President Donald Trump announced his eighteenth wave of judicial nominees Wednesday night, just four days after the Senate confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Wednesday’s nominees include two candidates for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and three for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 2nd Circuit is based in New York City and has jurisdiction over New York, Connecticut and Vermont. The 9th Circuit is based in San Francisco, and hears appeals arising from nine western states as well as the outlying Pacific territories.
Michael Park of Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC, a litigation boutique with a conservative bent, and Judge Joseph Bianco of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York were tapped for the 2nd Circuit, while Patrick Bumatay, Daniel Collins and Kenneth Kiyul Lee were selected for the 9th Circuit. Bumatay is a federal prosecutor. Collins and Lee are appellate advocates in private practice.
Trump has struggled to secure confirmations to both courts. The president’s sole confirmation to the 9th Circuit, Judge Mark Bennett, is a largely unknown quantity with questionable conservative bona fides. A second 9th Circuit nominee, Ryan Bounds, lost a narrow floor vote due to racially tinged opinion columns he wrote as an undergraduate at Stanford University.
The Senate has yet to confirm a Trump nominee to the 2nd Circuit. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]With the Supreme Court nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh completed, GOP senators are quickly pivoting to filling out the rest of the federal courts, eyeing more than 40 district and circuit judges they want to confirm before the end of the year.
One top priority is filling the seat left vacant on the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals when Justice Kavanaugh was elevated.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Republicans’ point man on the issue, said if the White House can nominate someone this week, lawmakers could have Justice Kavanaugh’s replacement seated by Christmas.
That would be in addition to 38 district judges and three circuit judges already pending on the Senate floor, who Republicans say they should confirm before they leave Washington to campaign for the mid-term elections.
“McConnell ought to keep the Senate in session until we get all 41 of those judges done,” Mr. Grassley told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Wednesday. – READ MORE
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