Judge Angela Martinez – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona

Last year, Judge Angela Martinez became a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. This year, she appears poised to get a lifetime appointment to the court.

Background

Angela Martinez graduated from the University of Arizona in 1995 and subsequently received a J.D. from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in 2000. Martinez then clerked for Judge John Roll on the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and then joined Lewis and Roca LLP as an Associate.

In 2005, Martinez became an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the District of Arizona, serving until she took a break, spent a year at Farhang & Medcoff PLLC and then clerked for Judge Jennifer Guerin Zipps on the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Martinez subsequently rejoined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2013, after her clerkship.

In 2023, Martinez became a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Arizona in their Tucson courthouse, where she serves today.

History of the Seat

As a Tucson-based candidate, Martinez is expected to replace Judge James Soto, who has announced that he will take senior status on July 1, 2024.

Legal Career

Setting aside short stints in private practice and clerking, Martinez has spent virtually her entire career at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona. Her role in this office included criminal prosecution, including the prosecution of John Milton Lee, a Las Vegas man who engaged in an armed standoff with border patrol agents at the Lukeville Port-of-Entry. Martinez also prosecuted cases involving the trafficking of narcotics into the United States. See, e.g., United States v. Mize, No. CR-16-00219-TUC-JGZ (DTF) (D. Ariz. 2016).

On the civil side, Martinez has worked on civil asset forfeiture cases for the government, petitioning, for example, to seize a truck used to transport illegal aliens across the border, notwithstanding claims on the truck by the father of the defendant using it for illegal activities, after the defendant continued to use it for alien smuggling. See United States v. Camarillo, No. CR-16-00717-TUC-RCC (BGM) (D. Ariz. 2016).

Jurisprudence

Martinez has served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the District of Arizona since her appointment in 2023. In this role, she presides over cases by agreement, handles settlement and discovery disputes, and writes reports and recommendations for district judges. Over the past year, Martinez’s reports and recommendations have generally been accepted by district court judges. See, e.g., Dobbs v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec. Admin., No. CV-22-00384-TUC-RCC (D. Ariz. Aug. 28, 2023) (Accepting Magistrate’s “well-reasoned” recommendation that an ALJ’s decision to deny Social Security benefits was supported by substantial evidence).

In one notable case, Martinez recommended that the district court grant in part a motion to suppress a statement with regard to a statement made after being questioned as to whether the defendant has been arrested before but denied as to all other statements. See United States v. Salazar-Apodaca, No. CR-22-01087-TUC-RM (AMM) (D. Ariz. July 26, 2023). Martinez’s recommendation was accepted by Judge Rosemary Marquez. See United States v. Salazar-Apodaca, No. CR-22-01087-TUC-RM (AMM) (D. Ariz. Aug. 14, 2023).

In another notable opinion, Martinez found that an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) erred in dismissing the plaintiff’s symptom testimony due to prior inconsistent statements, finding that making inconsistent statements about one’s symptoms is not akin to having a medical record that contradicts your symptom testimony. See Whitehead v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec. Admin., No. CV-22-00486-TUC-JCH (AMM) (D. Ariz. Jan. 26, 2024). Martinez’s recommendation was accepted by Judge John Hinderaker. See Whitehead v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec. Admin., No. CV-22-00486-TUC-JCH (AMM) (D. Ariz. Feb. 16, 2024).

Overall Assessment

Martinez’s brief record on the bench shows her rulings to generally be supported by the district judges she is hopeful to join. Given that fact on top of her extensive experience litigating the border disputes that make up a significant proportion of the Tucson Division’s docket, Martinez appears well-prepared to take on a lifetime appointment to the U.S. District Court and appears likely to get it.

96 Comments

  1. Angela Martinez was a name I had seen before from Arizona but I thought we might get any number of other Latina possibilities that were more progressive. She is a good nominee however & given her work combined with the home state senator she has backing her, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her confirmed before the judge she replaced officially steps down from the bench.

