Donald Trump announces renomination of five Alabama judicial nominees
President Donald Trump on Friday announced his intent to renominate five Alabamians who were nominated to be Federal judges last year, along with 16 other nominees from across the country. According to the White House, Trump looks forward to the swift confirmation of these nominees, which include: Annemarie Carney Axon | if confirmed, will serve as a District Judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Axon is a member of Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff, & Brandt, LLC, a Birmingham-based law firm where her practice is devoted entirely to litigation, with a concentration in fiduciary and probate litigation. In addition to fiduciary litigation, Annemarie’s experience includes litigation involving state and federal environmental laws, federal securities law, state immunity under 42 U.S.C. 1983, and general contract and tort law. After graduating law school, she clerked for Judge Inge P. Johnson for the same district court she’s been nominated to. She received her B.A. in History and Political Science from the University of Alabama and her J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law. Liles C. Burke | if confirmed, he will serve as District Judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Judge Burke serves as an Associate Judge on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Prior to his elevation to the Court of Appeals, Burke served as a Marshall County District Judge, as Acting Circuit Judge, and as a City of Arab Municipal Judge. Prior to ascending to the bench, Judge Burke practiced at the law firm of Burke & Beuoy, P.C., where he represented businesses and individuals in general practice, including domestic, criminal, civil litigation, juvenile, and probate matters. He has also served as a Municipal Prosecutor and Municipal Attorney, and currently serves in the Alabama Army National Guard Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. He received his B.A. from the University of Alabama and J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law. Jeffrey Uhlman Beaverstock | if confirmed, he will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama Beaverstock is a partner in the Mobile, Ala., office of Burr & Forman, LLP, where his practice focuses on civil and commercial litigation in State and Federal courts. Before entering the practice of law, Beaverstock served on active duty for four years as an Airborne Ranger Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army, and has served in the U.S. Army Reserve since leaving active duty. He currently holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the U.S. Army (Reserve) and is the Chief of Contract and Administrative Law for the 377th Theater Sustainment Command. Beaverstock earned his B.A. from The Citadel, where he was selected as the Distinguished Military Graduate and as the Most Outstanding Army Cadet. He earned his J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law, where he served as managing editor of the Alabama Law Review. Emily Coody Marks | if confirmed, she will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Emily Marks is a partner in the Montgomery, Ala. office of Ball, Ball, Matthews & Novak, P.A., where she has practiced since joining the firm as an associate in 1998. There, she specializes in labor and employment law, civil rights law, and appellate practice, and routinely lectures on these topics before employers and other members of the bar. Marks earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from Spring Hill College, and her J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law, where she served as chair of the John A. Campbell Moot Court Board and as a senior editor of the University of Alabama Law & Psychology Review. Terry F. Moorer |if confirmed, he will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama Sworn in as Magistrate Judge in 2007, Moorer is expected to be the nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. A retired Col. in the Alabama National Guard, Moorer was the primary architect of the Alabama Code of Military Justice. He has a J.D. degree from The University of Alabama Law School, a B.A. degree from Huntingdon College, as well as A.A. degree from Marion Military Institute. Prior to his appointment as Magistrate Judge, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Alabama from 1990-2007. From 2001-2007, he served as the Lead Task Force Attorney for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, where he was responsible for coordinating the investigation of and prosecution of major narcotics trafficking.
