhai than I was a week ago. I try not to think in terms of demographics much, but If Mangi really has been sunk then there may be more pressure on senate Dems to confirm the other two Muslim nominees.

    Liked by 4 people

  13. I saw with the two WDTX confirmations on Friday that we’ve hit the lowest number of judicial emergencies since January 2015. Gee, I wonder what happened starting that month that caused them to climb for several years…

    ringwiss on X: “The number of judicial emergencies is now the lowest it has been since January 2015. https://t.co/zH9ZDs9ipe” / X (twitter.com)

    Also, how did they get so insanely high in 2018? Were those a lot of blue state judicial emergencies where Senate Democrats in NJ, WA, etc gave Trump a middle finger and refused to turn in blue slips for district court nominees due to blowing them off over appeals court blue slips?

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  14. I could see Vermont’s senators going with Brown but Barth would be fine as well.
    Have to wait and see.
    Also, when Democrats get back from break, it will be judge confirmation time.
    I expect Kasubhai, Aframe, Ali and Russell to all be party line votes.
    Mengi is either going to wait until after the election for the lame duck period or his nomination will be withdrawn, Schumer isn’t going to put members of his party on blast for one nominee.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Yea..having read the article Brown wrote, while she’s not wrong with the things she said there is no way in heck that she will get confirmed if she’s the nominee.
    Marion Gaston wrote a paper about how sex offender residency restrictions don’t work (she’s right) but it was enough to tank her confirmation.
    No one someone who argues that prisoners should be released early is going to survive in an election year.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Ironically Jessica C. Brown would have probably had been the nominee in 2020-2021 with a 50/50 senate & Biden’s push to put Black woman on the bench. Now with a 51/49 senate in an election year, not nearly as likely. My worry now is that the administration will go with the old save choice of Michael P. Drescher over the young & excellent choice of Stephen L. Barth.

      Like

  18. Drescher would be the safer choice. The age isn’t great, but I think we should do a bit more background on him before we write him off as being a bad choice. We’ve seen several instances where these quick write ups on candidates gloss over a lot of interesting facts. He’s had a long career. Who knows what’s in there.

    With regards to Barth, I still think he has a strong chance. He’s really not that dissimilar from the person they just nominated for the Mass seat.

    Liked by 1 person

    • @keystone

      Michael Drescher makes sense because the election is approaching, Biden’s approval ratings are falling again, and Democrats up for reelection are getting skittish. 

      He might have progressive credentials that show up later, the way that Kirk Sheriff did. So far, I haven’t found much about him.

      Liked by 1 person

    • Looks like Drescher has made the news for:

      As private attorney:
      1997: representing hospital releasing mentally unfit man who had killed 20 years earlier

      As AUSA:
      2002: defending Fish and Wildlife’s lamprey control program
      2004: being victim of anthrax hoax
      2005-2007: prosecuting hospital execs for misleading regulators and board on costs
      2005-2006: shutting down unlicensed radio station
      2008-2009: prosecuting doctor for overuse of fentanyl
      2009: prosecuting Medicare fraud
      2010: prosecuting oxy ring
      2011: more oxy
      2012: prosecuting child porn
      2012-2013: prosecuting tax fraud
      2012: banning designer drugs
      2012: prosecuting false expense claims
      2013-2017: prosecuting 3 heroin dealer cases
      2014: prosecuting sexual abuse of inmates
      2017-2018: prosecuting school death threats
      2017-2018: prosecuting tax fraud/identity theft
      2019: prosecuting fentanyl dealer
      2020: monitoring elections integrity
      2021: prosecuting dealer/shooting
      2021: dropping firearms charges on case he took over
      2021-2023: prosecuting money-for-underage sex
      2022: prosecuting dealer/kidnapping
      2022: prosecuting gun purchase used in killing
      2023: prosecuting illegal firearms possession

      So no red flags that I spotted, but pretty much what you’d expect from an AUSA over the past 20 years.

      Liked by 2 people

  20. @Dequan,

    We’ll have to wait and see but I think at this point it’s most likely Brown is out.
    There is just no way with her beliefs in early prison releases (not that she’s wrong) that she’s going to make it.
    Same thing with Mangi.
    Reagan was an evil jerk but he was right on one thing, if you have to explain, you’re losing.
    The attacks against Edelman, Gaston, Mangi on criminal justice issues are easy to put into ads.
    Countering them however is not and in an election year, that means doom for certain nominees.

    Liked by 3 people

  21. Tammy Murphy just dropped out of the NJ Senate race.
    Means Andy Kim is the next senator from NJ.
    IF we keep control of the senate, it would be neat to see what nominees we could get for the 3rd Circuit or District courts if any vacancies arise.

