What is frustrating is the tardiness the White House exhibits in offering nominees to the Senate. During most of the Obama presidency, almost half of the judicial vacancies had no nominee for the Senate to even consider.

Update As Of Mar 29, 2012:
Article III Judicial Vacancies
Circuit Courts---16 Vacancies with 9 Nominees
District Courts--62 Vacancies with 22 Nominees
http://www.uscourts.gov/JudgesAndJudges ... ncies.aspx


Note: Vacancies and nominees for the court listed as FD-CCA are included with the other circuit court of appeals. The court listed as IT-CCA is listed with the other district courts. The linked site has yet to acknowledge the Susie Morgan and Miranda Du confirmations.

The Senate confirmed the Stephanie Dawn Thacker nomination to be a US Circuit Court Judge (4th Circuit) by a 91-3 vote. The 3 Senators who voted no were DeMint (SC), Lee (UT) and Vitter (LA). The Senate allowed 30 minutes for debate for those in favor and 30 minutes for those opposed to the nomination. Sen Grassley used his total time (approx 11 minutes) complaining about the confirmation rate of Circuit Judge nominees during the Pres GW Bush years compared to those nominated by Pres Obama. The only others to speak regarding the Thacker nomination were home state Senators Rockefeller (WV) and Manchin (WV), who did so during "Morning Business" time when Senators may speak about any subject.

Rockefeller...1:53:30--2:00:25
Manchin......2:00:30--2:08:30 (he also used his time to speak in favor of the Buffett rule)
Grassley......2:08:35--2:19:15
http://floor.senate.gov/MediaPlayer.php ... lip_id=205

The Reid-McConnell agreement called for confirmation votes for 14 judicial nominees (2 for Circuit Courts and 12 for District Courts). As of today there have been confirmation votes for 1 Circuit Court and 7 District Court nominees. All 8 nominees have been confirmed.

Next Up:

I'm expecting this confirmation vote to be very similar to 7 of the previous 8 (Miranda Du is the exception). Wimes was favorably reported out of committee on an 11-1 roll call vote December 15, 2011 and is supported by both Missouri Senators McCaskill and Blunt.
http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/nominat ... ngress.cfm
Sen Lee gives the reason for his committee nay vote starting at the 17:00 mark (it has nothing to do with Pres Obama).
http://www.senate.gov/fplayers/jw57/com ... 511&st=575

Yesterday the Senate confirmed the Brian Wimes nomination to be a USDC Judge for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri by a 92-1 vote. Sen Lee cast the only nay vote (Sen DeMint did not vote). All in all it was a pretty ho-hum period in Executive Session for the Senate. Sen Blunt (R-MO) was the only senator to speak in favor of Wimes (which he did for 3 minutes before praising his good buddy Chuck Colson for the next 5). Sen Leahy used his time to criticize Republicans for not allowing these nominations to be considered last year. Sen Grassley did not speak (Grassley is the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee and manages the floor for Republicans during confirmation votes) and tell us all about how fast the Senate is confirming Pres Obama's judicial nominees as compared to those during the GW Bush years.

This federal judge's name turned up in the "Mississippi Ballot Challenge" thread.

It took just 35 days from nomination to confirmation. Republicans were the majority party in the Senate during 1985 and it certainly appears there was no Democratic obstructionism towards judicial nominations ongoing at that time. Incidentally, Wingate was one of 130 judicial nominees who were confirmed by the 99th Congress. No Congress has confirmed as many since.
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resourc ... L31635.pdf

The Senate gets 2 more this week:

I'm not aware of any reason to anticipate a problem confirming either nomination. Both were unanimously voice voted out of committee along with Circuit Court Judge nominee Jacqueline Nguyen en banc on Dec 1, 2011.
http://www.senate.gov/fplayers/jw57/com ... 11&st=1100

The Senate confirmed both the Gregg Costa and David Guaderrama nominations this morning. Costa was confirmed by a 97-2 recorded vote and immediately thereafter Guaderrama by a voice vote. Take a WAG which two senators voted against the Costa nomination. I didn't hear anyone yell "No" when asked if there were any objections on the Guaderrama confirmation.

The Reid-McConnell agreement called for confirmation votes for 14 judicial nominees (2 for Circuit Courts and 12 for District Courts) by May 7. As of today there have been confirmation votes for 1 Circuit Court and 10 District Court nominees. All 11 nominees have been confirmed and except for Miranda Du (39 nay votes), without any real opposition. The nominee who received the 2nd most nay votes in this group of 14 was Michael Fitzgerald with 6.

The President sent the following nominations to the Senate yesterday.

Terrence G. Berg, of Michigan, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, vice Arthur J. Tarnow, retired.
Jesus G. Bernal, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California, vice Stephen G. Larson, resigned.
Charles R. Breyer, of California, to be a Member of the United States Sentencing Commission for a term expiring October 31, 2015, vice Ruben Castillo, term expired.
Shelly Deckert Dick, of Louisiana, to be United States District Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana, vice Ralph E. Tyson, deceased.
Lorna G. Schofield, of New York, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, vice Shira A. Scheindlin, retired.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off ... ent-senate

Despite the large number of vacancies that exist on the federal bench, these four nominated to be USDC judges are the first nominations sent to the Senate for any Article III judgeship since February 29, 2012.

