National Review
Carrie Severino
May 11, 2018

It’s been a busy week for judicial nominations. On Wednesday, the Senate voted to confirm Kurt Engelhardt, President Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, by a margin of 62-34. And on Thursday, the Senate confirmed Michael Brennan, President Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, by a party-line vote of 49-46.

Next week the Senate will vote on four additional circuit court nominees: Joel Carson, John Nalbandian, Michael Scudder, and Amy St. Eve. For Carson (Tenth Circuit) and Nalbandian (Sixth Circuit), Leader McConnell negotiated a unanimous consent agreement that allows their post-cloture debate time to run concurrently. As for for Scudder and St. Eve (Seventh Circuit), this will mark only the second and third times, respectively, that Senate Democrats are not invoking cloture for judicial nominees since Inauguration Day.

The pressure for Gridlock Reform seems to be working, and I commend Leader McConnell for scheduling votes for President Trump’s excellent court of appeals nominees.

Here is this week’s update on federal judicial nominations, which includes yesterday’s fourteenth wave of nominations:

Current and known future vacancies: 180

Courts of Appeals: 25

District/Specialty Courts*: 155

Pending nominees for current and known future vacancies: 89

Link