Biden Cabinet Confirmation Live Thread ***hearings, votes, etc.***

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1395402829678907392https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1395407412186730497

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/Tierney_Megan/status/1395373553705488389https://twitter.com/johnpcollinsjr2/status/1395384492278353922

[brucejoel99]

Any updates on Julie Su's nomination?

She was already advanced out of the HELP committee nearly a month ago now, so perhaps they're just waiting for her to finish closing up shop on anything that she's recently been tending to back home in CA before they vote to confirm?

[brucejoel99]

Somewhat unrelated but, maybe we won't see a SCOTUS confirmation battle

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1394247477650468864

Not necessarily: with just 5 months to go 'til OT2021, Sotomayor's still hired only 2 clerks, even though she was fully hired up for OT2020 by Jan. 2020 (i.e., at least 9 months beforehand), & even though 2 clerks is more than the 1 that a retired justice is allotted, only hiring 2 by now is still a plausible indicator that she's at least considering retirement this year, given that were she to do so, she'd just work with 1 of the clerks this fall while either deferring the other to OT2022 (i.e., what Kennedy did with his OT2018 clerks) or transferring them over to either Breyer or Kagan's chambers, so a (nevertheless surprising) Sotomayor retirement this year followed by a Breyer retirement next summer still can't be ruled out as of yet.

I was about to post a smartass reply along the lines of "why would she retire so soon" thinking she wasn't that old, but she is a bit older than I thought. I still don't think she's going to retire yet, she still has time left.

Yeah, & she's at a heightened medical risk compared to your avg. 66-year-old justice due to the pre-existing condition from which she suffers (type 1 diabetes), so she might not be as likely to make it to ~82/83 as somebody like Breyer was, & based on how the dynamics of presidential/Senate control play out after the midterms, that could mean that this summer (or next) could very well be her last chance to retire with a Democratic president capable of nominating a liberal replacement who could be confirmed by a Democratic Senate. Otherwise, if the Democrats lose the Senate next fall, then after that, she could be risking being trapped on the Court for who knows how long, just like Marshall, Brennan, & RBG were: wanting to retire but ideologically unable to because there's either a Republican president or a Democratic president who can't get a liberal nominee confirmed with a Republican Senate, & we know how well trying to wait worked for them.

Speaking as a type one diabetic, as long as she keeps her blood sugar in check, which I'm assuming she does, there's no reason why she couldn't live live as long or longer than a non-diabetic.

Oh yeah, she obviously manages it pretty well (& although she'd become more noticeably overweight in recent years, she recently lost a bunch of it during quarantine), but she's had it since childhood, & the average life expectancy after age 20 for women with type 1 diabetes is only an additional 48 years (i.e., 2 years from now for her) compared to an additional 61 years for women without it (i.e., a comparative loss of 13 years for women with type 1 diabetes), so given the potential presidential & Senate dynamics at play, a possible decade or longer of having to wait for another opportunity like this could just end up being a long time in which anything can happen & the way that things are going now can completely change.

[brucejoel99]

Politico, c. tomorrow: "Why the Vitiation of Christine Wormuth's Confirmation Proves #DemsInDisarray!"

When does a confirmation become official such that the Senate cannot just reverse it?

I'd presume once the nominee is formally appointed to a given office by the President after being advised-&-consented to.

[brucejoel99]

The first 2 of hopefully many more Biden judges to come.

[brucejoel99]

When it comes to all the talk about the so-called crazy Ninth, it's only a 16-13 Democratic-appointed majority. Trump has appointed 10 of those 13!

*Nutty! And to be fair to the nickname, that majority was 20-9 before Trump took office.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1408134534856646662

F**king finally!!

[brucejoel99]

Jackson-Akiwumi confirmed 53-40. Same as before but with the following absences:

Not Voting - 7
Burr (R-NC)
Cramer (R-ND)
Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
Johnson (R-WI)
Marshall (R-KS)
Moran (R-KS)
Tuberville (R-AL)

Biden's second circuit court confirmation and the same 53 votes as Ketanji Brown Jackson. I don't know much about her, but at age 42, she might be on Biden's shortlist for SCOTUS. With those confirmations, both the DC and Seventh Circuits now have full complements. Tiffany Cunningham is likely next (being part of the first tranche of judicial nominations) and would give the Federal Circuit a full complement. She's also an African-American woman (and 45 years old, no less), so it seems like Biden is trying to give himself some choices for any possible SCOTUS vacancy.

I'd be very surprised to see Cunningham actually wind up on Biden's eventual SCOTUS shortlist at the end of the day, in that her appointment has seemingly just been a matter of the fact that she's a patent litigator &, thus, uniquely qualified for an appointment to the highly-specialized federal court that hears mostly just patent cases. As much as patent litigators may love to see one of their own finally join the Supremes, I highly doubt that that'll actually be happening anytime soon.

Biden and Schumer (and Durbin, as he's both Majority Whip and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee) definitely need to speed things up though. So far, only 2 circuit court and 5 district court confirmations. Hopefully the August recess is either scrapped or at least pared down.

The number is always fairly small in year 1. Biden is ahead of where Trump was at this point, which is what really matters.