What is frustrating is the tardiness the White House exhibits in offering nominees to the Senate. During most of the Obama presidency, almost half of the judicial vacancies had no nominee for the Senate to even consider.

Update As Of Apr 30, 2012:
Article III Judicial Vacancies
Circuit Courts---15 Vacancies with 8 Nominees
District Courts--63 Vacancies with 24 Nominees
http://www.uscourts.gov/JudgesAndJudges ... ncies.aspx


Note: Vacancies and nominees for the court listed as FD-CCA are included with the other circuit courts of appeals. The court listed as IT-CCA is listed with the other district courts. The linked site has yet to acknowledge the Gregg Costa and David Guaderrama confirmations.

These three confirmation votes will complete the Reid-McConnell agreement (2 Circuit Court and 12 District Court).

I anticipate these three nominations will be confirmed without any real opposition. All were reported out of committee on voice votes.

The Senate just completed confirmation votes for the last 3 nominees of the Reid-McConnell agreement. Jacqueline H. Nguyen was confirmed by a 91-3 recorded vote. Kristine Gerhard Baker and John Z. Lee were then confirmed by separate voice votes.

A link for the Nguyen vote should be available from the Senate within the hour.

I have not read anything about this, but I hope it's true.

I expect Senate Republicans to annoy me with their obstructionism regarding judicial nominees (especially Circuit Court nominees). I don't appreciate the White House assisting them by not appointing nominating candidates in a timely fashion.

Chuckie includes his obligatory judicial nominees from this President are being considered faster than those nominated by Pres GW Bush in his rant statement.

Few people have the answers to your question and to make it even more complicated, it's a different group of folks for almost every judicial vacancy.

All I can do is speculate, so hear goes. Eric Holder probably has no input unless he just happens to know a person already recommended to the President.

Typically when a vacancy occurs at the district court level (except for the District of Columbia) the President will request a recommendation from the home state senator(s) of that district if they belong to the same party as he. If neither senator is from the same party as the President, he will request a recommendation from the home state members of the congressional delegation or governor that belong to the same party as he. The President would be wise to inform the senators from the opposition party prior to announcing his choice because they can stop the nomination dead in its tracks if 1) they strongly disapprove, 2) they feel the President snubbed them by not asking for their opinion, 3) they want to play a round of quid pro quo or 4) they just enjoy occasionally causing him some grief. Some prior Presidents have made deals with senators from the opposition party allowing them to recommend 1 out of 3 or 4 nominees in return for not objecting to the others. Rumor has it that is why in 1992 Pres GHW Bush nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the USDC for the Southern District of New York (I doubt he was looking for a wise latina). Stern posted earlier about a similar Republican presidential deal being made with California's two Democratic senators.
viewtopic.php?p=241746#p241746

The White House requests a rating (Well Qualified, Qualified or Not Qualified) from the American Bar Association (not to be confused with the California Bar which doesn't do jack shit) prior to announcing any nominee. Should a candidate not measure up to expectations, the candidate can be quietly dropped from consideration and the process starts again.

The President is head of his party. If senators, congressmen or governors from his party can't make recommendations in a timely fashion, he needs to kick some ass. If the bottleneck is from opposition party senators, he's screwed. There's no need to nominate anyone because the nomination will be DOA at the Senate.

Nominations for the Circuit Courts operate in a similar fashion except there are a lot more "home state" senators involved. Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI) is blocking everybody for the 7th Circuit because he is pissed about the Victoria Nourse nomination.

Home state senators have tremendous power in these matters (guess what, this same power exists for US Attorney and US Marshall nominations).

The Senate today confirmed two nominees to be District Court Judges. George Russell III (District of Maryland) was confirmed by a unanimous voice vote then John Tharp Jr (Northern District of Illinois) by an 86-1 recorded vote.

Prior to the votes, Sen Durbin (D-IL) spoke how he and Sen Kirk (R-IL) each have a committee offer their respective senator a recommendation for a judicial vacancy. Durbin and Kirk both retain the right to veto any candidate's selection. Tharp was Kirk's choice for one vacancy and John Lee, who was confirmed last week, was Durbin's for another. Durbin's comments start at the 3:03:25 mark.
http://floor.senate.gov/MediaPlayer.php ... lip_id=228

Democratic congressional delegations have been acting irresponsibly by not offering recommendations to the President in a timely fashion. If Utah can agree on recommendations for their 2 vacancies (1 confirmed and 1 favorably reported out of committee) working with Sen Lee it can probably be done anywhere.

If the Senate invokes cloture, this will be the 3rd judicial confirmation vote to occur after the 14 in the Reid-McConnell agreement.

I'll have to re-watch the Executive Business Meeting to find out if any Republican Senator other than Sen Lee offered a reason for voting against his nomination. Paul Watford was favorably reported out of committee by a 10-6 vote (Senators Kyl and Graham voted present) on Feb 2, 2012.

