Judicial Nominations - In The News
3/1/2018 – These Charts Show How White, Male, and Conservative Trump’s Judicial Nominees Have Been
Senate Republicans spent the end of Barack Obama’s term running out the clock on his picks for federal judges. (Remember Merrick Garland?) So when Donald Trump took office, he faced a nearly unprecedented number of vacant judgeships—and an opportunity to roll back gains in diversity and remake the federal courts for decades. read full story
3/7/2018 – Sixth Circuit Nominee Declines to State Position on Roe
President Donald Trump’s selection to serve on the Sixth Circuit declined to say on Wednesday whether he believes the Supreme Court rightly decided Roe v. Wade, suggesting it would be inappropriate to weigh in on a case inspiring live issues that might come before his court. read full story
3/4/2018 – Tammy Baldwin ‘deeply troubled’ by comments of Trump judicial nominee Gordon Giampietro
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said she is "deeply troubled" by comments made by Gordon Giampietro, the attorney nominated by President Donald Trump for federal judge in Wisconsin's Eastern District. read full story
2/19/2018 – Grassley, Dems step up battle over judicial nominees
The battle between Senate Democrats and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) over the “blue-slip rule” escalated this week, after another one of President Trump’s judicial nominees advanced without the approval of both of their home-state senators read full story
2/15/2018 – One Of Trump’s Judicial Nominees Once Wrote That Diversity Is “Code For Relaxed Standards”
One of President Donald Trump’s federal court nominees made disparaging comments about diversity, same-sex relationships, and birth control, a BuzzFeed News review has found. Gordon Giampietro, a lawyer in Wisconsin, was nominated by President Donald Trump in December for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. His nomination is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee, just a few months after two of Trump's judicial nominees failed to move forward in part because of controversial writings and speeches. read full story
2/15/2018 – Senate Republicans Are About to Break Precedent to Move This “Far-Right” Judge Forward
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the nomination of Michael Brennan to become a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which oversees district courts in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Brennan came to wide attention after a January hearing where he could not answer questions from Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) about whether there is implicit racial bias in the criminal justice system. read full story
2/13/2018 – Trump’s 87 picks to be federal judges are 92% white with just one black and one Hispanic nominee
President Trump's search for deeply conservative federal judges appears to have eliminated most African Americans and Hispanics from the running. Among Trump's first 87 judicial nominees, only one is African American and one is Hispanic. Five are Asian Americans. Eighty are white. read full story
2/8/2018 – Prepare to Welcome One of the Guys Behind Bush’s Torture Memos to the Federal Bench
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on another round of potential federal judges this morning, as Republicans continue to move Trump’s nominees forward at a quick pace. Howard Nielson, nominated to be a United State District Court judge in Utah, is expected to draw special attention. read full story
2/2/2018 – Why Senators Rebel
Imagine you’re a member of the U.S. Senate, constitutionally charged with vetting Donald Trump’s nominees to federal agencies and courts. (Don’t panic. It’s only pretend.) More specifically, imagine that you’re a Republican senator, under pressure from your base and your leadership to confirm as many nominees as possible as swiftly as possible. read full story
1/30/2018 – Senate confirms Justice Stras to federal bench
Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras won Senate confirmation to the Eighth Circuit Court bench on Tuesday, becoming the first appellate nominee in decades to earn a seat over the objection of a home-state senator. read full story
1/24/2018 – Trump Court Pick Can’t Say If Racial Bias Exists In The Justice System
One of President Donald Trump’s nominees to a lifetime seat on a federal court, Michael Brennan, can’t say if there is racial bias in the American criminal justice system. read full story
1/24/2018 – Grassley Moves on Judicial Nominee Over Baldwin’s Objections
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a confirmation hearing Wednesday for an appeals court nominee from Wisconsin over the objections of Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a move that could portend a weakened influence of senators over federal judicial picks from their states. read full story
1/24/2018 – At #HypocrisyHearing, Grassley Shows He Can’t Stop Breaking His Word on Blue Slips
The Senate runs on trust. Senator Patrick Leahy, as the Senate’s most senior member, knows this better than anyone. So last June, I took heart when he said, with respect to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and blue slips on judicial nominations: read full story
1/23/18 – Trump And Republicans Are Forging Ahead With Conservative Judicial Nominees After Last Year’s Setbacks
The White House on Tuesday announced President Donald Trump's first wave of new judicial nominees this year, less than a week after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send a large number of Trump's 2017 nominees to the Senate floor for a final vote. read full story
1/12/2018 – Sen. Mazie Hirono Vows To Ask Court Nominees Under Oath About Sexual Assault History