Donald Trump cries foul on judges, but he’s ahead of Barack Obama
President Donald Trump says Democrats are holding up his judicial nominees, but almost nine months into his presidency, he has had more judges confirmed than President Barack Obama did in the same time period, and his numbers aren’t far off those of other recent presidents. Trump counts the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch as one of his signature achievements. But on Monday he charged that Senate Democrats are holding up confirmation of his other judicial nominees “beyond comprehension.” A top Senate Democrat said claims Democrats are obstructing judicial nominees are false. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden on Monday afternoon, Trump said “something that people aren’t talking about is how many judges we’ve had approved, whether it be the court of appeals, circuit judges, whether it be district judges.” “The Democrats are holding them up beyond anything. Beyond comprehension, they’re holding them up,” Trump said. Earlier in the day, at a Cabinet meeting, Trump said his judicial nominees are “some of the most qualified people ever, and they’re waiting forever on line.” Since taking office in January, Trump has nominated 61 people to federal judgeships, according to information available on the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’ website. Approximately 100 more seats are open and awaiting a nominee. Seven of Trump’s judicial nominees, including Gorsuch, have been confirmed by the Senate. According to statistics available online from the Federal Judicial Center, the judicial branch’s research and education agency, Obama had three judicial nominees confirmed at the same point of his presidency, just shy of nine months in, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. President George H.W. Bush had four confirmed. President George W. Bush had eight. President Bill Clinton, who had a number of nominees confirmed in October of his first year, had nine, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And President Ronald Reagan had 13, including Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top-ranked Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Monday that Obama’s first four appeals court nominees waited an average of 213 days from nomination to confirmation while Trump’s first four appeals court nominees waited an average of 84 days. “Republicans appear to believe they can compensate for their stalled legislative agenda by attacking Democrats with false claims about judicial nominations,” the statement said. White House spokeswoman Kelly Love repeated in a statement Wednesday that Democrats continue to obstruct the confirmation process for judges and also for other presidential nominees. “The President has delivered on his promise to nominate highly qualified judges, starting with Justice Gorsuch. Now, it is time to confirm the outstanding nominees because it’s what the American people deserve,” the statement read. Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies judicial nominations, said Trump has made many more judicial nominations than Obama in the same window. But Wheeler said it’s too soon to talk about the rate at which Trump’s nominees are confirmed. At the same point in their first terms, Obama had nominated 22 people to federal trial and appeals courts and George W. Bush 59, about the same as Trump, Wheeler said. “I don’t put too much stock in his comments that Democrats are obstructing,” Wheeler said of Trump. Sheldon Goldman, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who studies judicial selection and confirmation, said he thinks “Trump is doing very well,” in terms of getting his nominees confirmed. He said it “strains credulity” to say Democrats are responsible for any obstruction. Republicans, he said, “hold almost all the cards.” That’s in part because in 2013, then-majority Democrats changed Senate rules so judicial nominations for trial and appeals courts are filibuster-proof, meaning it takes only 51 votes, a simple majority in the 100-member Senate, for confirmation. Republicans currently hold 52 seats. The only thing left for Democrats, Goldman said, is a longstanding Senate tradition that home-state senators must sign off on a judge before a Senate vote. By tradition, senators return a so-called blue slip to sign off on a home-state judicial nominee. Without the blue slip, nominees are not given a vote in the Judiciary Committee. As a result, Democrats only have sway over judicial nominees in states where they hold at least one Senate seat. The Senate’s top Republican, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has said the Senate should no longer abide by the tradition. But how to apply the blue slip tradition is up to Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. “Senator Grassley has said that he expects senators and the president to continue engaging in consultation when selecting judicial nominees,” Grassley spokesman Taylor Foy said in a statement. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Donald Trump eyes two conservative Alabama judges to fill federal court vacancies
President Donald Trump once again is showing favor to the Yellowhammer State. On Monday, the president is expected to name two, conservative Alabama judges among a slate of 10 nominees to fill federal courts vacancies, as he takes the first major step toward filling more than 120 vacancies in lower federal courts across the country. According to a White House official, Trump will be nominating the judges from his previous list of potential Supreme Court justices. Among the nominees is Birmingham’s own Kevin C. Newsom, a lawyer in the Magic City, who served as the state’s solicitor general and clerked for Justice David H. Souter. The New York Times reports he will be nominated to the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. Newsom, a partner at the Birmingham-based Bradley firm, has argued four cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, filed amicus curiae briefs in many others, and authored numerous certiorari-stage briefs. He has also argued more than 35 cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits, as well as in state supreme and appellate courts and a Native American tribal appellate court. The other Alabama nominee is judge Terry F. Moorer of the Federal District Court in Montgomery. Sworn in as Magistrate Judge in 2007, Moorer is expected to be the nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. A retired Col. in the Alabama National Guard, Moorer was the primary architect of the Alabama Code of Military Justice. He has a J.D. degree from The University of Alabama Law School, a B.A. degree from Huntingdon College, as well as A.A. degree from Marion Military Institute. Prior to his appointment as Magistrate Judge, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Alabama from 1990-2007. From 2001-2007, he served as the Lead Task Force Attorney for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, where he was responsible for coordinating the investigation of and prosecution of major narcotics trafficking. Other nominees include: Federal Appeals Court Amy Coney Barrett: law professor at University of Notre Dame and former law clerk to Justice Scalia; 7th Circuit Court of Appeals John Bush: lawyer in Louisville, KY; 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Joan Larsen: Michigan Supreme Court Justice; 6th Circuit Court of Appeals David Stras: Minnesota Supreme Court Justice; 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Federal District Courts Dabney Friedrich: former member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission; U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge David Nye: Idaho state court judge; U.S. District Court of Idaho Scott Palk, assistant dean at University of Oklahoma College of Law; U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma Court of Federal Claims Damien Schiff: lawyer with Pacific Legal Foundation; Court of Federal Claims Before taking office, Trump’s nominees will need to confirmed by the U.S. Senate where Republicans will need only 51 votes to fill each judicial vacancy thanks to the 2013 decision by Senate Democrats to eliminate the filibuster for all presidential nominations below the Supreme Court. Monday’s announcement is expected to be the first of many to come.