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  2. Since this is the Tucson seat, I suspect that this might be a Senator Kelly pick (or influence). Judge Martinez clerked for John Roll who was killed in the mass shooting incident that also injured Gabby Giffords. They prob have known each other for some time and sadly have a connection in part linked to a tragic event.

    Agreed, Martinez should be confirmed easily since she has Sinema’s blue slip and that should ensure Manchin, Collins, and Murkowski votes… and, who knows, maybe Mitt.

    We still have 1 more open AZ seat. Curious to see who Sinema puts up for that one. Will she play it safe or take a bigger swing on the last one a la Desai.

    Liked by 1 person

    • The only thing that gives me hesitation on a repeat Desai type pick is the third vacancy is a GW Bush Republican pick & his effective date is weeks before the election. I’m not sure we will get a pick that rocks the boat. I’m fine with that though. Two of the three judges that are retiring are out right Republicans & the third was a Democrat in his 60’s when he joined the bench. Even Menendez & Booker couldn’t screw up replacing them. We will have three upgrades regardless of if they are A+ or C+.

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  4. Looking out to this week, the House isn’t supposed to be back until Wednesday. If we’re waiting for the House to go first on a bill funding the government the earliest the Senate could act I assume is Friday (if the Senate receives the House bill Wednesday and files cloture on it). If that’s the case I’d assume Wednesday would be dedicated to confirming nominees. Also could throw a wrench into possibly voting on an appeals court nominee Thursday.

    I was checking the SJC calendar to see if maybe the nominees who had a hearing on the 9th would be a late addition to be held over on the business meeting this Thursday, and came across an interesting hearing. A hearing will be held (and chaired by Butler) at Alabama State University looking at Alabama’s voting laws on Friday at 5PM. Possible cancellation if the Senate has to stay late to avert a shutdown?

    https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/modern-day-voting-discrimination-in-alabama

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    • If they can dedicate today, tomorrow & Wednesday to strictly confirmations that would be great. Perhaps we will see some Friday & Saturday work on the budget if the House makes their move (Which in itself is far from certain). But either way worse case scenario we should get three days of confirmations. Now if Schumer can just leave the positions that the nominees would be out on their buttts the first day of a Republican administration & focus on federal judges that are appointed for life for a while, that would be even greater.

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  7. Judge Martinez sounds like she’s a middle of the road nominee which isn’t a surprise at all.
    I suspect she’ll be easily confirmed.
    Looks like Schumer is going all in on the FL nominees this week, which IMO is a good thing because 1)Several of them are filling judicial emergencies 2) Gets them out of the way now so we can focus on Wilson’s seat.

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  10. On Becerra’s vote (she was the Florida nominee that only got Graham on her SJC vote, right?), it looks like the only Republican vote outside of the Collins/Graham/Murkowski trio and both of Florida’s Senator is Mike Rounds, so that’d be 57 votes if there’s full Democratic attendance.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Wow, the vote was held open so Collins could vote, it was closed right after she voted. Was actually curious on that, I didn’t see her vote earlier and thought her streak of consecutive votes was in jeopardy. Vote lasted about an hour and 45 minutes.

      Tina Smith wrapped up, two nominees confirmed on voice votes. Looks to be a vote-packed day tomorrow.

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      • Schumer would have held the vote open until midnight if need be for Collins. No way he would let her streak end because of traffic or a delayed flight. This would be a perfect week if the House gets to work on the budget at a time when the senate could only start working on it Thursday.

        That way they may work Thursday evening, Friday & maybe even Saturday. Hopefully they can set up a vote on the Director of Lollipops Monday & get started Tuesday on positions that really matter like judges for next week.

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  11. As I suspected, even nominees from red states who could be confirmed by voice votes will be subject to cloture to drag out the clock.
    It’s why after the FL nominees I say we do blue states nominees first until they’re all gone then do the red ones.
    If Republicans want to leave their nominees twisting in the wind, so be it.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. I take back my earlier comment about the GOP forgetting their outrage about the remaining party line district noms. I just looked at the Ali additional questions and they def took a few swings at Kasubhai.

