President Joe Biden has announced four new judicial nominees in three states. Among the nominees is Darrel Papillion, a former president of the Louisiana State Bar Association and trial lawyer in Baton Rouge, nominated to serve as a federal judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana. However, the state has two Republican senators, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, who must return “blue slips” indicating their support for any district court nominee from their state for the nomination to advance, according to Senate customs. Progressive advocates have argued that this custom impairs Biden’s ability to nominate judges in states with two Republican senators and should be abandoned to speed up confirmations.
Papillion has already secured Cassidy’s backing, who said in a statement that Papillion has “the experience and temperament to be a good federal judge.” Cassidy expects Papillion to be approved by both Democrats and Republicans. A spokesperson for Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, did not respond to requests for comment.
Biden’s other federal judicial nominees include Jeremy Daniel, a federal prosecutor in Chicago, nominated to be a judge in the Northern District of Illinois, and Brendan Abell Hurson and Matthew Maddox, two federal magistrate judges in Maryland, up for life-tenured positions as district court judges.
With their nominations, Biden will have announced 161 judicial nominees. The Senate has confirmed 117 of them, most of whom have been women and people of color, in keeping with Biden’s pledge to diversify the federal bench. The progressive Alliance for Justice says Biden has also won the confirmation of a record 31 judicial nominees with backgrounds as public defenders, whose ranks in the judiciary are minor compared to former prosecutors and law firm partners. Hurson, if confirmed, would add to that record after spending much of his career as a federal public defender before being named a magistrate judge in 2022.
In addition to judges, Biden on Monday also nominated two new U.S. attorneys, Tara McGrath, who would become the top federal prosecutor in the Southern District of California, and Eric Olshan, who would serve that role in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The announcement of the new judicial nominees comes nearly a month after Biden unveiled his last set of nominees. Biden’s nominees reflect his commitment to diversity in the federal judiciary. Most of his nominees have been women and people of color, and he has also prioritized the nomination of public defenders, a group traditionally underrepresented in the judiciary. Biden’s record on judicial appointments has been impressive, with the confirmation of 117 judges, including a record number of public defenders. However, the “blue slip” custom has been criticized by progressives for impairing Biden’s ability to nominate judges in states with two Republican senators. Despite this, Papillion has already secured the backing of one of Louisiana’s Republican senators, and Cassidy expects him to be approved by Democrats and Republicans.