In the past few weeks, the Senate voted to confirm eight more nominees to the federal bench, including Tamika Montgomery-Reeves for the Third Circuit, Doris Pryor for the Seventh Circuit, Dana Douglas for the Fifth Circuit, and Mia Roberts Perez for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. With these confirmations, the Biden administration has had 97 nominees confirmed since 2021, including 68 district court judges, 28 circuit court judges, and one Supreme Court justice. While we celebrate this remarkable progress, there are still more judges to confirm before the end of the year!
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The Good News
Senator Warnock’s victory solidifies a 51-49 Democratic majority (includes caucusing Independents) in the Senate. This means that the Vice President will no longer be required to break ties on strict party-line votes and that there will likely be a slightly larger proportion of Democratic Senators in critical committees, including the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is true despite Senator Sinema’s party affiliation announcement. We expect the confirmation process for well-qualified, diverse nominees to be smoother with less tie votes in committee.
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held their last nominations hearing of 2022, which included nominees Gordon Gallagher (D. Col.), Andrew G. Schopler (S.D.Cal.), Arun Subramanian (S.D.N.Y), and Casey Pitts (N.D. Cal.) Alliance for Justice supported Arun Subramanian, and Casey Pitts, among others, two phenomenal future district court judges.
- Arun Subramanian has extensive legal experience as both a clerk and partner at Susman Godfrey LLP, where he chairs the firm’s pro bono committee. If confirmed, Mr. Subramanian will be the first South Asian judge in the Southern District of New York.
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Casey Pitts spent his career litigating complex labor law cases. He has represented workers, international and local labor unions, consumers, government entities, and public interest organizations. If confirmed, Mr. Pitts would be the only openly LGBTQ+ judge actively serving in the Northern District of California.
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Additionally on Dec. 8, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “Undue Influence: Operation Higher Court and Politicking at SCOTUS” in which Committee members investigated the corruption and impartiality of the U.S. Supreme Court, including questioning whistleblower Rev. Robert Schenck. See our letter to the committee here.
The hearing is the result of reporting by the New York Times including allegations that Justice Alito leaked the result of the 2014 Hobby Lobby decision, and that conservative justices regularly met behind closed doors with anti-abortion activists. In response to this reporting, AFJ and our coalition have urged members to establish a formal investigation in the alleged breach, pass Supreme Court ethics reform legislation to prevent this type of corrupt conduct, and make the confirmations of many superb fair-minded federal judges a top priority to bolster impartiality in our federal judiciary.
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What's Next
With only a few weeks left in the 117th Congress, there is still much work to be done. On December 8th, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted several nominees out of committee, including Judge DeAndrea Benjamin (4th Cir., SC) and Judge Myong Joun (D. Mass.). That leaves 29 nominees pending on the Senate floor and 10 still awaiting a committee vote. Let’s urge Senate leadership to finish out 2022 on a high note and push these highly qualified nominees over the finish line.
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