Four Judicial Nominees Voted Out of Committee

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee voted four judicial nominees out of committee in a unanimous, en banc vote, moving them forward to the full Senate for confirmation.  Consideration of all four had been “held over” last week by Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, even though one of the nominees, James Rodney Gilstrap, would be filling a vacancy on the federal bench of the Eastern District of Texas that has been named a “judicial emergency” by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.  Holding over nominees, even when there is no opposition to their appointment, has been a consistent tactic by Republican senators seeking to slow down the judicial confirmation process. The other three nominees who were advanced out of the committee are Edgardo Ramos, Andrew L. Carter, Jr., and Jesse M. Furman, all to seats in the Southern District of New York.

For the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on judicial nominations, see the Alliance for Justice’s Judicial Selection Snapshot and The State of the Judiciary June–August 2011: Judicial Nominations in the 112th Congress.