The Senate today confirmed another one of President Biden’s nominees to a prominent West Coast court that frequently decides environmental disputes. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also set procedural votes on numerous other picks.
By a 48-40 vote, the Senate installed Holly Thomas as a judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a bench that often has the last say on pipeline permitting, offshore drilling, and other environment and energy battles.
Thomas is the fourth Biden-nominated judge to the 9th Circuit, which former President Trump sought to reshape during his four years in office.
By the end of his term, Trump had nominated about a third of the 9th Circuit’s active judges, but he failed to shift the ideological balance of the bench. Most of the 9th Circuit’s judges were appointed by Democratic presidents.
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thomas faced questions from the panel about her advocacy for transgender rights. The committee later deadlocked on her nomination but invoked procedures to move her to a floor vote (Greenwire, Dec. 2, 2021).
Thomas joins the 9th Circuit from the Los Angeles County Superior Court, where she serves as a family law judge. She has previously held positions in California state government and the New York solicitor general’s office. She is a graduate of Yale Law School and Stanford University.
Committee action
During a vote this morning, the Judiciary Committee approved a slew of other Biden nominees, including two with experience in environmental law.
The panel voted 13-9 to advance the nomination of Alison Nathan to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
As a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Nathan heard disputes on environmental issues, such as one challenge to a now-defunct Interior Department pro-hunting advisory panel (E&E News PM, Sept. 28, 2020). She was appointed to the bench by former President Obama.
Nathan holds bachelor’s and law degrees from Cornell University, and she has clerked for former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and a federal appeals court judge.
The Judiciary Committee also voted 12-10 this morning to approve the nomination of former Justice Department environmental attorney Anne Rachel Traum to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.
Traum is currently a law professor and associate dean at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. She is a graduate of the University of California Hastings College of the Law and Brown University.
The committee also voted on the following nominees:
- Victoria Marie Calvert to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
- John Chun to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
- Sarah Elisabeth Geraghty to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
- Dale Ho to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- Charlotte Sweeney to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
- Hernán Vera to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
- Georgette Castner to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
- Ruth Bermudez Montenegro to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
- Julie Rebecca Rubin to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
- Cristina Silva to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.
Looking ahead
Schumer this afternoon moved to end debate on administration and judicial nominees, including:
- Leonard Stark for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
- Reta Jo Lewis for president of the Export-Import Bank.
- Scott Nathan for CEO of the International Development Finance Corp.
- David Ruiz to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
- Charles Fleming to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
- Bridget Brennan to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