    Liked by 4 people

  22. I saw with the two WDTX confirmations on Friday that we’ve hit the lowest number of judicial emergencies since January 2015. Gee, I wonder what happened starting that month that caused them to climb for several years…

    ringwiss on X: “The number of judicial emergencies is now the lowest it has been since January 2015. https://t.co/zH9ZDs9ipe” / X (twitter.com)

    Also, how did they get so insanely high in 2018? Were those a lot of blue state judicial emergencies where Senate Democrats in NJ, WA, etc gave Trump a middle finger and refused to turn in blue slips for district court nominees due to blowing them off over appeals court blue slips?

    Like

      • Really there are only four scenarios to get Mangi confirmed at this point;

        1. Get Cortez-Masto to change her mind along with no other Democrat besides Manchin folding.
        2. Get a Republican or two to suport Mangi.
        3. Wait until after the election to confirm him, risking someting going wrong inteh mean time such as a loss of a Democrat senator in a state with a Republican governor.
        4. Confirm Mangi when a Republican or two is out of DC for a few days or weeks like Mullin was last week.

        Like

      • I think the issue with #4 is that they wouldn’t attempt that unless Democrats have 50 committed yes votes on their side. I remember after the first attempt to impeach Mayorkas failed (due to Republicans miscalculating Democratic absences/attendance), Pelosi said something among the lines of never relying on the minority party’s attendance to pass things and make sure you have everything lined up on your side. Probably why Bjelkengren or Edelman for example didn’t get confirmed over the holidays even if Democrats had a massive attendance advantage.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Oh yea, I agree. #4 would be an extreme case such as a (God forbid) Republican version of Feinstein or something to that affect. I am not even sure if Schumer & Durbin would do it then since they believe in “norms” so much. Of course, if the shoe was on the other foot, McConnell wouldn’t hesitate to confirm a partisan Republican, but we all know Dems brings knives to gun fights.

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    • If you’re referring to Mangi, I certainly hope so – I doubt Cortez Masto will change her mind (these senators are too full of themselves to ever admit when they’re wrong) and Collins/Murkowski are unlikely to save a nomination on their own. The other two options Dequan listed seem too risky to me – I’m sure McConnell will move heaven and earth to keep a circuit seat vacant.

      That being said, I can understand that they can’t exactly be public about looking for a replacement until they actually withdraw Mangi’s nomination. I’d imagine this will happen once Cortez Masto indicates that she doesn’t care about things like facts or not being a bigot and is still a no – the Senate is in recess for two weeks, so it might not be until they get back.

      Liked by 1 person

  25. Not sure if her name has been mentioned yet as a possible successor to Wynn on CA4, but given that the WH nominated Ritz to CA6, I think Dena King (the current US Attorney in WDNC) might be a possible compromise candidate:

    1. 40-something Black woman, which is a plus for the WH
    2. Career prosecutor aside from a few years at North Carolina’s equivalent of the SEC
    3. Based in Charlotte, where Wynn is (I’m not sure if NC had a tradition of appellate seats staying with certain regions within a state like TN)

    She wouldn’t exactly be an exciting candidate, but unlike Allison Riggs or Ryan Park, she’s one I could see Tillis signing off on. And although I’m not convinced that Budd will sign onto anything, I also didn’t think Braun in Indiana or Marshall would ever return their blue slips so who knows. 

    I suspect that with both the TN nominees likely to be party-line votes, the WH will be inclined to compromise on the CA4 nominee to avoid too many of the circuit nominees being tough confirmations (needless to say, I’d rather see the WH go with Riggs or Park).

    Liked by 2 people

    • My bad – just realized Wynn is based out of Raleigh. The US Attorney for EDNC (where Raleigh is) is Michael Ealy. He’s only 38/39 so he might be too young for Tillis/Budd, but he’s a white guy and the son of a former (Dem) NC governor so at least he’s well-connected. He also took some criminal defense cases as a CJA panel attorney while in private practice – interestingly enough, he seems to be one of the few US Attorneys who wasn’t an AUSA in that office.

      So if the WH/senators are ok moving the seat to Charlotte, I think Dena King is more likely. If either party insists on the seat staying in Raleigh (it appears to be the only NC seat based there right now), I think Ealy will be considered (and wouldn’t be too surprised if he were nominated).

