Baldwin says Trump bypassed judge panel
Nomination process designed to be bipartisan
MADISON - President Donald Trump has nominated an ally of Gov. Scott Walker to a federal appeals court — and reignited a war over judicial appointments between Sens. Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin. The move to put Milwaukee attorney Michael Brennan on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago is the latest attempt to fill the longest opening on a federal appeals court in the country. The spot is designated for a Wisconsinite but has been vacant for seven years.
“President Trump has decided to go it alone and turn his back on a Wisconsin tradition of having a bipartisan process for nominating judges,” Baldwin said Friday in a statement. “I am extremely troubled that President Trump has taken a partisan approach that disrespects our
Wisconsin process.”
Democrat Baldwin and Republican Johnson created a bipartisan commission to recommend federal judicial nominees. Candidates had to get support from five of the six members of the commission to receive its recommendation.
Brennan got four votes, one less than needed for commission approval, but Trump nominated him anyway.
Johnson praised Brennan on Friday.
“The White House made a great decision in nominating Mike Brennan,” Johnson said in a statement. “He is eminently qualified and was the only candidate who received bipartisan support from the judicial
nominating commission.”
It is not the first time that filling the seat has been controversial. Baldwin and Johnson pointed fingers at one another last year over the process used when President Barack Obama nominated Madison attorney Donald Schott to the position.
Schott — Obama’s second nominee for the seat — was not confirmed because Republicans in the Senate did not take a vote on him.
Baldwin did not say whether she would try to block Brennan’s nomination by withholding her “blue slip.” Traditionally, the Senate allows homestate senators to prevent nominations from advancing until they turn in that paperwork. Senate Republicans are considering changing those rules.
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals hears cases
from Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.
It often has the final say on important areas of law because the U.S. Supreme Court takes only a small number of cases each year.
In recent years, the 7th Circuit has heard cases from Wisconsin on abortion, collective bargaining, gay marriage and voter ID.
Brennan, former Milwaukee County judge, served as chairman of an advisory committee that helped Walker select his own state-level judicial appointees. He is a founding member of the Milwaukee chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative group that has advised Trump on court nominations.
In 2011, Brennan weighed in on the nominating process in an opinion piece he and others wrote for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Their a
item supported Johnson’s successful attempts to block Obama’s first nominee to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Victoria Nourse.
“There are now two senators from Wisconsin from different political parties, so to exclude Johnson and those citizens who voted for him would be a purely partisan move,” Brennan and the others wrote. “In the same way (Democratic) senators had their say in Nourse’s first nomination, Johnson should have his say.”
The governor called for quickly confirming Brennan to the court.
“We can rely on Mike to be true to the rule of the law, uphold the Constitution and preserve liberty for Wisconsin citizens,” Walker said in a statement.
Brennan is a partner in the Milwaukee law firm of Gass Weber Mullins where he practices
commercial law and serves as a mediator and arbitrator. He is also a former Milwaukee prosecutor and law clerk to another federal 7th Circuit Court judge, Daniel Manion.
Brennan graduated from the University of Notre Dame and the Northwestern University School of Law.
Meanwhile Friday, Baldwin and Johnson did agree to send Trump four possible nominees for a federal judgeship in Milwaukee. Those candidates were approved by the bipartisan commission to replace U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa, who died last year.
They are: Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Aprahamian; Milwaukee attorney Gordon Giampietro; Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Kevin Martens; and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Richard Sankovitz.