Senate Confirms District Court Picks For Illinois, Idaho
Senate Confirms District Court Picks For Illinois, Idaho
Written By: James Arkin & Edited By: Rich Mills.
Re-Posted from Law360 2023-05-04. The U.S. Senate voted in bipartisan fashion Thursday to confirm U.S. Bankruptcy Judge LaShonda A. Hunt to the Northern District of Illinois and confirmed by voice vote Idaho Court of Appeals Judge Amanda K. Brailsford to the District of Idaho.
Senators voted 56-41 to confirm Judge Hunt, with six Republicans joining Democrats in backing her. Senators approved Judge Brailsford by voice vote, which means there was no opposition and no request for a recorded vote, an expedited consideration that is used infrequently for President Joe Biden’s judicial picks.
They were the sixth and seventh judicial nominees the Senate confirmed this week, and senators have now approved 126 of Biden’s federal court picks since he took office.
“Confirming highly qualified, diverse judges has been one of Senate Democrats’ highest priorities from the moment we entered the majority, and this was a very good week in that regard,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Thursday. “But we are [by] no means done.”
Judge Hunt has been on the bankruptcy court since 2017. Previously, she was general counsel at the Illinois Department of Central Management Services and chief legal counsel at the Illinois Department of Corrections. She also spent several years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Illinois.
Biden nominated her in January, and she breezed through the confirmation process. She faced limited scrutiny when she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, and the panel advanced her nomination with bipartisan support last month.
Judge Brailsford was nominated by Biden in January and had the approval of Idaho Republican Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch. Her nomination advanced out of the Judiciary Committee last month also on a voice vote. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the committee chair, has urged the White House and other Republican senators to find consensus on red-state judicial vacancies.
Judge Brailsford joined the Idaho Court of Appeals in 2019. She also spent nearly two decades at Holland & Hart LLP in Idaho, including as a partner from 2003 to 2013.
Earlier Thursday, the Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of Molly R. Silfen to the Court of Federal Claims on a bipartisan 14-7 vote.
The committee continued to hold over several judicial nominations that are unlikely to earn GOP support and can’t be advanced with the ongoing absence of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who is in her home state recovering from an illness with no clear timeline for her return.
Those nominees are First Circuit pick Michael A. Delaney; Spokane County Superior Court Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren for the Eastern District of Washington; Judge Marian F. Gaston of the Superior Court of California, who is nominated to the Southern District of California; and Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews for the District of Colorado.
Feinstein, in a statement Thursday, pointed to the seven confirmations this week and said there “has been no slowdown” on judicial nominations. She did not indicate a clear timeline for her return to the Senate.
“While the Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced eight strong nominees during my absence, I’m disappointed that Republicans on the committee are blocking a few from moving forward,” Feinstein said. “I’m confident that when I return to the Senate, we will be able to move the remaining qualified nominees out of committee quickly and to the Senate floor for a vote.”
The panel also held over several nominees who were put on the agenda for the first time this week, which is the committee’s standard practice.
Those nominees were Jeremy C. Daniel for the Northern District of Illinois, U.S. Magistrate Judge Brendan Abell Hurson for the District of Maryland and Darrel James Papillion for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Those nominees would be eligible for a vote as soon as next week, though it’s unclear when they will be advanced by the committee.
The committee on Thursday also advanced the nominations of Eric G. Olshan to be U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and Craig J. Anderson to be U.S. marshal for the District of Montana.
The Senate also confirmed Damien M. Diggs to be U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas by voice vote.
Law360 is tracking Biden’s judicial nominations from the White House to the Senate to the federal bench.
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