August 5, 2010: A busy day for the U.S. Senate
August 9, 2010
Washington, D.C.: Trying to reduce the number of judicial nominees pending votes, on August 5, 2010 the Senate voted on 14 appointees other than Justice Kagan. Only four nominees were confirmed, while five nominations were returned to the President. The Senate Judiciary Committee also voted on nominees, sending them to the full Senate for confirmation votes.
Confirmed by the Senate were:
- James Wynn, awaiting a vote since January 2010, confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit;
- Richard Mark Gergel, confirmed to the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina;
- J. Michelle Childs, also confirmed to the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina; and
- Leonard Stark, a current federal magistrate judge, was confirmed to the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.
Senators refused to vote on Edward Chen, Goodwin Liu, Robert Chatigny, John McConnell and Louis Butler. Instead, they returned the nominations to President Obama, leaving the Oval Office the option of fighting for these specific appointees or naming other candidates. The Republican leadership in the Senate has vowed to block some of Obama's more left-leaning appointees.[1]
The Senate Judiciary Committee also reported nominees for the federal courts for votes in the Senate. Reported by committee that day were:
- Mary Murguia, for the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit;
- Carlton W. Reeves, for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi;
- Denise Casper, for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts;
- Leslie Kobayashi, for the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii; and
- Edmond E. Chang, for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Unless otherwise noted, all information for this article came from United States Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Judicial Nomination Materials: 111th Congress (dead link).
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