Indeed. They've actually been confirming Biden's judges at a faster first-year rate than any President since Nixon.

Interesting to see Graham stick to his old voting habits on judges. Dems + Collins + Graham is a bit of an odd route to 52 votes.

It's actually not all that surprising, given that he's always believed that the Senate should be deferential to a President's judicial nominees. It's who he is, the Garland & post-election confirmation fiascoes aside (but even in regards to the latter, he - to his credit - finally stopped processing judicial nominees once the Electoral College had formally voted for Biden & Mitch gave the Senate GOP permission to forgo the kabuki theater of Trump being "100% within his rights" to contest it).

[brucejoel99]

I'd be very surprised to see Cunningham actually wind up on Biden's eventual SCOTUS shortlist at the end of the day, in that her appointment has seemingly just been a matter of the fact that she's a patent litigator &, thus, uniquely qualified for an appointment to the highly-specialized federal court that hears mostly just patent cases. As much as patent litigators may love to see one of their own finally join the Supremes, I highly doubt that that'll actually be happening anytime soon.

Ah, I wasn't aware of her background, although I suppose I really wasn't considering that she's been nominated to the Federal Circuit. No matter who else comes up, Ketanji Brown Jackson is almost certainly the front-runner for the next SCOTUS vacancy (assuming under President Biden and with a Democratic Majority in the Senate). A nominee like Candace Jackson-Akiwumi would probably make conservatives apoplectic considering her age. Personally, I like that she was a former federal defender, but her lack of a paper trail gives me a little bit of pause. If a vacancy doesn't open up until next year, that could change.

I'd actually be very shocked if KBJ is the front-runner for the next vacancy if it opens up in the next few days (which could still very well happen, if Breyer's been duping all of us with his clerks a-la Kennedy this whole time), given that she's only been an appellate judge for a literal week-&-a-1/2. Optics-wise alone, that'd be a headache, if nothing else: even Souter was on the 1st Circuit for 2 months before Poppy Bush tapped him for the Supremes. If I were to hazard a guess, then I'd say that Leondra Kruger is arguably the front-runner if the seat were to open up sometime in the next few days, whereas KBJ is the definite front-runner if the seat opens up either next summer or at any point in time after this summer, really.

[brucejoel99]

I'd be very surprised to see Cunningham actually wind up on Biden's eventual SCOTUS shortlist at the end of the day, in that her appointment has seemingly just been a matter of the fact that she's a patent litigator &, thus, uniquely qualified for an appointment to the highly-specialized federal court that hears mostly just patent cases. As much as patent litigators may love to see one of their own finally join the Supremes, I highly doubt that that'll actually be happening anytime soon.

Ah, I wasn't aware of her background, although I suppose I really wasn't considering that she's been nominated to the Federal Circuit. No matter who else comes up, Ketanji Brown Jackson is almost certainly the front-runner for the next SCOTUS vacancy (assuming under President Biden and with a Democratic Majority in the Senate). A nominee like Candace Jackson-Akiwumi would probably make conservatives apoplectic considering her age. Personally, I like that she was a former federal defender, but her lack of a paper trail gives me a little bit of pause. If a vacancy doesn't open up until next year, that could change.

I'd actually be very shocked if KBJ is the front-runner for the next vacancy if it opens up in the next few days (which could still very well happen, if Breyer's been duping all of us with his clerks a-la Kennedy this whole time), given that she's only been an appellate judge for a literal week-&-a-1/2. Optics-wise alone, that'd be a headache, if nothing else: even Souter was on the 1st Circuit for 2 months before Poppy Bush tapped him for the Supremes. If I were to hazard a guess, then I'd say that Leondra Kruger is arguably the front-runner if the seat were to open up sometime in the next few days, whereas KBJ is the definite front-runner if the seat opens up either next summer or at any point in time after this summer, really.

Ooh, for some reason I've been forgetting the state Supreme Courts. It's still a riskier choice considering constitutional issues, although she clerked for Justice Stevens.

To be fair to her, she's considered one of the best liberal SCOTUS advocates of the modern era, so even though she traded in her federal role in the Solicitor General's office for a state supreme court judgeship, she'd still be great on matters of federal constitutional law. And as you just pointed out yourself, she's also got the Stevens clerkship going for her as well.

I think the reason KBJ is probably the front-runner no matter what for Justice Breyer's seat is that she clerked for him. I don't think any Justice or judge is against be replaced by their own clerk upon retirement.

But yeah, with Justice Breyer's retirement increasingly likely to not be this year, President Biden will have plenty of options. If a seat opens up before next June/July, the calculus changes considerably (particularly if it's not Breyer's seat). Either way, Biden has promised a black woman Justice and he will deliver if afforded the opportunity.

Indeed, not only is this one of the presumed rationales for Justice Breyer's apparent desire to sit it out for another year longer, but Justice Kennedy literally told the Trump White House that he wasn't even gonna retire for them if they didn't replace him with Kavanaugh (or Kethledge, but written accounts remain legitimately disputed as to whether Kennedy said "Replace me with Kavanaugh or I won't retire" or "Replace me with one-of-Kavanaugh/Kethledge or I won't retire").