    Also, if you’re looking for a drinking game, might I suggest taking a shot every time a Senator asks her, yet again, if she is a Marxist.

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    • I would be drunk by 8am if I played that game… Lol

      Speaking of Ali, I wonder if Schumer is waiting for him to get voted to the floor to line up confirmation votes for Mangi, Kasubhai & Ali three in a row. While I’m not happy with delaying any circuit court vote when all Democrats are in session, that would be a nice touch to get more Muslim American federal judges confirmed in one week than the entire history of the country prior.

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  14. Have to wait and see on the three Muslim nominees, all of whom I hope get voted on sooner rather then later.
    As for confirmations, after the four FL nominees, I suspect Edward Kiel will be next in line, since his seat is also a judicial emergency.
    After that, I hope we get the three circuit court nominees out of the way so we can focus on the ones we know will be coming down the line.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Was really hoping we’d get someone more progressive or at least worked in civil or human rights, at least in that way Sinema is supposed to be more liberal and senator Kelly would’ve probably gonna along with it.

    Something about the two AZ nominees is disappointing, but guess I should be happy two white men are being replaced by two women instead of FedSoc hacks.

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  18. Democrats look to be at full attendance today. Fetterman was the only Democratic non-voter last night and didn’t vote on Becerra, but just voted on the Leibowitz cloture. The pieces are in place for a possible cloture filing tonight on an appeals court nominee for Thursday. Biggest question mark though is the government funding. I thought I had heard the easiest way out may be passing that appropriations minibus that the Senate already passed but hasn’t gone anywhere in the House, that’d be the best-case scenario for the Senate calendar this week.

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  20. That Special Counsel nominee or whoever was actually a party-line vote (51-46, three Republican absences), so at least Democrats took advantage of their full attendance today and didn’t vote on some nominee where you could count the no votes on one hand. Final vote for that nominee is at 5:45, now we pray for cloture on an appeals court nominee to be filed tonight.

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    • Yeah, that was disappointing. My guess is maybe the vote to dismiss the Mayorkas impeachment trial will be on Thursday afternoon? Not only has Manchin come out strongly against the impeachment, which would indicate there’s no Democratic support for a trial, but several Republicans don’t sound interested in it either. Only takes a majority and not 60 to dismiss the trial, fortunately.

      An assistant defense secretary was also confirmed on a voice vote. Wonder if there was any expediency with that given Lloyd Austin’s health issues this year.

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      • Sucks we have to spend even one minute of senate floor time for the Mayorkas impeachment. Schumer should say if there is no agreement on fast tracking the vote not to convict then all proceedings will start Thursday 5pm & the senate will stay in session over the weekend just to deal with that.

        Yea always good to see a voice vote. That’s two & a half less hours to worry about down the line.

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  25. Wait, the judge’s term in Guam expired in…2016????

    It’s a 10-year term and she’s served almost the entirety of that 10 years w/o reconfirmation???

    So, if she’s reconfirmed this year, does her term end in 2026 or 2034?

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  26. I guess that’s all the confirmations for this week, I know they have the impeachment, IVF and budget to deal with but can you imagine how many district nominees they could confirm if they spent a single week voting they did yesterday and will today.

    To quote Mitch McConnell, they would’ve cleaned their plate.

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    • Again, I can’t say that I’m disappointed/surprised. Schumer didn’t set up many votes on some of the lightest weeks with full Dem attendance, why would he do so on a week such as this with such a full plate? It would have been more shocking if he did, especially for the three controversial circuit court nominations.
      You folks are disappointed because you set the expectation higher than what we have come to expect, based on priority and precedent.
      Of course, this isn’t a defense of Schumer or his scheduling strategy, may I never be accused of such a thing! I’ve just come to learn how to better manage expectations.

