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

[politicallefty]

Bloomberg is reporting that Rahm Emanuel is high on the list to be appointed as U.S. Ambassador to China by Biden.

I might have to start taking the "Sleepy Joe" conspiracies more seriously if this reporting is true.

But no, for real, Biden is smarter than that (I think/hope). Or hopefully, just like earlier Rahm rumors - this one isn't true.

Rahm is going to become one of these people who gets a completely different job in democratic politics every 3-4 years without anyone remembering why he lost the last job.

Very much expect that it ends with him as Governor of Illinois in 2030

And serving time in the federal penitentiary in 2040?

I dunno Rahm's personality doesn't seem like a great fit for Japan, culturally?

I had a similar thought. If he's due for an ambassadorship, I don't want him anywhere near the prominent Asian countries. Japan is one of our of closest and strongest allies and China is basically an adversary at this point. Rahm Emanuel strikes me as the kind of person that could easily offend their concepts of respect and honour. I think it'd be preferable if we sent some of our best that know their respective languages (or at least will make a serious attempt to do so).

[politicallefty]

A sentence that comes 5 years too late: "The United States Senate has confirmed Judge Merrick Garland."

I don't know that I ever saw it said anywhere, but it's been my strong suspicion that Biden decided on Garland for AG when the Georgia Senate races were won. A McConnell-run Senate would have never confirmed a replacement for him on the DC Circuit Court. With another seat becoming vacant due to senior status, Biden will soon have 2 seats available to fill on that court. It's expected that Ketanji Brown Jackson is going to be elevated to that court, quite possibly on a path to the Supreme Court (which would probably mean a Breyer retirement in 2022).

[politicallefty]

It's good that Biden's finally getting judges confirmed. The courts are a mess right. In terms of active seats, this is what the circuit courts look like:

This is the best Biden can do based on current vacancies:

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! The Eight Circuit is even worse, with a 10-1 Republican-appointed majority.

With that said, this illustrates why it was so important for Reid to go nuclear in 2013. The powerful DC Circuit Court will have a 7-4 Democratic-appointed majority once Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed. If the nuclear option hadn't been exercised then, the three Obama appointees would've gone to Trump. Biden's also set to get another nominee to the DC Circuit when Clinton-appointee David Tatel takes senior status.

[politicallefty]

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.

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.

[politicallefty]

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.

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.

They have to move quickly because they're in a hurry. I certainly don't have to reiterate how tenuous this majority is, let alone the midterms next year.

[politicallefty]

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. 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.

[politicallefty]

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.

All good points. I wasn't really familiar with her entire biography, although Jerry Brown did put some impressive people on the California Supreme Court. The one that made me so happy was Goodwin Liu. President Obama tried to put him on the Ninth Circuit, but it was pre-nuclear option and Republicans blocked him. He eventually withdrew his nomination and shortly thereafter Governor Brown put him on the California Supreme Court. If another seat were to open up after President Biden fulfills his promise, he would be an excellent choice to be elevated to SCOTUS.

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 be 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).



Also, it's worth mentioning that President Biden announced his fifth tranche of judicial nominations:

Toby J. Heytens - Fourth Circuit
Jennifer Sung - Ninth Circuit

Jane M. Beckering - Western District of Michigan
Patricia Tolliver Giles - Eastern District of Virginia
Shalina D. Kumar - Eastern District of Michigan
Michael S. Nachmanoff - Eastern District of Virginia

He seems to be announcing the district court nominations by region/state. As for the circuit courts, most of the recent vacancies have been Clinton and Obama appointees taking senior status. Two judges of the Second Circuit took senior status this year and have since passed away (a Clinton and a GWB appointee), with illness being the likely reason for their taking senior status.

[politicallefty]

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

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

[politicallefty]

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.

[politicallefty]

Because she was legit handpicked by Schumer (it's a NY seat on the 2nd circuit), i.e. "If it's the Dem leader's choice it must be bad"/quote]

Yeah, but those are the Senators least likely to care about something like that.

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?

[politicallefty]

It's worth noting that President Biden nominated 10 more federal district court judges on Thursday. That's on top of the 3 circuit court judges and 5 district court judges he nominated on September 20th. Three circuit court nominees and 10 district court nominees have been approved by the Judiciary Committee and are awaiting floor votes.

So far, President Biden has 5 circuit court judges and 9 district court judges in active service. With these new nominations, 5 circuit court nominees and 19 district court nominees await their committee hearings/votes.

Overall, Biden has nominated 13 circuit judges and 38 district court judges.

[politicallefty]

Whoa that's a lot of judges incoming.

It's about time. There hasn't been a new judge confirmed in over a month and so far, only six new federal judges have been confirmed since the Congress came back for the new year. The Judiciary Committee is also going to be tied up next week with Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings. There are still quite a few vacancies left to be filled. I'd like to at least see the circuit judgeships all filled in case Democrats lose the Senate.

