On the judicial nominations front, senators continue to make progress on filling vacancies even as they mourn the passing of Senate Judiciary Committee colleague Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Last week’s confirmations include U.S. Magistrate Judge Brendan Abell Hurson, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and Susan K. DeClercq, who will join the bench in the Eastern District of Michigan. DeClercq, who spent nearly two decades at the district’s U.S. Attorney’s Office enforcing civil rights laws, will be Michigan’s first federal judge of East Asian descent.
These developments follow the long-awaited confirmation of Judge Rita Lin, whose nomination had been pending since July 2022, to the District Court for the Northern District of California. Judge Lin, who’d been serving as a judge on the Superior Court of San Francisco since 2018, will be the second Asian American woman—and first Taiwanese American woman—to serve on the District Court for the Northern District of California.
Additionally, the Senate confirmed Judge Vernon Oliver to sit on the U.S. District Court in Connecticut on September 19th, and Philip Hadji as a Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims on September 21st.
Last Wednesday, the White House announced President Biden’s 39th slate of nominees to the federal courts. The two new district court nominations and latest circuit court nomination bring the administration’s total number of judicial nominations to 191. The administration nominated Judge Edward S. Kiel, a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the District of New Jersey, to that district court, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth R. Aframe to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
We are particularly excited to highlight the nomination of Professor Sarah Russell to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. A former public defender who has focused much of her scholarship on criminal justice reform and her practice on advocating for the individuals and communities facing the greatest disadvantages in our justice system, Russell has taught at Quinnipiac University School of Law since 2011, overseeing its Civil Justice Clinic.
