Litigation

Bulletin: JAS, Others Seek Swift Judicial Confirmation

By Peter Hardin

BULLETIN: The Justice at Stake Campaign and 75 other groups today sent a letter asking Senate leaders to work together in a bipartisan fashion to proceed with prompt confirmation votes on judicial nominees approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Our judicial branch has reached a state of crisis” with 101 federal judgeships now vacant, the letter said.

The Senate has voted to confirm Justice James Graves of the Mississippi Supreme Court (photo at left) to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

When he takes the oath, he will become the first African American judge from Mississippi to serve on the Fifth Circuit, according to an Associated Press article.

Also confirmed by the Senate was President Obama’s nomination of Judge Edward Davila to sit as a federal district judge in California, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In an article headlined “Senate Moves Toward Filling Judicial Vacancies,” Fox News reported the following:

“It is still too early to determine if senators have taken to heart the complaints about the speed and efficacy of the nomination process recently echoed by Chief Justice John Roberts, White House Counsel Bob Bauer and U.S. District Judge John Roll who was killed in the Tucson shooting spree last month. But critics are likely pleased with how the year has started.“

For more about the judicial nominations backlog, check out Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on February 15, 2011 (boomark / email).