[politicallefty]

Either the White House has a massive batch of nominations to release once KBJ is confirmed or we're reaching a serious point of incompetence. With the exception of KBJ and a single circuit court nominee, there haven't been any new nominees sent to the Senate since January 19th.

https://twitter.com/prof_jpc/status/1508492671408558080

[politicallefty]

It would certainly be nice to see more judges confirmed. It appears as though the Administration is dropping the ball and Schumer isn't even trying.

[politicallefty]

You follow this thread and see that literally every appointment is being filibustered, requiring cloture before confirmation, and despite that 62 judges have been confirmed and 34 are in the pipeline.  Among the few remaining vacancies are seats in states with two Republican senators who refuse to cooperate in the vetting process.  Biden and Schumer are doing as well as could have been expected

The pace has slowed considerably since the start of the new year. Only four circuit court nominees have been confirmed this year and it's been almost two months since the last. The Trump/McConnell machine did in four years what takes some Presidents eight years to accomplish in terms of judicial appointments. Even if Democrats can somehow hold the Senate this year, they need to act like it's going to be gone when it comes to the judiciary. I don't need to tell you what happens if McConnell gets control of the Senate.

Right now, there are 14 circuit judgeships that don't have a nominee (one of which is KBJ's soon-to-be vacant DC Circuit seat). Blue slips basically don't exist for circuit court judgeships now. Andre Mathis was nominated to the Sixth Circuit over the objections of both TN Senators and was reported out of committee on a bipartisan basis. He's been waiting over three months for a floor vote. The Biden Administration has tried to respect the process and work with Republicans where he can in terms of judgeships, but if Republicans aren't going to work with him, he simply needs to work around them and put some nominees forward (in particular, the 10th Circuit KS seat comes to mind). However, if you look at the list below, there are six seats without names in states with two Democratic Senators. That is completely inexcusable. There's a lot of blame to go around, but right now, things are moving way too slow.

1st - 2 (NH and MA)
2nd - 1 (CT)
3rd - 2 (DE and PA)
4th - 1 (MD)
5th - 2 (LA and TX)
6th - 1 (OH)
7th - 1 (IN)
8th - N/A
9th - 2 (AZ and MT)
10th - 1 (KS)
11th - N/A
DC - 1

[politicallefty]

A few weeks old - but looks like Biden is vetting other options for the sixth circuit - https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/white-house-said-to-vet-two-women-for-sixth-circuit-seat

Plus CLOTURE was filed on Davis who was reported later.

Probably Kennedy's committee support isn't holding up on the floor and Manchin doesn't want to vote for a non-blue slipped nominee - which probably explains why Ariana Freeman hasn't been discharged and no other nominees with blue slip issues have been put forward.

There are actually three openings on the 6th Circuit. That article is referring to the process for the Ohio seat. The White House has already worked with Portman on judicial nominations, so that shouldn't be much of an issue.

The Davis nomination is certainly good news. That's for the Michigan seat, so that's the easiest one. She was nominated about 3.5 months ago and reported out of committee about six weeks ago. She also got the usual three Rs on the cloture vote.

As for the Mathis nomination, I'm not sure how he got Kennedy's vote in committee, but it does eliminate the need for a discharge vote. Who knows what Manchin is thinking though? I'd rather not try to figure out what's going on his head. I suppose it's also possible that they've been having trouble corralling the votes and might need Harris when they do.

[politicallefty]

Biden has put forth a sixth circuit nominee in Ohio and a seventh circuit nominee in Indiana.

Remains to be seen if any non-Sherrod Brown home state senators will support them.

It looks like the article you posted that I responded to was right. Rachel Bloomekatz is a real home run pick. I'm assuming she has Portman's approval, which is quite surprising.

I'm really surprised with the 7th Circuit seat. I wasn't expecting either Indiana Senator to work with President Biden on filling that seat.

It looks like the pace is starting to pick up at the circuit court level. Hopefully no one lets up on the gas.

[politicallefty]

Any news on Michelle Kwan's nomination as Ambassador to Belize? Asking because I'm a figure skating fan, not because the position itself is that important.

Hearings on that nomination were held on May 18th. She awaits a committee vote. I'm not sure how long it takes from that point to confirmation, especially for one of the lower-profile ambassadorships.


In other news, the nomination of Michelle Childs to the DC Circuit was approved by the Judiciary Committee by a 17-5 vote (with Grassley, Graham, Cornyn, Kennedy, Tillis, and Blackburn(!!) all voting to advance her nomination). Her confirmation vote should be interesting to watch for a number of reasons aside from the obvious. It's also worth noting that I could only find one circuit court nominee from President Biden that had Republican support outside of the usual three (those being Collins, Murkowski, and Graham) and that was actually Rick Scott voting for Judge Gustavo Gelpí for the Puerto Rico seat on the 1st Circuit. (I'm not including the Federal Circuit nominees, as that is a specialized court.)

[politicallefty]

Any news on Michelle Kwan's nomination as Ambassador to Belize? Asking because I'm a figure skating fan, not because the position itself is that important.

Hearings on that nomination were held on May 18th. She awaits a committee vote. I'm not sure how long it takes from that point to confirmation, especially for one of the lower-profile ambassadorships.


