By
R. Robin McDonald
Daily
Report, October
11, 2013
Georgia's
Congressional Democrats met Thursday in Washington with staff of the Office of
White House Counsel to discuss Georgia's open federal judgeships, an aide to
U.S. Rep. David Scott confirmed.
The
meeting took place after Georgia's five Democratic House members sent a letter
on Sept. 17 to President Barack Obama's White House counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler,
expressing their shock and disappointment over a proposed list of six
candidates for federal judgeships in Georgia, including two open seats on the
Eleventh Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and four seats on the District
Court.
A
White House official told the Daily Report last week that the White
House had replied to the strongly worded letter and planned to meet with the
congressmen. Scott aide Michael Andel confirmed that the meeting took place
today. He had no further information.
Georgia's
Congressional Democrats sent the letter to the White House after reading a
Sept. 10 story in the Daily Report that identified six potential
nominees for the federal judiciary whose names had been forwarded to the White
House for approval. The names were submitted as part of a deal approved by
Georgia's Republican U.S. senators. Four of the six proposed nominees were
candidates selected by Georgia's Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson.
In
their letter to Ruemmler, the Democratic congressmen said they learned of the
potential deal from the Daily Report and felt they had been excluded
from the selection process despite unsuccessful attempts to seek meetings with
White House staff on how best to fill the vacant judgeships. The letter was
signed by U.S. Representatives John Lewis, Hank Johnson, David Scott, Sanford
Bishop and John Barrow.
Their
letter also complained that although they have submitted several candidates
during the last two sessions of Congress, "Our Senate colleagues put none
of these names forward."
In
their letter to the White House counsel, the Democratic congressmen insisted it
is "essential" that they participate in selecting candidates for
nomination to the federal bench "to ensure a representative federal
judiciary in Georgia."
The
current slate of proposed nominees includes one African-American woman for the
District Court, three white women—two for the Eleventh Circuit and one for a
District Court seat—and two white men for the District Court.
Georgia
lawyers familiar with the nomination process who asked not to be identified
because of the sensitivity of the negotiations have told the Daily Report
that the proposed nominees for two open seats on the Eleventh Circuit are:
Jill Pryor, a partner at Atlanta's Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore whom President Obama has twice nominated to an open post on the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Julie Carnes of the Northern District of Georgia, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
U.S.
Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson have, so far, blocked Pryor's
nomination, but as part of the deal agreed to waive their objections in return
for Carnes' appointment and three nominees of their choosing for the Northern
District of Georgia bench.
Carnes'
nomination, if confirmed, would create a fourth vacancy on the District Court
bench in Atlanta, where three judges who took senior status in 2009, 2010 and
this year have yet to be replaced.
The
senators' picks for the Northern District are:
Troutman Sanders partner Mark Cohen, whose name the senators put forth first in 2010 for the Northern District bench and then in 2011 for the Eleventh Circuit after he defended Georgia's voter identification law in a federal lawsuit;
DeKalb County State Court Judge Eleanor Ross, a former prosecutor who was appointed to the bench by Governor Nathan Deal in 2011 and the only African-American on the list;
Judge Michael Boggs of the Georgia Court of Appeals , a former Superior Court judge from the Waycross Judicial Circuit in the Southern District of Georgia and a Deal appointee to the appeals court.
The
only Democratic nominee for the District Court is Leigh Martin May, a personal
injury and product liability attorney at Butler Wooten & Fryhofer.
