Georgia's Republican U.S. senators have cut a deal with state Democrats that, if approved by the White House, would fill six judgeships on Atlanta's federal appeals and district court benches, Georgia lawyers familiar with the nomination process have told the Daily Report.
The package deal would remove roadblocks thrown up by Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson that have held up the confirmation of Atlanta attorney Jill Pryor, a partner at Bondurant Mixson & Elmore, for the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pryor was nominated in February 2012.
The deal also recommends the elevation to the Eleventh Circuit of U.S. District Court Chief Judge Julie Carnes of the Northern District of Georgia. Carnes was appointed to her current post by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Carnes' move would create a fourth vacancy on the district court in Atlanta, where judges who left in 2009, 2010 and this year have yet to be replaced.
The new bargain includes the nomination of Leigh Martin May, a personal injury and product liability attorney at Butler Wooten & Fryhofer, for the Northern District bench. May was on a 2009 list of potential nominees that was sent to the White House by a committee appointed by members of Georgia's Democratic congressional delegation; May's law partner, James Butler, was a member of that committee. Chambliss and Isakson initially rejected May and others as nominees.
In return for their agreement not to block the nominations of Pryor and May, Chambliss and Isakson would name candidates to the other three district court vacancies. They include Troutman Sanders partner Mark Cohen, whose name the senators put forth first in 2010 for the Northern District bench and in 2011 for the Eleventh Circuit. Their remaining two picks are two state court judges appointed by Republican Governor Nathan Deal—DeKalb County State Court Judge Eleanor Ross and Judge Michael Boggs of the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Meantime, the JNC has cut the list for district judge in the Middle District. Now it's up to the Senators to pick from these four:
Paul Byron, Bill Jung, Carlos Mendoza, Waddell Wallace
11 comments:
The white house should tell them to go fuck themselves and deal with another 8 years of dens in the white house after obama....and possibly more...although fed judges think they are gods, time us the great equalizer and they won't last forever....once the loads get too backed up and start screwing business interests because of criminal priority, you will see the blue slips coming out.
what a joke. I'd rather have vacancies than more republic-CONS ruining the federal judiciary from the bench.
Go fuck yourself GOP
Such class from the Left. Just imagine the whining to come when the GOP takes the Senate in 2014 and the White House in 2016.
Yes....i am sure the left will unfairly block otherwise qualified nominees because if petty political grudges and a desire to shut the whole process down. Now that would be class!
Isn't the GOP the party that's stated aim is to destroy Obama? That's classy.
The left does the same thing too -- the left started it in a high-profile way with blocking Bork, who by all accounts was well qualified. Although Bush junior was relatively successful in appointing judges, some of his judges were blocked as well for political reasons.
With all that said, this deal is a good thing. What's most important is filling vacancies with qualified judges and, as best I can tell, this deal accomplishes that goal.
Here we go again . . .
Bork should never have been nominated. It was obvious from his actions in the Sunday Night Massacre that he viewed the Constitutition as nothing more than TP and he wiped big time. He also had NO judicial temperament. That being said, both sides have gone too far in blicking qualified judicial nominees (Roberts was well-qualified and should not have recieved any no-votes. Kimba Woods was an innocent victim of the right But Alito should never have been nominated). As for nominations in Florida, this is what you get when we elect a tea party Senator -- tea party b.s.
Supreme Ct is very different than circuit and district -
10:38: suffice it to say that many would disagree with you. Bork would've voted against recognizing abortion rights (Casey) and the Supreme Court's gay-rights cases (Romer, Lawrence, and Windsor) would've gone the other way. But Bork isn't the only one who would've preferred to have left these issues to the political branches.
In any event, it's unfortunate that senators block well-qualified nominees. But if you have a problem with it, then vote them out.
Bill Jung would make an awesome federal judge.
Not Mendoza.
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