12/21/2017 – Trump is politicising the courts – and our judiciary is under threat
Almost one year into the Trump administration, we have fallen into a disturbingly familiar pattern of looking on as the daily news cycle tracks and parses the president’s latest tweets, decrying the fact that this is not the way things are done around here. But as we look the other way, it is the Senate that he has chosen to erode norms and conventions in how judges are staffed to the federal courts, and which is breaking down our democracy at every turn. read full story
12/27/2017 – Trump Had A Good Year Getting Judges Confirmed, But He’s Still A Long Way From Reshaping The Courts
President Donald Trump made good this year on a campaign pledge he hoped would convince nervous Republicans to back him: the confirmation of young, conservative judges to lifetime seats on the federal bench. read full story
12/20/2017 – Trump announces new judicial picks despite past vetting concerns
President Donald Trump nominated a new slate of judges Wednesday, including several more seasoned jurists than the controversial nominees that the administration has had to withdraw in recent weeks. read full story
12/20/2017 – Toomey, Casey Applaud Nomination of Three Candidates to U.S. District Courts of Pennsylvania
Following the announcement of President Trump’s intent to nominate Judge Susan P. Baxter and Judge Marilyn J. Horan to the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and Judge Chad Kenney to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, U.S. Senators Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) released the following statements: read full story
12/15/2017 – How the Trump White House and GOP senators fast-track judicial nominees
Under normal circumstances, confirmation hearings for district court judges aren't headline grabbers. But overnight, an exchange between a nominee and a senator on the Judiciary Committee caught fire on Twitter. read full story
12/18/2017 – Trump judicial nominee withdraws after humiliating hearing
A Trump administration judicial nominee who struggled to answer basic questions about courtroom procedure in a viral video clip withdrew his name from consideration on Monday. read full story
12/14/2017 – Trump’s Biggest Win In 2017? His Judicial Confirmations.
Almost a year into his job, President Donald Trump’s biggest accomplishment isn’t any specific legislation that’s passed or executive action he’s taken. It’s how he’s reshaped the courts. read full story
12/15/2017 – Trump judicial nominee fumbles basic questions about the law
Nomination hearings for U.S. district judges tend to be dry affairs that offer little in the way of mass entertainment — in other words, they’re not typically the stuff of viral videos. But a clip of one of President Trump’s federal judicial nominees struggling to answer rudimentary questions about the law garnered well more than 1 million views in a matter of hours on Thursday night and stoked speculation that another of the president’s nominations might get derailed. read full story
12/12/2017 – Exclusive: Grassley urges Trump to reconsider controversial judicial picks
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley issued a rare rebuke Tuesday of two of President Donald Trump's most controversial judicial nominees, urging the White House to rethink the picks. read full story
9/7/2017 – The Judiciary in Jeopardy
Our federal judiciary is in jeopardy. Courts are often the last defense for our Constitution. Federal courts make decisions about how we are treated in the workplace, how the law regards women, racial minorities, and those with disabilities, among others, consumer protections, the safety of our environment, our right to vote, and our immigration system – just to name a few issues. read full story
11/2/2017 – Wisconsin judicial pick violated fair process
The U.S. Constitution grants the President power to nominate judges for the federal courts “by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.” In Wisconsin, for nearly 40 years all presidents, regardless of party, have considered candidates vetted and approved by a nominating commission run by the State Bar in cooperation with both Wisconsin Senators. read full story
12/12/2017 – The rightwing takeover of the US court system will transform America
Donald Trump has nominated an unprecedented number of judges to federal courts since his appointment. These are making steady progress through the Senate confirmation process and yet they have escaped the sort of scrutiny that Trump normally attracts. This is unfortunate, because the impact of Trump’s court picks will be profound, and will help reshape American society for years to come. read full story
12/7/2017 – Judiciary Dems accuse GOP of rushing court nominees as 10 advance
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee chastised their Republican colleagues on Thursday, accusing them of rushing President Trump’s judicial nominees through the confirmation process. read full story
11/29/2017 – Republican senator suggests Trump is strong-arming judicial nominees through Congress
A Republican senator on Wednesday appeared to corroborate Democrats’ complaints that the Trump administration has been trying to strong-arm its judicial picks through Congress instead of consulting with lawmakers to find mutually agreeable candidates. read full story
11/16/2017 – Grassley rips up ‘blue slip’ for a pair of Trump court picks
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is burning the blue slip for some judicial nominees. The Iowa Republican announced Thursday that he is going ahead with a confirmation hearing for a nominee to the powerful appellate courts despite the objections of a Democrat who had been blocking the nomination for months. The move will likely escalate the judicial wars in the Senate. read full story