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Trump Continues to Reshape Ninth Circuit With Two New Picks
WASHINGTON (CN) – President Donald Trump announced six new judicial nominees on Friday, including two to seats on the once reliably liberal Ninth Circuit and four to federal courts in California.
One of the nominees to the Ninth Circuit will be familiar to senators, as Trump has now three times chosen Patrick Bumatay for a federal judgeship. Trump first chose Bumatay, a prosecutor in the Southern District of California, for a seat on the Ninth Circuit in 2018, but the Senate never took action on the nomination.
Trump tapped him for a judgeship again earlier this year, this time for a position on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
Bumatay, who is openly gay, currently leads the appellate and narcotics sections of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, and worked as counselor to the attorney general in 2018, advising on opioid strategy and other issues.
California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both Democrats who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised concerns about Bumatay’s lack of judicial experience during his first pass at the Ninth Circuit position.
In a statement, Harris said she will oppose Bumatay’s nomination going forward, citing a “troubling prosecutorial record” and inexperience.
“A nominee for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench must demonstrate exceptional skill, professionalism and respect for the principle of equal justice under law,” Harris said in a statement. “Mr. Bumatay does not meet this standard.”
A member of the conservative Federalist Society, Bumatay drew praise from conservatives after Trump announced he will again put him forward to sit on the Ninth Circuit.
“Patrick Bumatay will make a terrific judge on the Ninth Circuit,” former Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “He has dedicated his career to upholding the rule of law. Patrick’s many fine qualities, including his integrity, intellect and collegiality, make him exceedingly worthy of this position.”
Alongside Bumatay, Trump chose former Nevada Solicitor General Lawrence VanDyke to fill a Ninth Circuit vacancy. VanDyke serves as deputy assistant attorney general at the environment and natural resources division of the Justice Department.
While the top appellate lawyer in Nevada, VanDyke fought the Obama administration’s Waters of the United States regulation, which the Trump administration repealed last week. He also signed onto briefs challenging Obama immigration and employment law regulations, litigation that will likely draw scrutiny from Democrats.
Another Federalist Society member, VanDyke also worked as assistant solicitor general of Texas and as the solicitor general of Montana. He previously spent time as an associate at the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Nevada Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, both Democrats, criticized the nominations and accused the White House of ignoring “the broad, consensus-based opinion of Nevadans.”
“Instead, the White House has chosen to move forward on their extreme judicial agenda,” Rosen and Cortez Masto said in a joint statement. “While we will review the full record of this nominee, we are disappointed that the White House has chosen to nominate a candidate with a concerning record of ideological legal work.”
The remaining nominees Trump announced Friday are up for seats on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
Michelle Pettit, one of the Southern District of California nominees, has worked as a federal prosecutor in the district since 2007 and before that was senior trial counsel for the U.S. Navy in San Diego.
Her fellow nominee, Knut Johnson, is in private practice in San Diego, where he focuses on criminal defense, including white collar crime and regulatory offenses.
Steve Kim, up for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, is currently a magistrate judge on the same court, having taken the position after working as managing director at the firm Stroz Friedberg, where he worked on cybersecurity compliance and data privacy issues. Kim has also served as a federal prosecutor.
John Holcomb, nominated to a seat on the same court, focuses on intellectual property and bankruptcy litigation at the Costa Mesa, Calif., firm Greenberg Gross. A former officer in the Navy, Holcomb previously ran his own private practice and worked as a partner at the Riverside and Irvine, Calif., firm Knobbe Martens.
https://www.courthousenews.com/trump...wo-more-picks/
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Chief Judge Edward Carnes of the 11th is going into senior status after he is replaced, by Andrew Basher.
https://publicpool.kinja.com/subject...l-n-1839667596
Also the senate is voting in Danielle J. Hunsaker of the 9th and William J. Nardini of the 2nd today.
https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/...53099163488256
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Oregon Judge Gets Senate Confirmation for 9th Circuit Seat
Danielle Hunsaker, who clerked for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, the judge whose seat she will fill on the Ninth Circuit, was confirmed in a 73-17 vote by the U.S. Senate Wednesday.
By Ross Todd
The Recorder
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Danielle Hunsaker to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday, in a 73-17 vote.
The confirmation of Hunsaker, who most recently served as the presiding judge on the Washington County Circuit Court of Oregon, is set to make her the eighth of President Donald Trump’s nominees to take the bench on the nation’s largest circuit court.
