Trump announces 11 more judicial nominees, including a judge from his SCOTUS list

ABA Journal online

Trump announces 11 more judicial nominees, including a judge from his SCOTUS list
American Bar Association (ABA)
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Posted Jun 08, 2017 08:05 am CDT

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced 11 more judicial nominees, including three to federal appeals courts.

One of the nominees is Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid, who was on Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees, report the New York Times, the Washington Times, the Hill and the Denver Post. She is nominated to fill the seat on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated by Neil M. Gorsuch, now a Supreme Court justice.

Eid was previously Colorado’s solicitor general and a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said in a statement published by the Denver Post that the White House did not consult with the home state senators before making the nomination.

The other appellate nominees are University of Pennsylvania law professor Stephanos Bibas, nominated to the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson, nominated to the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The White House said in a press release that Bibas is a leading expert in criminal law who has argued six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network, said in a statement that many of the nominees are well known in the conservative movement.

Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler said in a statement that Trump "continues to put forward superlative judicial nominees with sterling credentials and impressive intellects." He also noted that Trump continues to pick former and current law professors for the appellate courts, "more so than any recent president. This will only magnify the impact his nominees are likely to have on the federal courts."

Trump also plans to nominate:

• Stetson University law professor Michael Allen, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

• Dabney Friedrich, who was formerly associate counsel to former President George W. Bush, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

• Timothy Kelly, chief counsel for national security and senior crime counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

• Trevor McFadden, deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s criminal division, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

• Amanda Meredith, deputy staff director and general counsel of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

• Schaerr Duncan partner Stephen Schwartz, to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

• Joseph Toth, a veteran of the Judge Advocate General Corps, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

• Frost Brown Todd partner Claria Horn Boom, to the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky.

Trump’s first group of nominees was announced last month.