      Liked by 1 person

      • Unfortunately I think Allision Riggs is out. She would be my top choice, but she appears to be running for reelection to the SCOT-NC. Park would probably be my second favorite choice but ultimately I would love to see a young Black man with some progressive chops replace Wynn. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see Michael Ealy if he is interested in being a judge. With his father’s ties, perhaps he has political ambitions but if he wants the job, he certainly would make a strong case.

        Like

      • Running for the NC Supreme Court doesn’t preclude her from being picked for CA4 though – she’s been running since she was appointed last September. Given that she’s unlikely to be selected unless the WH just disregards the NC senators, it makes sense that she’s continuing to focus on her reelection campaign.

        With all the other factors to weigh and a nominee to get confirmed within 9 months, I highly doubt the WH is limiting the pool solely to Black men – I’m not very familiar with the NC legal community, but so far I haven’t heard of any Black male NC lawyers (and Raleigh-based lawyers specifically) that are the right age/have the typical experience for the job. If the WH is concerned about demographic diversity, that would weigh in favor of either King (I doubt Black NC Dems are going to protest the selection of a Black woman) or Park (who I believe would be the first Asian American on CA4).

        Like

      • Well, that, plus winning back the NC Supreme Court in 2028 is one of the highest priorities nationally for the future of our democracy. And Riggs winning this fall is probably the easiest of the four wins necessary for that.

        The regions of NC definitely fight for influence, and it’s the worst-represented state on its circuit (its 3 actual vs. 5 proportional slightly beating out TX’s 9 vs. 14 for that distinction). I don’t see the Research Triangle going from 2 to 0 in the space of five years.

        Liked by 1 person

  26. This is from the weekly Alliance for Justice newsletter…

    “Maine’s Democratic Governor Janet Mills decided not to reappoint Justice Joseph Jabar, 77, to another seven-year term on the state’s highest court. Governor Mills cited a desire to enhance diversity on the bench as a factor in her decision to decline the reappointment, which has left a vacancy on the court”

    Like

    • Interesting – Maine is the second-whitest state in the country after Vermont, as 95% of its population is white. A racially diverse pick would be like finding a needle in a haystack, so my guess is that Mills probably wants to appoint a woman (currently 2/7 Maine SJC justices are women).

      It’s a good time to be Darcie McElwee (the US Attorney for Maine) – if Collins won’t agree to her for CA1, it looks like she has a backup option. I could even see McElwee preferring the Maine SJC to CA1, just as Fabiana Pierre-Louis did in NJ.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Haaaaa… Good point. It is a good time to be Darcie McElwee. I can’t imagine if she applied for both positions, they would be filled without her being offered one if not both.

        And yea I agree the White House likely isn’t limiting their search for the 4th to a Black man either. But Biden is losing support amongst Black men (Not myself included) so I hope somebody in the WHC office realizes Wynn & Wilson being replaced by two non-Black men would only widen the deficit of Black men on the circuit courts since Biden took office. Yes I know he has put a record 11 Black woman on the circuit courts but still, only one Black man added to the circuit courts since 2014 is atrocious.

        Liked by 2 people

  27. As Dequan said, Allison Riggs is out due to her running for the North Carolina Supreme Seat (which matters too)
    Would like Ryan Park but I think it’s probably not going to be him.
    As for Mangi, I still say it took too long for the WH and others to respond to this.
    Tester/Casey and others got hit with ads the minute Mangi’s nomination was announced, folks in his corner should have been prepared for that and got caught flatfooted.
    The statements of support for him have been nice but too little too late.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. One other thing, sad to say but it’s been pretty clear since the 1970’s one side cares about the courts while the other doesn’t, especially the lower courts and it’s not Democratic voters as a whole.
    Heck, even a chance to get the first liberal SCOTUS in 40 years wasn’t enough for a lot of folks to vote for Hillary back in 2016 (none of the excuses for not voting for her wash if you cared about progressive legislation surviving/liberal courts.)
    I don’t buy some of the polls but do think Biden has suffered some (not the massive amount the polls claim) among Black male voters.
    I just don’t think Biden not putting enough Black men on circuit courts is the reason why.
    Finally, on some Democratic senators, I get the anger over some failed nominees but the idea of voting third party/donating to Republicans etc. to send a message simply means NO good/decent judges will get confirmed.
    As with folks not voting for Hillary/Gore, all that does is ensure the people whom oppose everything you stand for to get to call the shots and we’ve seen how that works out.

    Liked by 4 people

    • Two things:

      Centrists are still getting used to the norm of a president’s party having a 1.000 correlation with their appointees’ ideologies.

      I think conservative voters caring more deeply about the judiciary can be traced back to the 1960s, aka the years of the Warren Court where Brennan was the median justice. White evangelicals, seeing what the court was doing, could envision what a court aligned with them could do. Kavanaugh is roughly as far removed from the median voter today as Brennan was from the median, moderately racist, socially unenlightened voter of the 1960s. This court has already demonstrated the true power of SCOTUS (and will continue to do so, in ways that affect lives and dominate news), and I think people that disagree with the court have been reawakened to its importance. While I’m less confident in this assertion, this pattern may have extended back another 30 years, when voters observed a conservative SCOTUS blocking economic recovery. Before the 1930s, I don’t think the wider populace paid all that much attention to SCOTUS.

      While much relating to SCOTUS appointments is dumb luck, I think it’s also a slow-motion yo-yo, with out-of-step courts motivating several generations of voters at a time.

      Liked by 2 people

  29. Haaaaaaaa… The third to last paragraph may be one of the funniest things I’ve read all month. Now Mitch McConnell is making suggestions for circuit court picks in BLUE STATES. I’m sure when Trump was president & Republicans had the senate majority, Mitch had his cell phone by his side day & night taking suggestions of who should be nominated to the circuit courts in red states from Democrats… Haaaaaaa

    (Manchin Announces Opposition to Muslim Circuit Court Nominee (bloomberglaw.com))

    Like

    • Pretty safe bet that Zahid would get some attacks thrown his way as well but IMO, this is McConnell doing more trickery, as he knows anyone he suggests means Democrats will likely oppose.
      Plus, even though Cory Booker recommended him, there’s still a LOT we don’t know about him.
      No way he should be the replacement nominee.

      Liked by 1 person

      • All of the attacks leveed against Zahid were from progressives because of his work & unknown work with ICE. I would take my chances on putting all of the names of every attorney in the state of New Jersey into a hat & picking one before I take my chances on a Mitch McConnell recommendation from a blue estate. I was born on a day but it wasn’t yesterday.

        Like

  30. If nothing else, McConnell says this now but when it came time to vote, he would come up with another excuse as to why the seat can’t be filled.
    I have to believe there is a plan B candidate out there, likely won’t be anyone McConnell recommends but may not be anyone we like either.
    Shame it’s come to this but the minute I saw the names Kathy Boudin and Mumia Abu-Jamal, I knew Mangi’s nomination was likely toast, and no, voters in some of the states Democrats are up in this year especially in PA won’t give a flying crap that Danny Glover is the man in charge of of the one group.
    Many of the states we’re up in this year aren’t as blue as folks think/want them to be and it’s why I don’t get how the attacks on him were allowed to go unchecked for so long.
    By the time the WH and other groups responded it, it was too late to save this nomination.
    Politics sucks sometimes.

    Liked by 1 person

    • You talk A LOT about Casey and Mumia. Just out of curiosity, have you spent much time in Philly and or PA? Every time you talk about Mumia and Casey in the election, the take is very academic, but it just feels off. I say this as someone who’s grown up with both of these entities their entire life and someone whose screen name was even inspired by the Keystone State..

      Liked by 1 person

      • If you’ve lived in the Philly area at any point over the past 3-4 decades, you’ve been exposed to a lot of information about the Mumia case. There have been consistent Free Mumia rallies and campaigns and discourse for decades in that city. The case is usually lumped in as being a part of an era that the includes infamous police commissioner/mayor Frank “Vote White” Rizzo as well as the city’s notorious decision to fire bomb a city block in the 80’s. These are scars that remain on the city and its residents. This is an era that was so bad that even people in the 90’s and 00’s were like, wow, that was all really racist and f*cked up. You might be saying, well that’s just the city, what about the suburbs. This is an incident that has been going ton for so long that the college kids who were impassioned about it years ago are grown up and living in the collar counties, and we’ve seen how those areas have evolved politically over the years.

        I get that the PA GOP is trying to scare voters by hammering Casey with ads about it, but what makes any of you think that the PA GOP is competent and/or has a good idea of what works in the Philly and Philly suburbs? This is the group that nominated Dr. Oz last cycle and this time around nominated another carpetbagger who has had a serious of embarrassing gaffes where he can’t even pronounce basic state names and who in the primary against OZ ran to to the right of OZ on the topic of abortion rights and who as a hedge fund manager outsourced a ton of Pittsburgh jobs to China.

        Liked by 3 people

      • Beware of the PA GOP party…A lot of sneaky Trump style shenanigans that gave up GOP Rep Perry one of the bigger players in the overturning 2020 election for Trump. Western PA is stocked with about 7 Trump district Judges… It would be very prudent to get the EPA and MPA vacancies filled ASAP

        Liked by 1 person

  31. @Hank and @Dequan

    For the Wynn seat, I think that Judge Allegra Collins could be a contender.

