FOUR SAN DIEGO FEDERAL JUDGE NOMINATIONS EXPIRE
Four nominations to the San Diego federal bench have expired with the adjournment of the 116th Congress, making it unlikely that the cour t will f ill all four of its judicial vacancies any time soon.
By Sunday, the last day of session, the Senate hadn’t taken action one way or another on a total of 24 pending judicial nominees and sent them back to President Donald Trump. While the president has the option of re-nominating them, it is questionable how many more could be confirmed by the newly convened Senate in the 15 days before a new presidential administration takes over.
Come Jan. 20, Presidentelect Joe Biden can start acting on his own vision for the federal bench. And it may or may not include any of Trump’s holdover selections.
Potential judges must first be nominated by the White House — traditionally, but not always, with vetting help f rom home state senators. Nominees must first appear in a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose members then vote on whether to send the person to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. If confirmed with a majority vote, federal judges serve lifetime appointments.
Biden’s ability to shape the courts will depend in part on the outcome of the Senate runoff election under way in Georgia, with two seats that could shift the balance of power.
Filling courts with Republican nominees has been one of the overriding goals of Trump’s singleterm presidency. Aided by a Republican-majority Senate, 234 Trump nominees so far have been confirmed, including three Supreme Court justices. President Barack Obama served twice as long and appointed 329 total, which can be partly explained by the Republican-controlled 2015-16 Senate refusing to consider many of his nominees, giving Trump the opportunity to later fill many of those vacancies.
Locally, two judicial appointments have been confirmed thus far: Patrick Bumatay for the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals, and Todd Robinson for the Southern District of California, which covers both San Diego and Imperial counties. Both men were federal prosecutors.
The four remaining picks for San Diego were nominated by the White House in February. Only one, Shireen Matthews — a former federal prosecutor, now a partner at the prestigious law firm Jones Day — has appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She was cleared for Senate consideration in July but was never voted on.
A vote could, in theory, still happen if Matthews is renominated before the inauguration.
That likelihood is much slimmer for the other three — federal prosecutors Adam Braverman and Michelle Pettit and defense attorney Knut Johnson — whose Judiciary Committee hearings were never scheduled.
The four nominees were chosen to replace district judges who over the past few years have gone on senior status, a semi-retired role that allows them to take on a lighter caseload. They are U.S. District Judges Roger Benitez, Michael Anello, John Houston and Barry Ted Moskowitz.
None of the four nominees are considered controversial picks, and the Biden administration could choose to consider any or all of them.
Following the election in November, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, had asked committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in a letter to heed tradition and halt nomination hearings during the lame-duck congressional period “to allow the Biden-Harris Administration the opportunity to appoint judges after Inauguration Day.”
Graham did not oblige and the committee continued with hearings.