[brucejoel99]

Indeed, not only is this one of the presumed rationales for Justice Breyer's apparent desire to sit it out for another year longer, but Justice Kennedy literally told the Trump White House that he wasn't even gonna retire for them if they didn't replace him with Kavanaugh (or Kethledge, but written accounts remain legitimately disputed as to whether Kennedy said "Replace me with Kavanaugh or I won't retire" or "Replace me with one-of-Kavanaugh/Kethledge or I won't retire").

While it's obvious that Justice Breyer won't retire this year, it wouldn't be true that KBJ wouldn't have some experience. Considering recent retirements, President Biden could have waited a month to announce his pick. Assuming a circuit judge continues working during the nomination process, she could've easily had 3.5 months before taking a seat on the Court. That's only about a month less than Souter had on the First Circuit before taking his seat on the Supreme Court (although he did have more experience in the New Hampshire judiciary).

Actually, judges don't participate in matters while undergoing confirmation proceedings (e.g., Garland was literally off-the-bench for 10 months back in 2016-17), so had Breyer announced his retirement this past week & Biden waited a month or so to announce KBJ, she would've garnered just a literal month-&-a-half of appellate experience on the D.C. Circuit at best. Except, she wouldn't have, because wouldn't you know it, it turns out - as I just found out myself while trying to look the D.C. Circuit's calendar up - that the D.C. Circuit also takes a summer recess(!), so, except in nominal title, she'd be no more an appellate judge in early-Aug. than she was when she received her commission in mid-Jun. In any event, the D.C. Circuit doesn't reconvene 'til mid-Sept., so if Breyer has truly set his sights on timing his retirement in order to see a KBJ-with-some-appellate-experience-on-her-record succeed him, then said retirement was never gonna happen this summer.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1414681431029207040

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1417261786168967179

President Biden's third circuit court confirmation and first judicial confirmation in almost a month.

Just 179 days in, Biden appointed more Black women to circuit courts in a single term than any other President in history.

[brucejoel99]

Harris has now broken as many tie votes as Cheney did in 8 years.

Nixon too. She's the first VP to cast 8+ tiebreakers in a single year - let alone just 6 months - since Polk's, Dallas, in 1846.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/christinawilkie/status/1421161115585818628

[brucejoel99]

How much longer until all government positions are (practically) filled? Hadn't Obama finished by mid-2009?

No.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/craigcaplan/status/1423494178294673408

[brucejoel99]

https://mobile.twitter.com/SenatePress/status/1424123819866865671

Why was she so controversial? This is only the second judicial nominee Murkowski has voted against and the first for Collins. Graham has yet to vote against a judicial nominee, but he's still in quarantine, so I still wonder how far his deference goes.

He's of the belief that a Senator is only empowered to vote against the confirmation of a President's judicial nominee in the event that such a nominee isn't qualified for the job &/or is of unfit character. Indeed, he's even gone so far as to express a belief that Senators are constitutionally-forbidden from voting against a nominee based on ideological disagreement with the nominee (they're obviously not, but hey, I'm not complaining since it means he's voting to confirm Biden's judicial nominees), & so he's fine with confirming any & all qualified judicial nominees of good character whose substantive views fall within the broad mainstream of legal thought (i.e., he'll vote to confirm any mainstream Democratic judicial nominee).

[brucejoel99]

He's of the belief that a Senator is only empowered to vote against the confirmation of a President's judicial nominee in the event that such a nominee isn't qualified for the job &/or is of unfit character. Indeed, he's even gone so far as to express a belief that Senators are constitutionally-forbidden from voting against a nominee based on ideological disagreement with the nominee (they're obviously not, but hey, I'm not complaining since it means he's voting to confirm Biden's judicial nominees), & so he's fine with confirming any & all qualified judicial nominees of good character whose substantive views fall within the broad mainstream of legal thought (i.e., he'll vote to confirm any mainstream Democratic judicial nominee).

I was just wondering where he draws the line in reality. He may have a set of principles, but that doesn't mean he'll vote for every nominee. If may also be that they didn't have cover on this vote. Would Graham have been a Yes vote on this nominee?

Presumably, as there've been no public qualms about her qualifications, character, or position within the legal mainstream.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/DanODonnellShow/status/1430586153804107780?s=20

This would elevate the Milwaukee Common Council's President, Dist. 2 Alderman Cavalier Johnson, to the acting mayoralty & make him the 2nd Black man to serve as acting mayor of Milwaukee, although there's yet to be a Black full-on Mayor.

[brucejoel99]

There should be no reasons whatsoever for 38 Republican Senators to vote against D.C. Superior Court judges. They aren't even Article III judges, for crying out loud! It's literally just D.C.'s local trial court. Y'know, the same judges who sentence criminal offenders to try & keep your community safer!! The only reason that they're voting no is so they can't be called out for voting in favor of too many, if any Biden judges whatsoever.

[brucejoel99]

Alikhan (DC Court of Appeals) passes CLOTURE 55-40

Disgusting. (*Also, it's AliKhan, not Alikhan.)

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/whcos/status/1573019680566116359

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1575283885545586688