    • b. 1972
    • Judge on the NC Court of Appeals
    • Was previously an Appellate lawyer
    • She represented the US in the Pan American Games
    • There was a bit of a controversy (prob too strong of a word) when Roy cooper appointed Allison Riggs to the Supreme Court bc a lot of people thought that Collins should have received that spot.
    • I could see a situation where the NC senators might view this as a chance to open up a state appeals seat that they could maybe take. (I know US and state Appeals seats aren’t equal but it’s still a prize).

    Liked by 2 people

      • Replying to all the comments from this morning;

        Allegra Collins seems like a good compromise candidate. I would hope the administration doesn’t go that route & open up a seat on the second highest court in the state when there are younger & more progressive possibilities but if Tillis & Budd offer her up, I can see them nominating her.

        I seem to remember Goodwin Lui having two hearings as well. I wouldn’t suggest it for Mangi though. I would rather him meet one on one with the senators that may be on the fence including Collins & Murkowski.

        Speaking of Murkowski, @Mitch I saw her comments as well. Even if she left the Party, I think it’s more likely she would be an Independent that caucuses with Republicans still over Democrats but it would be interesting.

        Any senator threatening to leave either Party is most definitely related to the judiciary. There are over 8 billion people on Earth. Out of them only 101 of them are involved with vetting & confirming federal judges. They are the president & the 100 US senators. Any news about who will sit in those 101 seats where those people vet nominees to the judiciary are directly related to the judiciary & will be talked about on this blog which is called “The vetting room”.

        Liked by 1 person

  33. Missed a few days of comments and thought I’d go back to read some, and I have to say, oh, please. Give me a break.

    @Mitch Pretty soon no one will remember those names and folks like you will have to find another excuse to use to oppose good people. It’s unfortunate that no matter how tenuous a connection, folks like you are all too happy to smear people (or tolerate it), as long as it makes you feel high and mighty on crime or any convenient issue.

    The charges against Mangi are pathetic, but at least they reveal who’ll stand up for what’s right and against character assassination and who’ll summarily abandon good nominees.

    Zack loves to harp on about Mangi’s supposed missteps. Yet Zack’s been ready to ditch him from the outset of the tough hearing last year. You can go back and read those comments for yourself. It’s funny that now you’re using some omission as justification for tanking this nomination.

    Zack loves to talk about how being gay means Mangi must be sacrificed, for his greater good. I gotta say, as a gay man myself, I am so happy that the LGBT community didn’t have such fair-weather friends who’d abandon us as things got heated.

    What’s worse is that you persist under this delusion that no matter what bad things Dems do/allowed to be done to their voters, they must still support the party because the other side will do worse. As voters we get to decide how we want to exercise our franchise, so you do you. But please forgive me for wanting to hold politicians to account.

    I swear, I am the most moderate voter ever (who likes progressive judges), but on here, you either have me sounding like AOC or, paradoxically, Tucker Carlson.

    (Just for record keeping: In the future, we are going to wonder why this writeup broke the comment record. We should remember it’s due to the apparent defeat of the Mangi nomination.)

    Liked by 2 people

    • Could not agree more – well said, Gavi. 

      Too many white gay men (who, unless they’re transgender, are barely even “marginalized” these days – especially given that a significant number of Republicans voted to codify gay marriage) feel like their sexuality entitles them to claim victimhood and tell people of color how to vote. How many of them still vote for Joe Biden if he announced tomorrow that he’s going to re-criminalize being gay and make it an offense punishable by death?

      Liked by 1 person

  34. Thinking back to the Goodwin Liu 9th circuit nomination in 2011. Didn’t he have TWO hearings ? It’s a rare event but it does happen.

    Do you think it’s possible that Mangi has another hearing since he is controversial and Durbin would give senators and Mangi another round

    Liked by 1 person

  36. Interesting of McConnell to bring up Quraishi, who we’ve discussed as a possible replacement – I suspect it’s because he has Islamophobic attack ads lined up already if the Dems do nominate Quraishi. I’d love to be proven wrong, but no one should be stupid enough to be believe that McConnell is acting in good faith when it comes to judicial nominees.

    Also, interestingly enough, Quraishi is the judge deciding Andy Kim’s lawsuit about whether the New Jersey “party line” system is unconstitutional. He’s likely to anger either progressives (who want the line gone) or the NJ Democratic establishment (who want to preserve it). I’ll be curious to see how he rules, as this is the most high-profile case he’s gotten.

