MICHAEL BRENNAN, FEDERAL APPEALS JUDGE:

Voting 49 for and 46 against, the Senate on May 10 confirmed Michael B. Brennan, 54, a lawyer in private practice and former Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, for a lifetime appointment on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees federal trial courts in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. Supporters said Brennan was highly recommended by an American Bar Association panel on judicial nominees, while critics took issue with his conservative public stands on issues, including mass incarceration, gender equity in the workplace and women’s reproductive rights.

Democrats criticized Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for scheduling the vote even though Brennan failed to receive approval from a bipartisan Wisconsin commission for vetting judicial nominees or from Wisconsin’s junior senator, Democrat Tammy Baldwin. The other Wisconsin senator, Republican Ron Johnson, supported Brennan. Democrats said McConnell flaunted the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition of requiring both senators to approve of judicial nominees from their state.

McConnell said Brennan received “bipartisan support from the people who know him best, including the endorsement of more than 30 current and former peers in Wisconsin. It is not too surprising, then, that the American Bar Association has awarded Mr. Brennan its highest rating.”

Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Brennan “supports criminal sentencing policies that slap low-level offenders with long jail sentences and exacerbate the problem of mass incarceration in America. And it gets worse. Mr. Brennan believes that it is A-OK for judges to refuse to follow binding court precedent when the judge just thinks it is incorrect. Now, that is extreme.”

A yes vote was to confirm Brennan.

ARKANSAS

Voting yes: Tom Cotton, R, John Boozman, R

TEXAS

Voting yes: John Cornyn, R, Ted Cruz, R