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      • I hope they can knock out the budget, impeachment & IVF votes by the end of next week. Then they can pivot back to nominations for the last two weeks before the two week Easter recess. I just don’t want them to move the red state nominees that get voted out of the SJC tomorrow ahead of Aframe, Berner, Mangi & the other district court nominees pending now. Hell I would rather see movement on the Superior Court of DC nominees before tomorrow’s red state nominees.

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      • Agree with Gavi. There’s no point in expecting more than 4-5 district judges in any given week. There’s a crucial budget that needs to be done this week so no one should have expected otherwise. As it is, we got four which is pretty good.

        Everyone who was renominated in January will likely be confirmed sometime this year, whether that’s next week or in the lame duck period.

        The biggest issue this year, by far, is getting more nominees from the WH in a timely fashion so they can be processed by SJC and to the senate floor in time for a vote. Schumer is a capable leader and has probably done the best job of the three parties involved in nominations.

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    • While I wish that Schumer had taken care of a circuit nominee this week, I just am not sure how much criticism he deserves, if there’s much at all to be doled out in terms of the confirmation pipeline. After today, the currently pending Art. III vacancies:

      On Schumer: 3 circuit, 4 district
      On Durbin: 1 circuit, 19 district
      On the WH: 5 circuit, 21 district
      On GOP sens: 31 district

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    • My understanding of the IVF bill is that Duckworth is going to ask for unanimous consent to get it passed and that a Republican will come out and object to it. Whether or not they use up a week of floor time to pass it would be a totally different question.

      My biggest question right now is the government funding. Will the Senate pass something tomorrow, or stick around and pass something on the 11th hour Friday? Sounds like they’re pretty close to some deal, I just hope we’re not back to pass another extension during this four weeks that the Senate will be in session

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  28. Without McConnell I think there’s a real chance that blue slips go away if Trump wins and Reps take the senate back.

    They need to make judicial nominations and confirmations their hyper focus in the senate.

    Blue state senators need to have a nominee for every vacancy by summer and Biden has to sweeten the pot to fill up as many red states with moderate judges as he can, I’ll take Romney or Bush judges if that’s all we get.

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  29. What’s especially frustrating about predicting what will happen this year is how many senior-eligible judges there are. Since they can declare at any time, it makes it impossible to know if there will be a lot of new vacancies between now and November, or just a few.

    Given how many of those eligible have held out for so long, I’m more inclined to think it won’t be that many, but that we’ll see a lot after November 5th, starting with the remaining Clinton judges if Biden wins.

    I would settle for having only red-state district court vacancies by Election Day, but to get there, as @Mike said, we need the blue state vacancies to get nominees right now.

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    • I think regardless of who is the next Republican leader is, things would be worse for a President Biden on judges than they were for President Obama. The caucus will be much worse. So we will have less red states even willing to recommend nominees to the left if Chad Meredith than we had in 2014 – 2016. Plus I’m sure if Biden wins some will claim the election is rigged, therefore they can’t work with an “illegitimate” president in the first place.

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  31. In terms of attendance today, both Klobuchar and Smith appear to be out, they missed the final vote last night as well. Something going on back home in Minnesota? Could also explain the lack of a cloture motion being sent out last night.

    Sneed confirmed 54-44. Republicans back to full attendance today, Sneed got 5 Republican votes (the G/C/M trio and Florida’s Senators). That the smallest confirmation vote for a Biden red state nominee thus far? Even at full attendance that’d only be 56 votes to confirm.

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  32. Wolohojian confirmed to MA Supreme Judicial Court

    It is finished.
    Dems really have a long way to go on the judiciary.

    Very little peep about her ideology or how her appointment will cause a vacancy within 7 years in a state that Republican governors can more or less reliably expect to win after the Dem governor leaves office.

    Instead, all the oxygen was on the personal relationship aspect. MA Republicans shouldn’t complain too much. They might not realize it now, but they’ve hit the jackpot with this confirmation.

    https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/02/28/massachusetts-sjc-wolohojian-healey

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  33. Update on where we are on blue state noms.