    Liked by 3 people

  37. They should’ve confirmed Mangi the second he was voted out of committee. Dems are still too naive in the senate.

    I don’t want Mangis confirmation to be the reason Dems lose the senate but 1. I don’t believe confirming a Muslim judge in Feb, March or April would doomed Tester and Brown in Nov, they’ve both got way bigger problems trying to get reelected in solid red states.

    And two, at this point, I’d rather risk not filling the seat and trying to get him confirmed in the lame duck than replacing him, it’s starting to become an issue of principal.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yeah the fact that Cortez Masto came out as a hard “no” now (rather than try to defer it behind-the-scenes until after the election) suggests that this isn’t really about electoral politics and is more about opposition to Mangi himself. There’s going to be a million attack ads in the fall – does anyone seriously believe the line “Senator X has not indicated whether she supports or opposes this radical judicial nominee” is going to stand out from general soft-on-crime/weak-on-the-border/Biden-is-senile attacks? Everyone with half a brain knows the anti-cop stuff is BS (if it had any merit, why wouldn’t Casey be the one to announce his opposition and take the centrist credit?), so it’s really about him being Muslim. 

      The problem is that because that’s the real reason for Cortez Masto/the other senators’ opposition, I don’t think anything is going to change her vote. Better to cut our losses, nominate someone else, and then run attack ads against Cortez Masto/Rosen (on the many, many promises they’ve broken) so they know they can’t pull this BS again and get off scot-free. 

      Liked by 1 person

  38. McConnell/JCN no doubt have attacks lined up against Quaraishi but also, there are going to be a lot of folks who say that if McConnell wants him, he must be bad so vote against him.
    The goal is to keep the seat open so the 3rd Circuit can be flipped to Republican control again (something helped by two Clinton and one Obama judge taking senior status either when Obama couldn’t replace them or under Trump.) instead of the 7-7 split it will be IF we get someone confirmed.

    Liked by 2 people

  40. All the Mangi talk made me curious about what it took to get the 1st LGBT Circuit judge.

    1994 – Deborah Batts became the 1st out LGBT district judge. There was a GHW Bush district judge who came out in retirement and a later Clinton district judge who came out yrs later after being seated, but Judge Batts was the first one who was out at confirmation.

    Feb 8 2010 – Chuck Schumer recommended Daniel Alter to be a SDNY judge. Obama refused to nominate him bc Alter was accused of making remarks that would be offensive to Christians.

    One of the offensive remarks was suggesting that saying “Happy Holidays” felt more inclusive than saying “Merry Christmas”. Other alleged remarks involved the “under God” line in the pledge of allegiance. Some of the remarks appeared in publications with whom Alter did not recall ever speaking.

    https://www.washingtonblade.com/2010/10/20/white-house-rejects-gay-judicial-nominee/

    April 2010- Obama nominated Edward C. DuMont to a seat on the Federal Circuit.

    DuMont was a WilmerHale partner who focused on Supreme Court and appellate cases. Before that he was Assistant to the US Solicitor General for several years. Before that was associate deputy AG with the Dept of Justice. He also clerked for a Reagan appointed Circuit Judge. He withdrew his nominations 18 months after nomination, w/o ever even having been granted a hearing.

    2011/2- J. Paul Okten (SDNY), Alison Nathan (SDNY), Michael Fitzgerald (CDCA) got nominated and confirmed

    Aug 2012/3 – Pamela Chen (EDNY), Michael McShane(OR), Nitza Quiñones Alejandro (EDPA) wereJudith Levy (EDMI) were nominated and confirmed following Obama’s re-election.

    Feb 2013 – Todd Michael Hughes nominated for Federal Circuit and confirmed in June, becoming the first LGBT Circuit Judge.

    Take aways

    • It’s both surprising and not surprising at all that a black woman led the way for LGBT judges. Thank you, Judge Betts
    • The campaigns/tactics to block Alter and DuMont feel familiar.
    • If Mangi fails, it’s just losing a battle, it’s not losing the war.
    • Let’s remember that before Biden there were 0 Muslim Federal judges. We already have 2 district judges in place, and hopefully, we’ll have at least 2 more confirmed before the election. That is progress.
    • That list of judges who got renominated and confirmed post election. Just think about if Romney had won.

    Liked by 4 people

    • I don’t think the real cause ever came out. Just each side blaming the other. My guess would be that somebody promised a filibuster and they didn’t have the votes to overcome it. He and Victoria Nourse (nominated in July 2010 and blocked by Ron Johnson in January 2011) were Obama’s only circuit nominees that didn’t get a hearing before McConnell took over.

