Biden announces first slate of diverse judicial nominees
By Morgan Chalfant and Harper Neidig - 03/30/21 07:48 AM EDT President Biden on Tuesday announced his first slate of federal judicial nominees, a diverse group that includes Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as a nominee for the powerful U.S. appeals court in Washington.
Biden is nominating Jackson, who has served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia since being nominated by President Obama in 2013, to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Merrick Garland on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The D.C. Circuit is considered the second most powerful court in the country, given its jurisdiction over the seat of government, and its judges are often at the top of presidents' shortlists for Supreme Court vacancies.
Three of the nine sitting Supreme Court justices were elevated from the D.C. Circuit, as were the late Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.
Biden’s first group of 11 judicial nominees include several women and people of color. He is also nominating Judge Florence Y. Pan, currently an associate judge on the Superior Court for D.C., to serve on the U.S. district court for D.C.; Tiffany Cunningham, a current partner at law firm Perkins Coie, to serve on the U.S. court of appeals of the federal circuit; and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, a former public defender in Illinois, to serve on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The group also includes Julien Neals, a county counsel for Bergen County, N.J., whose previous nomination by Obama was derailed by then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2015. Biden is nominating Neals to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
“This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession,†Biden said in a statement. “Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people — and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong.â€
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/545508-biden-announces-first-slate-of-diverse-judicial-nominees