    Arizona – Applications were due 10/31. We’ve already seen 2 noms come out of this batch so the last remaining nom shouldn’t be too far off.

    Maryland – Applications were due 11/13.

    Pennsylvania- MDPA and EDPA (Philly). Applications were due 11/27. I’d expect the MDPA seat to be named first since that committee tends to be more efficient and the Harrisburg talent pool is smaller than the Philly talent pool.

    Vermont – Applications due 12/1 and interviews occurred in February. On Feb 25, the committee announced they had selected 2 nominees to move on to the next phase in the process. VT has been moving a tad slower than I was expecting, but they’re making process.

    Massachusetts – Applications due 12/11. The Mass Senators kicked off the search process ~ a week after Saris announced. They seem to be moving quickly.

    Maine – (District and 1st C seats). Applications due 12/15. Interviews conducted Jan 4-6th.

    Pennsylvania (EDPA- Easton). Applications due 1/2. Wondering if this search might slow down the Philly search since it’s the same committee doing both.

    Minnesota – Applications due 2/29.

    Illinois (CDIL) Applications due 3/4.

    OTHER
    New York and California. These states are less transparent in their searches so no updates here.

    NDIL – When Nancy Maldonado gets elevated, her seat will be open. However, the senators already have a fairly fresh list of 4 candidates os that won’t take long.

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  34. Last week in Minnesota two police officers and a paramedic were murdered during a domestic violence call.
    The public memorial for them is being held today and I’m betting that is where both of Minnesota’s senators are at today.
    Given that, I can see why Schumer didn’t touch the heavy hitters, no point when you’re going to be down two Democratic senators for a couple of days.

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  35. As far as the GOP leader, I think Thune is probably the best case scenario for Democrats. Someone like Cornyn is pretty mainstream too, but he can be a bit combative. With Texas moving towards being a toss up state, he may not want a job so high profile.

    If Trump wins in November he’s going to push for someone like Rick Scott or Tom Cotton, and that would be very bad.

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  36. @ Dequan, I actually think there’ll be more pressure on Senate GOP in that hypothetical situation, because it would be a 4 year term, and not just a 2 year congress like in 2015-2016. Plus Grahm would be Chair of the SJC, not Grassley. So since McConnell won’t be Majority Leader under the next GOP Senate, and Thune would be his likely successor, I wonder how he would respond to it.

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  37. I think it would also depend on just how heavily R the partisan slant is. If it’s 51-49 then the odds of compromise judicial nominations getting votes on the floor is a lot higher. One reason that a lot of nominees never got votes in 2015-16 is because, at 54-46 the votes simply weren’t there for a lot of them. But if the median Senator is Collins then that’s a lot easier to work.

    As CJ mentioned, Graham would be SJC chair and he is somewhat reasonable on nominees too. He would probably be the swing vote on SJC and would at the very least advance red state packages to the floor.

    Either way, it would be nothing like what we’ve seen the last four years.

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    • Disagree with this mostly. It doesn’t matter at all what the partisan balance is in the Senate, but who the majority leader is. They are the person that will be ultimately choosing who to bring up for a vote if anyone, no matter how many members in their caucus support them or not.

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      • Well I agree Frank, if the leader is Rick Scott it won’t matter much anyway. All I was saying is that the partisan balance still matters a whole lot. If you have 54 or 55 R senators then it won’t matter who the leader is or what kind of packages get negotiated because the votes won’t be there.

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  40. Without McConnell the Senate republicans will lose a major strategist but without McConnell the senate will become a lot more like the House GOP in regards to their hard right swift.

    Thune or the other two Johns up for the spot will cave for MAGA even if Trump loses.

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    • Melissa Damien is definitely not a Republican. I too was surprised she got 13 more yes votes than David S. Leibowitz. And that’s with three Democrats not voting. I know she has given donations to both parties but I didn’t figure it would be enough to get this kind of vote total. Well now that all 3 SDFL nominees have been confirmed, Biden can sign their commissions the same day hopefully.

