Hearings on Judicial Nominees Resume

At its first judicial nomination hearing of the year, on June 16th the Senate Judiciary Committee considered eight nominees—two for the courts of appeals and six for the district courts. A week later five district court nominees were reported out by the Committee and sent to the Senate where they were confirmed just before the July 4th recess. The three remaining nominees, including two nominees to the 9th and 2nd Circuits, weren’t reported by the committee until the last week of June and the Senate did not act on them. Earlier this year the Senate confirmed two district judges who were hold-overs from the previous Congress.

According to various published re-ports, judicial nomination hearings were stalled this year because of disagreements between the Clinton Administration and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), over the nomination of Utah lawyer Ted Stewart.

The purported standoff came to an end with the hearing on June 16th. Hatch and the President reportedly have come to an understanding that if Stewart, currently chief of staff to the Governor of Utah, is approved by the FBI and the ABA, he will be nominated. In addition, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), who had objected to the recess appointment of James Hormel as ambassador to Luxembourg and threatened to hold all civilian nominees from consideration, has removed his objection.

The decision removes an additional impediment to Senate consideration of nominations. In a statement released at the Judiciary Committee hearing, Ranking Minority Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT) cited Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist’s 1998 Year End Report on the Judiciary that warned, “Vacancies cannot remain at such high levels indefinitely without eroding the quality of justice that traditionally has been associated with the federal judiciary.” Leahy pushed for more hearings to be held soon on pending judicial nominees.

In his own statement Hatch said, “I am confident that by the end of the Session, the Committee will have done a fair and even-handed job of evaluating and approving judicial nominees—just as it has done in previous years.” Hatch said that it was his expectation that the work of the committee would continue at a reasonable pace throughout the year.

As of July 1 there were 40 judicial nominees pending for 69 vacancies. While no new judgeships have been created in nearly nine years, S. 254, the Senate-passed juvenile justice bill, and H.R. 1501, the House-passed version of the bill, would create district court judgeships in Arizona, Nevada, and the Middle District of Florida.