We got 9th Circuit nominees, all of whom are already judges at the federal or state level: Judge Lucy Koh (N.D. Cal.), Justice Gabriel Sanchez (Cal. Ct. App., 1st App. District), Judge Holly Thomas (Los Angeles County Superior Ct., Family Law Division).
Here is Koh’s background:
Here is Sanchez’s background:
Here is Thomas’s background:
Unfortunately, no public defenders among the bunch — and one with prosecutorial experience (Koh) and another with government defense experience (Sanchez). Thomas, obviously, has civil rights experience, both at NAACP LDF and DOJ, so that’s great.
Among the five district court nominees, one has significant defender experience: Judge Katherine Marie Menendez, who spent nearly two decades — basically all of her non-judicial legal career — in the Federal Defender’s office in Minnesota.
Among the other four district court nominees, two have government defense experience and two have civil rights experience, both with MALDEF and one of those later ran Public Counsel. None of the district court nominees appear to have any significant prosecutorial experience.
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BREAKING: The full Fifth Circuit, on a 13-6 vote, upholds Mississippi’s lifetime ban on voting by those convicted of any of a number of felonies. A prior three-judge panel had held that the ban violates the 8th Amendment. The full court rejected that. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Judge Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee, writes the court’s opinion upholding Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution. Here is that provision, which lists the convictions subject to lifetime disenfranchisement.
Judge James Dennis, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the six dissenters.
Breaking: Booksellers' challenge to Texas's book-ban regime succeeds at the Fifth Circuit.
Today, the full Fifth Circuit announced that the far-right judges of the court LOST a vote for rehearing en banc 8-9 after a 3-judge panel had previously upheld the dist ct's injunction.
There is highly questionable action from the Fifth Circuit this weekend, flagged to me by @steve_vladeck. On Saturday, the Fifth Circuit issued "a temporary administrative stay," allowing Texas S.B. 4 — the challenged Texas immigration law — to go into effect in 7 days.
Here's my thread on the preliminary injunction ruling from Feb. 29:
BREAKING: Fifth Circuit holds that fed'l emergency room protections (EMTALA) do not mandate that physicians provide abortions when that is the "stabilizing treatment" needed, upholding an injunction issued in a lawsuit brought by Texas. More to come: lawdork.com
For background on this issue (while I'm reading and writing), here's some a post relating to the still-pending SCOTUS stay application filed by Idaho in the inverse EMTALA litigation, where DOJ sued Idaho: lawdork.com/i/139439910/th…