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      • And to think there are 3 Middle District of Florida seats without a nominee. Two in Jacksonville and one in Tampa. I think the Tampa seat has a higher chance of getting filled than the ones in Jacksonville. It’s also possible that one of the Jacksonville seats could move to Ocala, Orlando, or Fort Myers.

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  43. Schumer wrapped up. Voice vote on another Assistant Defense Secretary and military promotions. Senate looks to confirm Rollinson, vote on a veto override tomorrow, and possibly vote on another Assistant Defense Secretary to fill the 1:45PM slot? No cloture was previously filed on this nominee so either they got an expedited cloture vote or just a straight up-or-down confirmation vote.

    Not sure what they’re doing after tomorrow afternoon, given the shutdown at the end of Friday.

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  44. I won’t complain about the four Florida seats being filled since they were ALL judicial emergencies, as are the remaining vacancies in FL.
    However, from this point forward, we need to focus on the blue state vacancies.
    If Republicans want to leave their nominees twisting in the wind at the end, so be it.

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    • I have never understood that kind of reasoning. Joe Biden is President of the whole USA, not just the blue states, so he should appoint judges for vacancies in all the USA, if possible. And as civil rights are in danger in red states, if would be more urgent to fill them, while blue states have already a liberal-leaning bench and would withstand a number of hacks.
      I prefer that all vacancies are filled, no matter of the state, to keep the judiary working, knowing that this is not possible due to obstruction.

      B.T.W., Biden-appointtee Rupa Ranga Puttagunta has announced resignation from the DC Superior Court in April after hardly more than two years of service.
      Quick reminder, that here is also lots of work to do.

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  45. I hope that the 5 red state nominees that will clear the SJC Thurs don’t get their floor vote until the 7 nominees who have already cleared the committee have their vote

    The 3 Circuit nominees should have already had their vote when the Democrats had all senators present.

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    • I agree, but it’s 2024 and I would be happy with any Biden judge getting confirmed. The backlog is much better than it was before the week Kenly Kato was confirmed. Kenly Kato waited 23 months to be confirmed, Dale Ho and Hernan Vera waited 21 months, Tiffany Cartwright waited 18, Nusrat Choudhury and Natasha Merle waited 17, Nancy Abudu waited 16, Julia Kobick waited 15, Rachel Bloomekatz waited 14, Rita Lin waited 13.

      Eumi Lee, the longest waiting unconfirmed nominee, was nominated just 7 months ago. To this, I will make a statement that is controversial on this blog. Good job, Senate Democrats. You have reduced the number of unconfirmed nominees to 32 (18 of which were nominated THIS MONTH). Only 8 of the 32 have been voted out of committee, and 7 of them may require full Dem attendance, which is lacking this week. If the Senate can keep up their current pace with confirming judges, they can keep me happy through the end of July.

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  46. Since I’m procrastinating right now, I will write up my theories on what will happen with the pending circuit court vacancies. I do not think Biden will let circuit court seats stay vacant due to senators refusing to cooperate.

    1st Cir. – I would expect a nominee soon

    4th Cir. – I expect that Biden will cooperate with Tillis and nominate a centrist or center-left nominee. Budd will probably object.

    6th Cir. – Blackburn and Hagerty are both hacks. My best guess here is that Biden will shove one liberal nominee and one Irma Ramirez-type nominee down their throats (there’s possibility of 2 Irma-Ramirez types with or without the Senators’ cooperation)

    11th Cir. – Biden will name a nominee with the support of at least 1 of the Florida senators. I could see both Rubio and Scott agreeing to a center-left nominee given they supported some district court nominees that were opposed by >80% of Senate Republicans.

