Tag Archives: federal judiciary

Politico reports: A federal appeals court nominee broke down in tears during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, reacting to a scathing letter against his confirmation by the American Bar Association after it conducted 60 interviews and concluded that he was “not qualified” for the judicial branch. Lawrence J.C. VanDyke grew emotional, with his face turning red as he defended …

Courthouse News reports: With Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote, the Senate has narrowly confirmed a judge to the Eighth Circuit whom the American Bar Association rated as not qualified. Jonathan Kobes, who has served since 2014 as general counsel to Senator Mike Rounds, R-S.D., will be the second Trump appointee on the Eighth Circuit the Senate has …

Reuters reports: U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday defended the federal judiciary a day after President Donald Trump referred to a judge who ruled against his policy limiting asylum for certain immigrants as an “Obama judge.” “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts, a conservative who was appointed by Republican former …

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports: Milwaukee lawyer Michael Brennan was confirmed for a key federal judgeship Thursday, filling the oldest appellate vacancy in the country but deepening a partisan schism in the U.S. Senate over judges. Brennan will take a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago that has stood open since 2010 amid a bitter political …

The Huffington Post reports: Federal judicial nominee Wendy Vitter refused to say on Wednesday whether she agreed with the landmark civil rights case that desegregated U.S. public schools. During her confirmation hearing, Vitter, whom President Donald Trump nominated to become a federal judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana, would not say whether she believed the Supreme Court case, Brown …

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports: President Donald Trump nominated David S. Morales to fill a federal judge vacancy for the Southern District of Texas in Corpus Christi. In 2016 Morales’ role in then-Attorney General Greg Abbott’s Office gained attention. Morales said in a statement that year that he decided not to pursue a $5.4 million lawsuit against Trump and Trump …

The Washington Post reports: Matthew Petersen, a nominee to the federal judiciary, has withdrawn from consideration days after a video clip showed him unable to answer basic questions about legal procedure, the White House confirmed on Monday. Petersen, nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is the third Trump judicial pick to withdraw …

The Washington Post reports: 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 …

The Dallas Morning News reports: Jeff Mateer, a top lawyer for the state of Texas who has described transgender children as evidence of “Satan’s plan,” will not become a federal judge. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that the nominations of Mateer and a controversial Alabama nominee, Brett Talley, were dead. A White House …

“I thank the Senator from Nevada for his courtesy. I will speak about Callie–known as Ginny–Granade, who will be voted on shortly for the U.S. district judgeship for the southern district of Alabama. Ginny Granade is a nominee of the highest order. President Bush has nominated her to be the judge in the southern district of Alabama. She has the …

Via the Dallas Morning News: The Senate confirmed three Texans Tuesday night for lifetime judicial appointments, capping an effort to fill vacancies in the state that have languished for years. The nominees — U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman of San Antonio, Texarkana lawyer Robert Schroeder III and Sherman Magistrate Judge Amos Mazzant III — were approved by a voice vote on …

Richard Land is now the editor of the Christian Post.