Senate Judiciary Committee Vets Panel Of Diverse Judicial Nominees

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 1, 2021 – This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to consider several new judicial nominees, all exceptionally qualified for their respective posts.  

The first nominee considered at the hearing was Leonard Stark, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Stark has spent the last 14 years serving as a federal district court and magistrate court judge in Delaware, during which time he has presided over 6,000 civil and criminal cases and issued more than 2,000 written opinions. Due to Delaware being the state where many major companies are incorporated, Stark has adjudicated numerous patent disputes, making him particularly qualified for the Federal Circuit. He has also sat by designation on both the Federal and Third Circuits, hearing over 50 appeals. 

The second panel featured four district court nominees: Victoria Calvert (Northern District of Georgia), Jacqueline Corley (Northern District of California), Sarah Geraghty (Northern District of Georgia), and Dale Ho (Southern District of New York). Calvert is notably an experienced federal public defender; she’d be the first such former defender to serve in this district and only the second Black woman on that court. Geraghty is likewise a civil rights attorney who has worked to improve conditions in the criminal justice system and has experience as a public defender. 

Senate Republicans reserved most of their bluster for Ho, who has an extensive record litigating on behalf of voting rights through his work at the ACLU. He notably led the legal fight to block President Trump from excluding undocumented immigrants from the census. Ho’s qualifications are unmatched, and he would be the only man from the AAPI community sitting on the Southern District of New York.  

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

“The Senate Judiciary Committee once again heard from a slate of incredibly qualified judicial nominees. There is no debate to be had about their credentials to serve as fair and impartial judges. Senate Republicans eagerly confirmed Trump’s judges who had spent their careers working to undermine civil rights, voting rights, and abortion rights, and they have no credibility to now complain about a nominee’s qualifications or temperament for being on the opposite side of these issues.

“Like the dozens of other nominees who have already been confirmed, today’s panelists will be fair-minded judges who will protect our rights and our democracy in accordance with the constitution and the rule of law. If the Republican senators on the committee disagree, that likely reflects their own opposition to civil rights and access to the polls. All of today’s nominees deserve a swift, unequivocal confirmation.”