    Given the news today about McConnell, I recall in 2021 McConnell saying they could work out a deal that would “replace Democrat judges with Democrats and Republican judges with Republicans” if the GOP kept the Senate. Maybe for district courts it would work but there is ZERO chance he would keep the deal for circuit court judges, seeing that 80% of the vacating circuit judges were Democrat appointees (and some GOP appointees like Rovner would not have gone senior if they knew they would be replaced by a Republican)

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  47. The biggest question mark for me is going to be Gibbon’s seat.
    As with Jose Cabranes, I suspect the nominee will be someone who isn’t horrible but isn’t going to be one we’re 100% thrilled with due to age and being a moderate.
    In this case though, not much can be done when one person holds the cards.
    Also, saw a tweet from someone in Illinois legal circles (though it’s gone now) that more or less said Nancy Maldonado was the front runner the minute Rovner announced senior status given her favorable standing by many in the Illinois legal community including progressives and that while not putting any strict conditions on her retirement, Rovner more or less made it clear she wouldn’t be happy if a man replaced her, especially given the pride she had on being the first woman on the 7th Circuit.
    All worked out in the end and I hope down the line Nico Martinez finds his way to the 7th or DC Circuit.

    Liked by 1 person

    • The Jose Cabranes situation was handled so badly. There were two 2nd-CT vacancies & Biden nominated Merriam for Carney’s seat. He should have nominated her for Cabranes seat. Once Merriam was confirmed, we could have gotten a solid pick like Justin Driver instead of Khan.

      The two 6th-TN seats are different from the two 2nd-CT seats because of the time. This is an election year so you can’t take the chance on taking the time to fill Gibbonos seat & then once she’s off the bench, going with an A+ liberal. With the time left & the senate map looking bleak, even one C+ & a slightly better B- package deal would be good enough for me.

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      • @Dequan: As you have complained about the Cabranes replacement several times: Could you imagine, that the WH was not aware of that fact, and that is was maybe part of the deal, that Cabranes insisted, that he will be the second candidate to prevent a more progressive solution?

        Liked by 1 person

      • I highly doubt it. Jose Cabranes only went senior finally because of an agreement with the other 2nd circuit court judge that was replaced by Alison Nathan. Had Biden nominated Merriam when he nominated Nathan, I don’t see why he would consider Merriam too liberal. Senile she was a former public defender, I don’t see anything too crazy in her background to make her unacceptable to him.

        The other 2nd circuit seat was originally a New York seat so Cabranes couldn’t have made the kind of threat you’re talking about. The agreement was made to transfer it back to Connecticut months later. They could have made the decision after Jose Cabranes was off the bench if need be. It was just bad planning on the WH part.

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  48. I wonder if McConnell’s announcement could influence the replacement for Gibbons on the 6th.

    Hear me out: like most folks here, I get that Biden is likely to name a center-left nominee for Gibbons’s seat, both to mute opposition and to keep Gibbons from rescinding. But that’s even more likely, and more likely to happen soon, given McConnell’s announcement.

    If McConnell has to leave before his term is up, and Beshear gets to make an appointment, Beshear has said he doesn’t like the law requiring him to pick a Republican to replace McConnell. He could challenge it in Federal court (nothing in the U.S. Constitution puts restrictions on who a Governor can name, except citizenship and age. The counter would probably be that legislatures have discretion to pass laws like this).

    With a 9-7 6th Circuit (which is what it would be if Biden gets a replacement for Gibbons), there’s a greater likelihood of a favorable panel to hear the case (almost a 50-50 likelihood, especially if they stick with active judges). I still think it’s unlikely the 6th would strike down the law, but for the purposes of talking about who might be appointed to replace Gibbons and when, I don’t think this can be overlooked as a factor.

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    • I saw Beshear make those comments before. Unfortunately I don’t see how the law can be unconstitutional. The legislature can make restrictions on who can serve as senator such as no felon. They aren’t even saying you can’t be a Democrat (Which I would say is unconstitutional), they are just saying you have to pick from a list of people from the Party of the senator that is being replaced. I don’t see the argument as much as I hate the law.

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