      Liked by 1 person

    • It sounds like there were also a few other judicial nominees who withdrew after lengthy period w/o getting a hearing.

      Other than DuMont, the others were primarily black. Grassley, commented on one of them was that some committee members had “insurmountable concerns” about matters raised during the background investigation.

      I read this as being, they did/ said something gay or black and “Folksy” Chuck Grassley clutched his pearls.

      Liked by 1 person

      • I remember reading that too. I would love to know what “background issue” came up. I know he was openly gay, I just assumed it had something to do with that and Republican opposition.

        The fact that they didn’t get Nourse’s nomination through before Ron Johnson took office is crazy. Maybe they just thought he would be reasonable, little did they know. He is for sure one of my least favorite senators, he is a total hack…

        So when do we need nominees by for the next hearing? Probably not for a few more weeks, correct?

        Liked by 2 people

  42. Adrienne Jennings Noti was sworn in today at the Superior Court of DC. That makes 12 remaining vacancies, with No. 13 upcoming at April 12, then we have the same number as when Biden took office, he has at all appointed 12 judges there, one of them already leaving in April. At the Court of Appeals of DC there are 2 vacancies, when Biden inherited 1, he has appointed 3 judges and elevated one of them to the District Court of DC.

    Liked by 1 person

      • It’s been a long saga:

        In Dec. 2013, the JNC recommended DC Solicitor General Todd Sunhwae Kim, Superior Court Judge Neal Elliott Kravitz, and lawyer Paul Wolfson (now US Deputy Associate AG) for the seat.

        In Feb. 2014, Obama nominated Kim, and his nomination expired in Jan. 2017, having not had a hearing.

        In Apr. 2020, the JNC recommended DC Solicitor General Loren AliKhan (appointed to a different seat and now D DC), DC Admin Law Judge John Howard, and Paul Wolfson.

        In Jun. 2020, Trump nominated Howard, and Biden withdrew his nomination in Feb. 2021, having not had a hearing.

        In Jun. 2021, Biden nominated DOJ civil right lawyer Tovah Calderon, recommended for a different seat in the same 2020 batch, and she withdrew her nomination in Jul. 2022, having been reported out of committee.

        In Jul. 2022, the JNC recommended Superior Court Judge Anthony Epstein, a W appointee, who had previously been recommended in the same batch as Calderon.

        On Feb. 8, 2024, the JNC recommended DC Deputy AG Megan Browder, ACLU immigration attorney Carmen Iguina, and SCOTUS practitioner/former RBG clerk Joe Palmore (who has a FedSoc contributor page, but I don’t think that means much in this case) for the seat vacated by AliKhan.

        I would expect one if not two of that group to receive nominations in April or May.

        Liked by 3 people

  44. While local DC judges are important and I believe Biden should fill EVERY vacancy he can, they should not take time away from the other judicial votes.

    So I think these should be the Monday night/Tuesday morning votes when attendance issues could mean a Dem senator is missing. I’m confident all of the current local DC nominee’s would get some GOP votes

    Liked by 1 person

  45. I saw this today and it’s pretty cool, until the next executive meeting passes on more nominees for floor votes there are currently 6 district nominees and 2 circuit nominees for the senate to confirm. That’s it.

    3 of the district nominees will be confirmed by the end of Tuesday on 4/9 and it would be something special if Dems dedicate Wed to confirming the other 3.

    It would only take 2 days to confirm the other 6 district nominees waiting to be voted out of committee.

    I don’t know what we’d do with ourselves if we had a week without any nominees waiting to be confirmed but I’d love to find out.

    Liked by 3 people

    • I do think it is very possible this happens. Six district court noms, and a cloture vote on Aframe would be an excellent week

      Thank you star0garnet for that history of the DC Court of Appeals vacancies. Hopefully we get nominees for those last two seats, and the Tax Court as well. Republicans, in the interest of obstructionism, are delaying voice votes on most of these (uncontroversial) judges. Hopefully a deal can be worked out in due time.

      Liked by 1 person

    • I think Republicans are actually hurting themselves by not recommending judges in red states. There is only a limited amount of SJC hearing slots left this year. The more Democrat recommended blue state nominees we get this year the better.

      There’s a chance next year we could have Biden as president & a Republican majority in the senate. In that scenario, we would basically get the same type of nominees for the next two years that we would get this year. But we wouldn’t get liberal blue state nominees in that scenario for the next two years. So I would think Republican senators would want to fill up as many slots this year with as many of their centrist & bland nominees they could.

