AFJ Celebrates Epic Week Of Judicial Confirmations 

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 16, 2022 – This week, the Senate jumpstarted the confirmations of judicial nominees, beginning to clear out a growing queue of President Biden’s nominations and outpacing President Trump’s rate of judicial confirmations by this point in his administration. The votes included the confirmations of: 

• Salvador Mendoza, Jr. (U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit), who will serve as the first Latino judge on the Ninth Circuit from Washington. 
• Lara Montecalvo (U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit), who has two decades of experience as a public defender. 
• Sarah Merriam (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit), who is an experienced judge and public defender. 

These judicial confirmations were in addition to numerous confirmations of U.S. attorneys, ambassadors, and other officials. 

Further, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced several more judicial nominees on Thursday, adding to the number awaiting final confirmation on the Senate floor. These included Bradley N. Garcia, who would be the first Latinx person to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. 

Alliance for Justice President Rakim H.D. Brooks issued the following statement: 

“The multiple votes we saw this week represent the kind of momentum we love to see from the Senate on judicial confirmations. From the Dobbs decision to the Mar-a-Lago investigation, we are too frequently seeing how much harm Trump judges can do to our rights and the rule of law. Moving expeditiously to confirm President Biden’s diverse nominees will ensure our courts are populated by qualified judges who resemble the people they serve and who are committed to upholding equal justice under the law. 

“With more than 100 federal court vacancies still unfilled, we need lawmakers organized, united, and present to continue confirming all nominees as quickly as possible. The pace of confirmations we saw this week needs to continue — if not accelerate — through December. We hope for the sake of our courts that it does.”