Will the Senate confirm Barack Obama’s judicial nominees before he leaves?
Federal judges in New Jersey have struggled with a workload approaching 700 cases each, nearly double what’s manageable, because of judicial vacancies. In Texas, close to a dozen district judgeships remain open, more than in any other state. Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama‘s nominees slowed to a halt this election year, a common political occurrence for the final months of divided government with a Democratic president and a Republican-controlled Senate. The vacancy on the Supreme Court attracted the most attention as Republicans refused to even hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, insisting that the choice to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February rests with the next president. But more than 90 vacancies in the federal judiciary are taking a toll on judges, the courts and Americans seeking recourse. Obama has nominated replacements for more than half of those spots, including 44 nominees for the district court and seven for the appeals court. Yet the Senate has confirmed only nine district and appeals court judges this year – and only four since Scalia died. The U.S. court system has declared 35 of the vacancies “judicial emergencies,” a designation based on how many filings are in the district and how long the seat has been open. Senate Democrats, along with some Republicans who want to fill vacancies in their home states, are pushing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold confirmation votes in the lame-duck session between the election and the end of the year. But McConnell has said repeatedly that Obama has already gotten more judges confirmed over his eight years in office than President George W. Bush did. “I think President Obama has been treated very fairly by any objective standard,” McConnell, R-Ky., said last month. The Senate has confirmed 329 of Obama’s federal judicial nominees to lifetime appointments; 326 federal judges were confirmed under Bush. Obama prevailed in part because Democrats controlled the Senate for six of his eight years. Both Obama and Bush have had fewer confirmations than previous two-term presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who had 377 and 382 federal judges confirmed, respectively. Democrats point out that they confirmed 68 judicial nominees after taking control of the Senate in the last two years of the Bush administration. Republicans have only confirmed 22 nominees since taking control of the Senate early last year. “These vacancies make it harder for the federal courts to do their job,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. He noted that 30 of the nominations have been approved in committee and are waiting for floor action. “The Republican majority will not give them votes even though some of these nominees have been waiting for nearly a year and even though they would be easily confirmed,” Durbin said. In Texas, there are 11 district court seats open, including some along the case-heavy border with Mexico. Obama has nominated replacements for five of the open district seats in Texas, and the state’s two Republican senators support them. But none has received a vote. “There are judges that want to retire but they are holding onto their seats because they know they may not be replaced for four to five years,” said Phillip Martin, deputy director of Progress Texas, a liberal advocacy group in Austin. Those pushing McConnell to move on the nominations are hoping that he will do so if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, since Clinton is likely to re-nominate many of the same judges. That’s less likely if Republican Donald Trump wins, though the nomination process is often bipartisan. Home state senators typically work with the president, regardless of party, to choose judges for federal district courts. Tennessee’s two Republican senators back Edward Stanton, a district court nominee for that state, and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who is in a tough re-election fight, has been pushing for confirmation of several Pennsylvania judges. One of the nominees waiting the longest for a vote is Julian Neals, nominated in February 2015 to fill the seat in New Jersey’s 3rd District. The state has another district court vacancy as well, but Obama hasn’t nominated a replacement. Judge Jerome Simandle, the chief federal judge in New Jersey, told the state’s bar association in May that the vacancies have impaired their ability to promptly resolve cases. He said that the weighted caseload for judges in the state at that time was 700, compared to the court system’s standard of 430 per judge. “We desperately need a new judge in the federal courts in New Jersey, just based on the sheer numbers that statistics bear out,” said Thomas Prol, president of the New Jersey State Bar Association. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., tried to move Neals’ nomination, but McConnell blocked him, offering instead to move four other judges. Booker objected, since Neals and Tennessee nominee Stanton – who are both black – were next in line to be confirmed. “Continued judicial vacancies means the American people must wait a year or two or longer to receive justice in a case,” Booker said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
