Fourth Circuit Nominee to Receive Vote on Monday

A confirmation vote on Stephanie Thacker, nominee to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, is scheduled to take place on Monday, April 16 when the Senate returns from recess.

Ms. Thacker, a West Virginia native, is a partner at Guthrie & Thomas PLLC in Charleston, where she specializes in complex litigation, environmental and toxic tort litigation, and criminal defense. A graduate of Marshall University and West Virginia University College of Law, her legal background includes time in both public and private practice. She has been at Guthrie & Thomas since 2006, and has four additional years in private practice.

Thacker’s public service includes five years in the General Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia and seven years as a United States Department of Justice Trial Attorney in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) where she became Deputy Chief of Litigation and then the Principal Deputy Chief.  She participated in United States v. Bailey, the nation’s first case to be prosecuted under the Violence Against Women Act, and led CEOS in creating and implementing the Innocence Lost Initiative, a nationwide prosecution program to effectively address child exploitation and obscenity offenses. 

For more complete background information on Ms. Thacker, see Alliance for Justice’s Judicial Selection Project’s Report on Pending Nominees.

The confirmation vote on Ms. Thacker is a part of the March 14 deal secured by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to have the Senate vote on 14 judicial nominations by May 7. The deal was struck as a result of Senator Reid being forced to file cloture petitions on 17 nominees whose votes were being blocked by Republican intransigence. From slow-walking the committee process to forcing cloture votes on highly-qualified consensus nominees, Republicans in the Senate are employing numerous tactics to keep seats on the federal bench empty. As a result, millions of people across the country in the areas affected by the 82 current federal judicial vacancies are unable to have their day in court.

For the most comprehensive, up-to-date information on judicial nominations, visit the Judicial Selection Project website.