Adding Diversity to Sixth Circuit, Senate Finally Confirms Judge Bernice Donald

by Jeremy Leaming

After returning from its August recess, the U.S. Senate resumed its snail’s pace of taking action on the administration’s judicial nominations, by overwhelmingly confirming Judge Bernice Bouie Donald to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, after her nomination had been languishing for months.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), noted in a press statement, following the 96-2 vote, that it was the first federal appeals court nomination confirmed since May. Before leaving town for its break, the Senate had confirmed a mere four nominations, leaving 19 others that were ready for a vote.

A U.S. District Judge from Tennessee, Donald, was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in spring, after a hearing lasting about 20 minutes. Judge Donald (pictured) also adds some seriously needed diversity to the Sixth Circuit, becoming the first African American woman on the Circuit.  

Senate Leahy said, “I hope this month Senators will finally join together to bring down the excessive number of vacancies that have persisted on Federal courts throughout the Nation for far too long. We can and must do better.”

There are more than 90 vacancies on the federal bench, 37 of them deemed judicial emergencies.

Murray Fogler, president of the Houston chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, in a Sept. 4 column for the Houston Chronicle urged the Senate to start confirming judges, noting his state’s vacancy rate. “Our own district here in Houston, the Southern District of Texas, is operating at an even lower percentage [than the national level]. With three seats vacant out of 19, the district is operating at 84 percent," he wrote.

Fogler continued, “The Senate’s constitutional duty to advise and consent on nominations merely requies them to conduct an up or down vote.” But instead of moving on judges ready for an up-or-down vote, Fogler stated, “the Senate is instead holding the judiciary hostage, and this cannot be tolerated in a functioning democracy of checks and balances.”

See JudicialNominations.org for analysis and up-to-date information about the efforts to fill federal court vacancies.