President names choices for D.C., other judgeships
President Joe Biden has nominated Bradley Garcia, a Department of Justice official, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Should he be confirmed, he would be the first Hispanic on the powerful court.
Garcia, 35, clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and for retired D.C. Circuit judge Thomas Griffith; earlier this year he left a partnership in private appellate practice to work in the Office of Legal Counsel, a Justice Department office that advises the federal government.
If confirmed, Garcia would replace Judge Judith W. Rogers, a Clinton appointee who this month announced her intention of taking senior status, a state of semiretirement.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has repeatedly pressured Biden to include more Latinos in his push for greater diversity in the federal courts.
COURT OF APPEALS
Biden on Wednesday nominated a New Orleans magistrate to become the first minority woman on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
U.S. Magistrate Dana Douglas, who awaits U.S. Senate confirmation, was selected by Biden for the open seat on the federal appeals court that oversees district courts in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, The Times Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.
U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, in a statement, said he recently met Douglas and looked “forward to reviewing her record and getting to know her more in the coming weeks and when she comes before the Judiciary Committee.”
A Loyola Law School graduate, Douglas was a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle and later joined the Liskow & Lewis firm.
She is a former president of both the New Orleans Bar Association and the Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Society and served on the New Orleans Civil Service Commission. At Liskow & Lewis, she “focused on energy, products liability, and intellectual property litigation,” according to the firm.
Douglas would fill an opening left by Judge James Dennis, a nominee of President Bill Clinton who is 86 and took “senior status” last year, with a reduced caseload, the newspaper reported.
FEDERAL JUDGES
Biden on Wednesday nominated one of the prosecutors who helped convict a former Minneapolis police officer of murder in the killing of George Floyd to be a federal judge in Minnesota.
Jerry Blackwell is a Minneapolis attorney and a founding partner of the law firm Blackwell Burke. He worked pro bono as he helped prosecute Derek Chauvin for the May 2020 killing Floyd, delivering a memorable rebuttal during the state’s closing arguments.
After Chauvin’s attorney told jurors that an enlarged heart may have contributed to Floyd’s death, Blackwell left jurors with these final words: “You were told … that Mr. Floyd died because his heart was too big. … The truth of the matter is that the reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr. Chauvin’s heart was too small.”
Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 22½ years in prison. He later pleaded guilty to a federal count of violating Floyd’s rights and is awaiting sentencing for that.
As of Tuesday, there were 75 vacancies on federal district and circuit courts nationwide, with 11 nominations pending.