Senate Confirms First Judge Nominated By Biden Since Election

Photo: Reuters

WASHINGTON, DC (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on November 18 elevated a Florida magistrate judge to a seat on a federal appeals court, as Senate Democrats continued their push to confirm as many of President Joe Biden’s remaining judicial nominees as possible before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The Democratic-led Senate voted 49-45 in favor of U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd in Orlando joining the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose 13 active judges includes seven appointees of Republican presidents.

He was one of five nominees to the 13 intermediate appeals courts who were awaiting Senate consideration at the time of the election, which handed Trump the White House and delivered control of the chamber to Republicans.

Biden has 28 announced nominees to the trial and appellate courts pending. A large number of his 216 confirmed judicial appointees have been women in keeping with the Democratic president’s vow to diversify the federal bench.

“After we vote today, we’ll keep going,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote on Kidd. “Tonight, I will file on additional judges who we will move forward on the floor this week.”

Before joining the bench in 2019, Kidd had served as a federal prosecutor for about five years. Earlier in his career he worked as an associate at the law firm Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C.

Biden nominated him in May to fill a vacancy created in January when U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton, announced plans to take senior status, a form of semi-retirement for judges.

With this vote, Biden will have appointed the only two Black judges currently on the 13-member court, Kidd and U.S. Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu.