As we speed towards the close of yet another banner year for the federal judiciary, we would like to pause and take a moment to thank you all for your tireless support! Thanks to you, 2023 was a historic year for our nation’s courts. In June, we saw the first Muslim woman confirmed to the federal bench, the fantastic Judge Nusrat Choudhury. In July, Judge Nancy Abudu, a civil rights litigator, became the first Black woman confirmed to the Eleventh Circuit. In November, the Supreme Court, for the first time in its 234-year history, released a (wholly insufficient but still noteworthy) code of conduct. Finally, just this week, an experienced litigator and member of the Cherokee Nation, became the first Native American woman to be confirmed to the federal bench in Oklahoma.
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These historic firsts testify to how much we accomplished this year – and also to how much work there is left to be done. In 2024, we hope to see nominees of color confirmed to the staggering 25 all-white federal district court benches, and women confirmed to the three all-male district court benches. We hope to see more movement lawyers and professionally diverse lawyers appointed to the courts. And finally, we hope that Justice Clarence Thomas will resign and to see Congress enact a stronger, enforceable code of conduct for the Supreme Court. There is work to be done and we promise, as we have every year since our founding in 1979, to be on the forefront of the fight to build a better judiciary.
Part of that fight includes securing the confirmations of the many fantastic nominees still pending on the Senate floor. To date, 2 circuit court and 9 district court nominees await floor votes, including phenominees like Judge Mustafa Kasubhai (D. OR), Judge Todd Edelman (D.D.C.), Judge Marian Gaston (S.D. Cal.), and Judge Eumi Lee (N.D. Cal.). Several of these nominees have been pending since last January. The time for confirmation is now. Americans deserve fully staffed courts – any further delay is harmful to the integrity of our justice system and to the communities these judges hope to serve. What better holiday gift could the Senate give these nominees and their communities than confirmation?
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Though other workplaces may slow down during the holidays, the Senate was operating at full speed the past few weeks. On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a nomination hearing for Nicole Berner (4th Cir.), Adeel Mangi (3rd Cir.), and Judge Amy Baggio (D. OR). Ms. Berner is a labor law attorney who has worked on some of this nation’s landmark constitutional law cases, including U.S. v. Windsor and Lawrence v. Texas. If confirmed, she would be the first openly LGBTQ+ judge to serve on the Fourth Circuit. Mr. Mangi is a highly accomplished civil litigator, with an impressive pro bono record. He would be the first Muslim person to serve on a federal appellate court. Judge Baggio is an Oregon state trial judge, with nearly two decades of experience in criminal defense. Her confirmation would add needed professional diversity to the bench, as a mere 8% of federal judges have criminal defense experience. We urge the Senate to act quickly to confirm these tremendous nominees.
In the past two weeks, we also saw the confirmations of Richard Frederico to the 10th Circuit, Brandon Scott Long to the Eastern District of Louisiana, Jerry Edwards Jr. to the Western District of Louisiana, and Sara E. Hill and John D. Russell to the Northern District of Oklahoma. Congratulations to these judges and their families! An enormous thank you to Leader Schumer and Chairman Durbin for working hard to secure these confirmations.
But that’s not all! On Wednesday, we received a last-minute holiday present in the form of six new judicial nominees. Thank you once again to the Biden Administration for their tireless efforts to nominate and confirm judges to the federal bench! With each round of nominations, we come closer to enjoying a fully staffed judiciary, and we appreciate President Biden’s commitment to working on both sides of the aisle to fill the remaining 86 Article III vacancies.
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Join us in 2024 for our first Holding Court event of the new year! On January 23 at 2pm ET, Slate staff writer and podcast host Joel Anderson will join AFJ President Rakim H.D. Brooks to discuss Anderson’s podcast Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas. This fantastic series follows Justice Thomas’s journey from a rural town in Georgia to the highest Court in the land, revealing how this nation’s most controversial Supreme Court justice made it to the bench. If you would like to attend this virtual event, please sign up here. Those who have yet to listen to the podcast can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
Speaking of Justice Thomas, this week ProPublica released yet another bombshell report, revealing that, in 2000, Thomas told a conservative Congressman that he would resign from the Court absent a salary increase. In the years after that conversation, Thomas was introduced to a wealth of Republican megadonors - megadonors who could fund the lavish lifestyle Thomas so desperately wanted. This constant wave of scandal emphasizes the pressing need for a truly enforceable code of conduct. In the new year, we at AFJ will continue our fight for ethics reform – because these scandals damage not only Justice Thomas’s reputation but the reputation of our Supreme Court as a whole.
That’s it from us for 2023! We look forward to seeing all that we accomplish together in the new year. We do have a new slate of nominees to confirm, after all! |
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