No Senator offered any reason for opposing the Watford nomination although Sen Grassley entered a statement into the record.

Someone lit a fire under Sen Reid's butt. A big thank you to whomever is responsible.

Confirmed Jerome H. Powell, of Maryland, to be a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

NAYs ---21

Ayotte (R-NH) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cornyn (R-TX) Graham (R-SC) Hatch (R-UT) Heller (R-NV) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johnson (R-WI) Lee (R-UT)

Moran (R-KS) Paul (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) Sanders (I-VT) Sessions (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA)

Confirmed Jeremy C. Stein, of MA, to be a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

NAYs ---24

Ayotte (R-NH) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cornyn (R-TX) Graham (R-SC) Hatch (R-UT) Heller (R-NV) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johnson (R-WI)

Lee (R-UT) McCain (R-AZ) Moran (R-KS) Paul (R-KY) Portman (R-OH) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) Sessions (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA)

The Senate just voted 61-34 to confirm the Paul Watford nomination. Sen Grassley spoke prior to the vote against the confirmation offering the same reasons I previously posted. No other Senator spoke against this confirmation. The cloture motion must have been rescinded because there was only one vote instead of two.

The link for the yeas and nays should be available in about an hour which I'll add to this post.

Republicans voting in favor of the confirmation:

Alexander (TN) Brown (MA) Collins (ME) Graham (SC) Kyl (AZ)

Lugar (IN) McCain (AZ) Murkowski (AK) Snowe (ME)

DeMint (SC) and Vitter (LA) were among those Senators not voting.

Sen Leahy commenting on the cloture motion for the Watford confirmation that was filed Thursday then rescinded today.

Thank you Sen Reid for filing the cloture motion. Congratulations to Senators Reid and Leahy for securing enough votes to encourage the Republicans to abandon their filibuster attempt.

The on again / off again filibusters are off, again.

Hillman was favorably reported out of committee by a 17-1 vote. My speculation is Hillman will be confirmed with 3 nay votes (Lee, DeMint, Vitter) or fewer. Note there is no mention of a cloture vote as there was on the Paul Watford consent agreement 4 posts above.

What is frustrating is the tardiness the White House exhibits in offering nominees to the Senate. During most of the Obama presidency, almost half of the judicial vacancies had no nominee for the Senate to even consider.

Update As Of May 31, 2012:
Article III Judicial Vacancies
Circuit Courts---13 Vacancies with 6 Nominees
District Courts--58 Vacancies with 27 Nominees
http://www.uscourts.gov/JudgesAndJudges ... ncies.aspx


Note: Vacancies and nominees for the court listed as FD-CCA are included with the other circuit courts of appeals. The court listed as IT-CCA is listed with the other district courts.

I anticipate this post being the last of its kind until after the general election. I fully expect Sen Grassley to keep his word about implementing the "Thurmond Rule" in the Senate Judiciary Committee no later than July 31. The Senate has only 8 full weeks left prior to that date and the Senate will not be in session the week of July 2-6. Any nominations not already sent to the Senate probably won't even have a hearing, much less any further consideration.

The Senate voted 88-1 to confirm Timothy Hillman as a USDC Judge for the District of Massachusetts. No fair peeking to learn which senator voted against the confirmation.

The Usual Suspect. I also note that his co-obstructionist, Sen. DeMint did not vote.

The Senate yesterday voted 62-36 to confirm Jeffrey Helmick as a USDC Judge for the Northern District of Ohio.

In addition to being caught off guard (there was one judicial confirmation vote already this week), I'm surprised Sen Reid pushed this nomination ahead of some others. I'm also surprised that Helmick's nomination received a Unanimous Consent Agreement minus any mention of a cloture motion. Helmick was not a consensus nominee (he was favorably reported out of committee by a 11-6 vote). There are 7 USDC nominees who were voice voted out of committee unanimously except for Sen Lee's protest no votes that would have been easier candidates for receiving their confirmation vote.

Don't know how Reid did it but congratulations are in order for him securing an up-down vote for Helmick.

Monday's Senate Executive Session has the opportunity to be very entertaining. Most of these are rather dull with Senators Leahy and Grassley repeating the same speeches with minor modification. In addition, the Senate does not vote by electronic means like the House and most votes require an hour to complete.


Some may remember my post about Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Hurwitz after his nomination was reported out of the Judiciary Committee.

Opposition by the NRLC for Hurwitz' alleged role in Roe v Wade will be sufficient for a nay vote by many Republican senators and the cloture vote will probably be close. I don't anticipate any change to the Unanimous Consent Agreement deleting the need for a cloture motion vote for this nominee.

Prior to a Judiciary Committee nominations vote to report a nomination to the full Senate, committee members are allowed to speak either favoring or opposing a particular nomination going forward. Prior to the Andrew Hurwitz vote Sen Grassley read portions of a National Right To Life (NRLC) letter opposing Hurwitz' nomination as a circuit judge. The NRLC has published another letter on their site today. It's better than even money that one or more Senators will read portions of it or refer to it prior to the cloture vote.
http://www.nrlc.org/Judicial/HurwitzClo ... Letter.pdf