Early in her legal career, Hunsaker clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, the judge whose seat she was tapped to fill in August. The seat has been vacant since O’Scannlain took senior status at the end of 2016.
Federal prosecutor Ryan Bounds, another O’Scannlain clerk, had been earlier nominated to fill the Oregon seat, but his nomination was withdrawn from the Senate floor just before a scheduled vote amid concerns that he didn’t have enough votes for confirmation and objections from Oregon’s Democratic senators over some of his college writings. Hunsaker, who had the backing of her two home-state senators, took largely friendly questions from Senate Judiciary Committee members at her confirmation hearing in September.
Trump’s nominations of Southern California federal prosecutor Patrick Bumatay and former Nevada Solicitor General Lawrence VanDyke are currently pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
https://www.law.com/therecorder/2019...20191007164144
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Meet Connecticut's Newest Judge: US Senate Approves Prosecutor for 2nd Circuit
The U.S. Senate voted 86-2 Thursday afternoon to confirm Connecticut federal prosecutor William Nardini to a judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
By Robert Storace
The Connecticut Law Tribune
The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 86-2 to approve Connecticut federal prosecutor William Nardini for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The only senators voting against Nardini’s nomination were Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Ed Markey of Massachusetts.
Both Connecticut senators, Democrats Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, supported Nardini.
It was relatively smooth sailing for Nardini, a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut, who until recently was the chief of the agency’s criminal division. He received primarily friendly questioning from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 25. That day, the Judiciary Committee hearing, in which Blumenthal introduced Nardini, lasted less than an hour. In his introductory remarks in September, Blumenthal called Nardini “a very active and highly regarded member” of the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Nardini, who President Donald Trump nominated for the seat in August, earned his law degree in 1994 from Yale Law School, and was executive editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is also a Fulbright scholar.
During his time with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut, Nardini completed a four-year assignment as the Department of Justice Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He worked with Italian authorities in assisting in requests for extradition and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters between the two countries.
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Nardini was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, as well as Judges Jose Cabranes and Guido Calabresi of the Second Circuit.
https://www.law.com/ctlawtribune/201...r-2nd-circuit/
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I don't like these near-consensus votes. They aren't the ideologues we need. Looks like two terrible picks by Trump.
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Don't judge these people based on the voting, if they aren't opposed by the Cruz, Hawley ,Lee , Kennedy alliance then it means there wasn't any red flags( activists) that were found.
Here you can read Hunsaker's stance on Ring v Arizona here. She was/ is a member of the now requirement organization Federalist Society.
https://afj.org/wp-content/uploads/2...V.-Arizona.pdf
Gorsuch got a unanimous voice vote in the U.S. Senate back when he was placed on the circuit.
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Unanimous or vast majority approval doesn’t mean they are liberal or even moderate two of trumps 7th circuit picks got voice votes and both are solid right wing votes. Man thing is if they are potential scotus or if they make for good villains in ad campaigns
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Controversial Trump judicial pick Steven Menashi confirmed 51-41
By Ted Barrett
CNN
The Senate has confirmed controversial judicial nominee Steven Menashi, a lawyer in the White House counsel's office, to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals by a vote of 51-41.
Menashi had faced criticism for some of his early writings as a student at Dartmouth and elsewhere.
At his confirmation hearing, Menashi told senators that he regretted the "lack of balance and provocative tone" in some of his writings.
Some Republicans on the committee, including Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, also initially expressed concerns about the fact that Menashi failed to explain in general his portfolio while serving in the White House counsel's office.
Menashi faced sharp opposition from the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California, who pressed on the fact that he worked with Trump adviser Stephen Miller on immigration issues in the White House but would not answer questions if he was involved in the events surrounding the President's call to the Ukraine. She stressed that the committee was only seeking broad outlines of his work portfolio, not a detailed account of private deliberations.
Before serving in the White House, Menashi worked as acting general counsel at the Department of Education. He also served as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis law firm and as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, and attended Stanford Law School.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/14/p...federal-judge/
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Well the Second Circuit has officially been flipped it is now 7-6 Republican. The Eleventh Circuit will soon flip 7-5. McConnell has filed cloture on Luck and Lagoa, they'll be confirmed next week I imagine.
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Thanks to 77,000 votes in 2016 Republicans will own the judiciary for at least 30 more years, assuming democrats don't pack them as soon as they get back in power.