President Obama Names Seven to United States District Court

[usregimechange]

WASHINGTON- Today, President Obama nominated Arenda L. Wright Allen, Judge Claire C. Cecchi, Mark Raymond Hornak, Robert David Mariani, Judge John A. Ross, Judge Esther Salas, and Judge Michael F. Urbanski to seats on the United States District Court.

“These outstanding candidates have shown an unwavering commitment to justice throughout their careers,” said President Obama. “They all have long and distinguished records of service, and I am pleased to nominate them to continue serving the American people on the District Court bench.”



Judge Esther Salas: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
Judge Esther Salas serves as a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey, a position she has held since 2006. She previously served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of New Jersey from 1997 to 2006. From 1995 to 1997, Judge Salas was an associate at Garces & Grabler PC. Prior to joining the firm, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Eugene J. Codey, Jr., of the Superior Court of New Jersey. She received her J.D. in 1994 from the Rutgers University School of Law and her B.A. in 1991 from Rutgers University.



Judge Claire C. Cecchi: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
Judge Claire C. Cecchi serves as a Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, a position she has held since 2006. Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Cecchi spent 14 years in private practice, during which time she focused on complex civil litigation. From 2005 to 2006, she was a partner at the law firm of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter. Previously, Judge Cecchi worked at the law firm of Carpenter, Bennett & Morrissey, where she was a partner from 2001 to 2004 and an associate from 1997 to 2001. She was also an associate at Robinson, St. John & Wayne from 1992 to 1996 and its successor firm, Robinson, Lapidus & Livelli in 1996. Judge Cecchi began her legal career in The Office of Corporation Counsel in New York City where she handled litigation matters. She received her J.D. in 1989 from Fordham University School of Law and her B.A. cum laude in 1982 from Barnard College, Columbia University.



Mark Raymond Hornak: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
Mark Raymond Hornak has been a partner at the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC since 1989, where he specializes in civil litigation, labor and employment law, media defense and governmental representation, and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. For more than 15 years, he has also been solicitor of the Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, which owns PNC Park, Heinz Field, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, and Consol Energy Center. Prior to joining Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC in 1982, Hornak served as a law clerk to the Honorable James M. Sprouse of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He received his J.D. summa cum laude in 1981 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and his B.A. cum laude in 1978 from the University of Pittsburgh.



Judge John A. Ross: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
Judge John A. Ross is a Circuit Judge of the 21st Judicial Circuit for the State of Missouri, where he has served since 2000 and has been Presiding Judge since 2009. From 1991 until his appointment to the bench, Judge Ross was County Counselor for St. Louis County. Before that, he was the chief trial attorney of the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, where he began his legal career as an assistant prosecuting attorney in 1979. He received his J.D. from Emory University School of Law in 1979 and his B.A. from Emory University in 1976.


Robert David Mariani: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
Robert David Mariani has spent the past 34 years as a civil litigator in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he specializes in labor and employment law. Since 2001, he has been sole shareholder in the law firm of Robert D. Mariani, P.C. Before that, Mariani was sole proprietor in the Law Office of Robert D. Mariani from 1993 to 2001 and was a partner in the law firm of Mariani & Greco from 1979 to 1993. He received his J.D. cum laude in 1976 from Syracuse University College of Law and his A.B. cum laude in 1972 from Villanova University.


Judge Michael F. Urbanski: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
Judge Michael F. Urbanski has been a Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia since 2004. Judge Urbanski came to the bench from the Virginia-based law firm, Woods Rogers, where he had been an associate from 1984 to 1988 and a partner from 1989 to 2004. From 1982 to 1984, he worked in the Washington D.C. office of Vinson & Elkins, LLP. His private practice focused on civil litigation, with substantial experience in the area of business torts, antitrust, unfair competition, and intellectual property law. From 1981 to 1982 he served as a law clerk to the Honorable James C. Turk of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. Judge Urbanski graduated from the College of William and Mary, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, with an A.B. degree in 1978, and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1981.


Arenda L. Wright Allen: Nominee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
Arenda L. Wright Allen is a Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Prior to joining the Federal Public Defender’s Office in 2005, she was an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia from 1991 to 2005 and in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia from 1990 to 1991. From 1985 to 1990, she served on active duty in the United States Navy JAG Corps and then, from 1992 to 2005, served in the United States Navy Reserves JAG Corps. Allen received her J.D. in 1985 from North Carolina Central University of Law, and her B.S. in 1982 from Kutztown State College.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/12/01/president-obama-names-seven-united-states-district-court

[Mz Pip]

1. Let the blocking begin

The GOP will tie these appointment up like they do everything else.