      Like

  48. We now are down to two vacancies that have been open since before Biden took office. Another six vacancies have been open since Biden’s first year in office. Here’s my thoughts on those eight seats;

    07 – WI-E: We have two recommendations since last year but still neither have been nominated. I assume Ron Johnson is being Ron Johnson again but I hope we get one of them nominated soon.

    11 – AL-M: No chance Biden fills this seat in his first term.

    05 – MS-N: Scott Colom should have been the straw that broke Durbin’s back for blue slips. I don’t see any reason Hyde-Smith works in good faith now that she knows Durbin won’t budge.

    08 – AR-W: No chance Biden fills this seat in his first term.

    03 – PA-E: I am confident this blue state seat will get filled before the end of the year.

    09 – AK: Murkowski recommended four women, but Sullivan started his own commission at the end of last year. It is unlikely this seat gets filled this year.

    10 – KS: It was a missed opportunity to fill this seat when there was a vacancy on the 11th.

    05 – LA-W: When Long & Edwards were nominated, I remember reading Kennedy say he was surprised Biden didn’t nominate the person they agreed on for this seat. I am not sure if something came up in the background of whoever it was. There’s a small chance this seat gets filled this year now unless whoever Kennedy was talking about was nominated. I would have thought Obama nominee Stephanie Finley (born 1966) would have gotten the nomination but perhaps she is enjoying retirement.

    Liked by 1 person

  49. I’ve been a pessimist over the last maybe 8 months but that might be turning around. Seeing the progress made with judicial emergency vacancies is a great indicator of progress that just hit me all at once.

    March ’21 – 36 / March ’22 – 33 / March ’23 – 24

    After Fridays double confirmations, JEs are now at 12!

    It will drop to 11 once Allen is confirmed Tuesday and 9 once the announced FL-S and CA-S nominees are confirmed.

    I just need the Dems to not drop the ball in the last minute by leaving open these 20 district vacancies in blue states + Maine.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I read the other day that the number of judicial emergencies is at its lowest level since January 2015. Hm, I wonder what happened that month that caused the number of judicial emergencies to increase…

      The amount of judicial emergencies was as high as in the 80s during Trump’s presidency, but started to come down towards the end of his presidency. How many of those were blue state vacancies where Democratic Senators in MA, WA, NJ etc refused to cooperate with Trump on district court vacancies? Especially in the cases of WA or NJ, where Trump got appeals court nominees in those states without Cantwell/Murray/etc’s blue slips.

      Liked by 2 people

  50. Following up on Mitch’s comment about Murkowski, it seems to me that not enough of us realize the significance of Murkowski publicly musing about possibly leaving the GOP and becoming independent.

    This is a lot like Jim Jeffords leaving the Republican party back in 2001 to become an independent. His decision came after a period of dissatisfaction with the direction of the GOP under GW Bush…. and being heavily courted by Tom Daschle.

    If Leader Schumer is being smart, he is already heavily courting Senator Murkowski with promises to maintain her seniority with chairmanships were she to leave the GOP and become independent and caucus with the Dems. After all, there would be absolutely no reason for her to become independent and then still caucus with the GOP…or just be independent and piss off 21 years of seniority.

    Trust me, she’s already considered all of this. The fact that she publicly put her GOP membership in question is a way of letting Schumer know that she’s persuadable. Of course McConnell will counter woo, but Murkowski really hasn’t struck me as the vain type that just seeks attention for its own sake. Her dissatisfaction with the MAGA GOP is genuine.

    Speaking of which, if she went independent (certainly caucusing with the Dems shortly thereafter if not immediately), she would essentially be a humble more earnest version of that vain self absorbed attention seeking Joe Manchin…which is certainly an upgrade…especially since Dems probably have little chance of electing a senator from Alaska these days.

    If she caucuses with the Dems and she votes for Biden’s nominees 60% of the time now, that’ll probably go up to 75%. …and even if she doesn’t, we still maintain control of the Senate after losing Manchin. This way, if Colin Allred wins in Texas, that’ll just be gravy.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Murkowski considering leaving the GOP is massive indeed if she follows through & caucuses with the Democrats. I am very pessimistic about the chances of Democrats holding the senate. That is because Dems almost guaranteed will lose Manchin’s seat. That leaves zero room for error.

      Murkowski switching would give Dems at least a 50% chance of holding the senate. The senate map looks good for 2026 so if they can get any help this year to get through the next two years, that is certainly massive (And yes certainly physical related). I agree, I hope Schumer is wooing her as much as reports state he is still trying to convince Manchi to change his mind & run again.

      Liked by 2 people

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