In other news, the nomination of Michelle Childs to the DC Circuit was approved by the Judiciary Committee by a 17-5 vote (with Grassley, Graham, Cornyn, Kennedy, Tillis, and Blackburn(!!) all voting to advance her nomination). Her confirmation vote should be interesting to watch for a number of reasons aside from the obvious. It's also worth noting that I could only find one circuit court nominee from President Biden that had Republican support outside of the usual three (those being Collins, Murkowski, and Graham) and that was actually Rick Scott voting for Judge Gustavo Gelpí for the Puerto Rico seat on the 1st Circuit. (I'm not including the Federal Circuit nominees, as that is a specialized court.)

Grassley voted for Toby Heytens: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1171/vote_117_1_00450.htm

Ah, thank you. I knew I was probably missing at least one. I was just looking at the Wikipedia page for confirmation votes that looked out of the ordinary. I wonder why he got Grassley's vote. On the other hand, it's not a great mystery why Rick Scott voted for Judge Gelpí.

[politicallefty]

I didn't noticed until just now, but it looks like Biden is going to get another seat to fill on the DC Circuit Court. Clinton-appointee Judge Judith Rogers is taking senior status. She turns 83 next month and was actually appointed to fill the seat vacated by Clarence Thomas after he was elevated. This is an extraordinary opportunity to potentially cement a Democratic-appointed majority on the DC Circuit Court for a generation or longer. Assuming Biden gets all of his nominees to this court confirmed as well as this new vacancy, it would leave only one judge out of 11 in active service born before 1961 or appointed before 2013 (GHWB-appointee Judge Karen Henderson, born in 1944 and appointed in 1990).

This is almost certainly Biden's last chance to get a new judge on this court, so he better make it count. As much as I'd hate to see her pulled from the SG's Office, Elizabeth Prelogar would definitely be one of my top choices.

[politicallefty]

Any news on Andre Mathis or Dale Ho? The latter would need a discharge vote, while the former had a 12-10 vote to send his nomination to the floor (interestingly, Kennedy broke party lines).

[politicallefty]

Any news on Andre Mathis or Dale Ho? The latter would need a discharge vote, while the former had a 12-10 vote to send his nomination to the floor (interestingly, Kennedy broke party lines).

Schumer suspiciously skipped over Dale Ho in discharging Clarke above. I suspect the nomination is being blocked by someone. He's pretty blatantly partisan if you listen to his hearing so not really keen on him being confirmed honestly.

Kennedy has voted for some nominees in committee before opposing them on the floor so that vote may not really mean anything. Schumer may have been reluctant to bother with it since given the likely 50-50 vote, but as he's moving some other nominees to the floor in the same circumstance, he may go for it soon.

Dale Ho is for SDNY though. In other words, someone likely recommended by Schumer himself. But then again, upon checking, Clarke was basically in the same boat until today.

How many times was Kennedy the deciding vote for a circuit court nominee (in committee)?

Well, Cramer is out for health reasons. That makes it a functionally 50-49 Senate at the moment, as the most recent roll call vote showed.

[politicallefty]

What I am referring to by skipped over is the fact that Ho was nominated in September 2021 while Clarke wasn't nominated until December 2021.

The only difference between 50-50 and 50-49 is Harris doesn't have to be there 100%. It still means Schumer needs every last member of his caucus or 49 + the 50th just being absent + Harris.

I don't have a firm statistic Re: Kennedy but for a similar example, he voted for Robert Huie (SD CA) in Committee but opposed him on the floor.

It's true that 50-49 is functionally the same, but it does allow for some wiggle room.

Based solely on nominations pending Senate action, Biden is on track to match or exceed what the Trump-McConnell judiciary machine did in his first two years. I'm not really concerned about the district court nominees, as those can be taken care of in a matter of days due to the 2-hour cloture rule. I'm more concerned about the circuit court nominations. Those are far more important and require 30 hours of debate. There are seven currently awaiting a confirmation vote (eight if you include Nancy Abudu, who just needs a discharge vote). If Biden can get 30 circuit court nominations confirmed in his first two years, that would be a pretty significant victory. I certainly hope that number will be higher with additional nominations. I do imagine the lame duck session will largely depend on what happens on Election Day. If Democrats hold the the Senate, I don't imagine a mass rush of confirmation votes. If Democrats lose the Senate, I have to imagine quite the opposite. But, as I said, it takes a lot more time to move circuit court nominations through.

[politicallefty]

And don't forget Leahy is still out in rehab for his hip surgery.

It also looks like we're finally getting an ATF Director. I'm assuming Portman's support is due to the fact that he's from Ohio?

We're also going to finally find out how much bipartisan support there is for Michelle Childs.

Why is this thread still pinned to the top of this forum?

This topic sort of evolved into a catch-all for all presidential nominations.

[politicallefty]

It's definitely more than I expected. Even though she voted Aye in committee, I'm really surprised Blackburn is sticking with that position on the floor.

And what's up with this?:

Confirmed by voice vote: Executive Calendar #987 Stephen Henley Locher to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa.

That's the first voice vote confirmation for a Biden judicial nominee.