[AlinPA]

2. All will be stopped by the republicans. Filibustered down. nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Let's get these good people in!

K&R

[Rowdyboy]

4. Sadly that would require a fight which is not in the interest of bipartisanship....

If we couldn't confirm judges with 58-60 votes in the senate, what chances do these poor guys have when we have 53?

[BzaDem]

6. They actually confirmed many judges, mostly with unanimous votes.

I would have preferred many more, but we did get many.

[usregimechange]

7. Many is not true, very few compared to past administrations

[BzaDem]

8. That's true, but the poster I was responding to made it sound like they were all blocked.

We got many compared to what the poster was implying.

[Tx4obama]

9. Here's a list of the 41 that have been confirmed and the vote totals

List here ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_Barack_Obama

p.s. I would not consider 41 in two years very many.

[Rowdyboy]

13. We confirmed a pitiful few compared to ALL other recent administrations....

He let most of them die in committee just like these will die.

I voted for Obama primarily because of his power to appoint judges. He's been slow, unassertive, compromising and afraid to use his precious political capital. Well his chances are gone now. The Republicans don't have to give him another single judge as long as they can keep 40 of their rabid mongrel crew together. And Democrats are far too fearful of their shadows to dare protest.

Yeah, we got a few judges cleared. A damn poor victory after 8 years of Bush cramming wild-eyed Christian fundamentalists down our throats. Wooptie fucking doo....

[Tx4obama]

14. Well that's not really quite true....

1) Most of the nominations have not died in committee.
There was a handful that made it to the senate that the senate sent back to the White House, and Obama quickly renominated them.

2) Obama has been appointing a lot of judges at quite a good pace.
See list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_Barack_Obama

3) Obama has spoken out several times publically regarding the republicans blocking his nominations, and Senator McCaskill (a democrat) has been vocally protesting the republican's obstruction of the secret holds on the nominations and their filibusters - she has done so on the floor of the senate, on MSNBC and on CNN to name a few. And there have been other democratic senators that have spoken out too but I can't remember who off of the top of my head at the moment.

-----

Edited to add: Senator Leahy talked of the problem Wednesday December 1, 2010 on the floor of the Senate.

Excerpt below

SNIP

Sen. Patrick Leahy. D-Vt., currently the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, noted Wednesday in a floor speech before Donald's nomination was announced that there are currently 110 federal judicial vacancies.

"Two weeks ago, before the Thanksgiving Day recess, I again urged Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to come together and take action to begin to end the vacancy crisis that is threatening our federal courts," Leahy said. "Regrettably that did not happen. ... The across-the-board stalling of judicial nominations that I have been trying to end continues, with many noncontroversial nominations being delayed and obstructed for no good reason."

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/01/president-obama-nominates-judge-bernice-donald-fed/

[Tx4obama]

15. Btw

Of the current 110 judicial vacancies
President Obama has 62 nominees waiting in the senate for confirmation,
which leaves only 48 slots left for him to fill.

[BzaDem]

5. It's a shame that some people here want to turn the power of the judiciary over to the Republicans

in 2012.

[frylock]

10. sqwauk

[tkmorris]

11. Don't be fucking insulting

NO ONE here wants that. Not one person. It's fine if you believe that what some people are doing is not helpful to Dems, or even harmful. You have NO right however to accuse them of having ill motives. That is just plain out of bounds.

[pnorman]

12. Reluctantlty, I too share much of the opinion of poster #5!

But I doubt that it was deliberate; more like the unintended consequences of a knee-jerk opposition to Obama. For more than a few here, that began with selection of the Convocation Speaker at the Inauguration. And for some it was somewhat earlier, and began with Hillary's defeat in the 2008 Primaries.

[donheld]

16. Why the hell doesn't Obama do Recess Appointments?

[Tx4obama]

17. Probably because....

1) Recess appointments expire at the end of the congressional session in which they are made. So, any recess appointments that Obama would have made in 2010 would have expired January 2011 when the new session begins.
2) Recess appointments are not permanent, Congress would still have to vote on the nominee in order to make the appointment permanent.