This week President Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate set a historic record: 200 federal judge confirmations in under four years.
"Following number 200, when we depart this chamber today, there will not be a single circuit-court vacancy anywhere in the nation for the first time in at least 40 years," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. “As I’ve said many times, our work with the administration to renew our federal courts is not a partisan or political victory. It is a victory for the rule of law and for the Constitution itself."
"If judges applying the law and the Constitution as they’re written strikes any of our colleagues as a threat to their political agenda, then the problem, I would argue, is with their agenda," he continued.
.@SenateGOP and @realDonaldTrump have filled every single circuit court vacancy.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) June 24, 2020
200 judges confirmed under this administration! ???????????? pic.twitter.com/Q6KGTxGsDV
BREAKING: The Senate just confirmed President @realDonaldTrump's 200th judicial nominee! pic.twitter.com/zniCwkEexW
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 24, 2020
And President Trump isn't slowing down. He just nominated two more individuals to sit on the federal bench. From the White House:
John P. Howard III, of the District of Columbia, to serve as Associate Judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
John P. Howard III serves as an Administrative Law Judge at the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings, where he hears cases for over 50 District of Columbia agencies, boards, and commissions. Before his 2018 appointment, Judge Howard served as an Administrative Law Judge for the District of Columbia Commission on Human Rights and was a lawyer in private practice. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Howard served as a law clerk to Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., on the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Judge Howard earned his B.A. from Howard University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
Vijay Shanker, of the District of Columbia, to serve as Associate Judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Vijay Shanker serves as Senior Litigation Counsel in the United States Department of Justice, Criminal Division, and as Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section. Before joining the Department of Justice in 2012, Mr. Shanker was in private practice with the Washington, D.C., offices of Mayer Brown, LLP, and Covington & Burling, LLP. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Shanker served as a law clerk to Judge Chester J. Straub on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mr. Shanker earned his B.A., cum laude, from Duke University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as a Notes Editor for the Virginia Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.
