Senate confirms Nancy Abudu for U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals judgeship

Nancy Abudu, strategic litigation director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday as a judge on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Abudu becomes the first Black woman to sit on the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit, which hears federal cases from Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

“Today’s historic Senate confirmation of Nancy Abudu to the 11th Circuit affirms what we have always known — that Nancy is an extraordinarily qualified and experienced jurist who is committed to the U.S. Constitution and upholding the fundamental rights of all people,” said Margret Huang, president and CEO of the SPLC and the SPLC Action Fund, in a statement. “She has a brilliant legal mind and will bring the fairness and intellectual rigor this judgeship demands.”

Abudu was previously the Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida from 2013 to 2018 and Senior Staff Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project from 2005 to 2013. Ms. Abudu served as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from 2002 to 2004. She was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP from 1999 to 2001. Ms. Abudu received her J.D. from Tulane University School of Law in 1999 and her B.A. from Columbia University in 1996.

[SOURCE: AL.COM]

Andre Mathis confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

On Thursday, September 8, 2022, the U.S. Senate confirmed Tennessee lawyer Andre Mathis to a seat on the Sixth Circuit. That seat opened up on November 18, 2021, when Judge Bernice Donald announced she was taking senior status.

Mathis, 41, will be the first Black man, and second Black person, from Tennessee to sit on the Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th Circuit. The last time a Black man was on that court was a quarter century ago, the White House says.

Judge Mathis brings an impressive range of civil and criminal litigation experience with him to the bench.

After graduating from law school, Mathis joined the Memphis law firm of Glankler Brown as an associate. He worked in criminal defense as a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the Western District of Tennessee and with the Tennessee Innocence Project. He served as a member of the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee from 2010 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2020. He was also a member of the Federal Defender Evaluation Committee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 2012 to 2013. He served on the Disciplinary Hearing Committee of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility from 2015 to 2021 and on the Shelby County Ethics Commission from 2013 to 2017.

In January 2020, Mathis joined the Memphis office of Butler Snow LLP.

President Biden nominates Judge Kelley J. Hodge for United States District Court

President Biden is announcing five new federal judicial nominees, all of whom are extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution.

These choices also continue to fulfill the President’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country — both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.

Among those nominees is Judge Kelley J. Hodge who is a candidate for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Kelley B. Hodge is a partner at Fox Rothschild in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she has worked since 2020. Ms. Hodge was previously Of Counsel at Elliott Greenleaf in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania from 2016 to 2017 and 2018 to 2020. Ms. Hodge was the interim District Attorney for the City of Philadelphia from 2017 to 2018. From 2015 to 2016, she was the Title IX Coordinator and Executive Assistant to the President at the University of Virginia. From 2011 to 2015, she served as the Safe Schools Advocate under the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. From 2004 to 2011, she worked in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. Ms. Hodge was a public defender in the Richmond, Virginia Public Defender’s Office from 1997 to 2003. Ms. Hodge received her J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law in 1996 and B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1993.

President Biden nominates Dana M. Douglas for Fifth District Court of Appeals

President Joe Biden is nominating Judge Dana M. Douglas for the United States Fifth District Court of Appeals. If confirmed, Judge Douglas would be the first woman of color to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Prior to joining the bench Douglas was a partner at Liskow & Lewis, where she worked from 2001 to 2018.

Douglas served on the New Orleans Civil Service Commission from 2003 to 2013.

She served as a law clerk for Judge Ivan L. R. Lemelle on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 2000 to 2001.

Douglas received her J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law in 2000 and her B.A. from Miami University of Ohio in 1997.

Among those backing her nomination are Louisiana Senators John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, former Mayor Marc Morial, now president of the National Urban League, and retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore.

President Biden Nominates Stephanie Dawkins Davis to 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals

President Biden has nominated U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis to serve on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the U.S. Senate confirms Davis, she will become the second Black woman to serve on the 6th Circuit and the first from Michigan.

Davis, 55, is currently serving on the U.S. Courthouse in Flint.

She graduated from Wichita State University in 1989 and Washington University School of Law in St. Louis in 1992.

Davis previously served as a magistrate judge, appointed in 2016. One of her high-profile cases involved arraigning Amor Ftouhi in the 2017 terrorism and stabbing attack at Flint’s Bishop International Airport. Ftouhi was later convicted.

Davis started her career as a civil defense attorney at the firm Dickinson Wright PLLC in Detroit before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where she worked as a federal prosecutor for 18 years, starting in 1997. McQuade later appointed her as her executive assistant U.S. attorney in 2010 — a post she held through 2015.

Senate votes to confirm Biden judicial nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson

The Senate voted Monday evening to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick to fill a vacancy on a powerful DC-based appellate court and one of the President’s most closely watched judicial nominees.

The vote was 53-44. Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with Democrats in favor of confirmation.

The vote elevates Jackson from the US District Court for the District of Columbia to the influential US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, which is seen as a breeding ground for Supreme Court justices.

She is widely viewed as a potential Supreme Court pick if there were to be a vacancy on the high court during Biden’s time in office. Biden pledged during the campaign to name the first Black woman to the Supreme Court should a vacancy arise. Administration officials have stood by that pledge since Biden entered the White House, and Jackson has repeatedly come up as a leading candidate.

Georgia county swears in first elected black judge

The first African-American to be elected to any countywide position in Gwinnett County, Georgia, was sworn in as a judge Thursday afternoon.

Ronda Colvin-Leary, a Snellville attorney, won the seat in May. While multiple African-American judges have been appointed to serve on magistrate, juvenile and recorders courts, Colvin-Leary is the first to win an election for state court, the county’s Administrative Office of the Courts confirmed after her election.

Colvin-Leary has been a member of the Georgia bar since 2001, after earning a law degree from Florida Coastal School of Law and an undergraduate degree from Auburn University. Before her election, she was the solicitor for the city of Winder and ran her own law practice in Lawrenceville for more than a decade.

Gwinnett County State Court handles civil actions, misdemeanors and traffic violations. Colvin-Leary likes the court’s role in the judicial system because it can address more minor legal issues before they escalate, she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after her election.

“I love State Court because, for me, I like to think that … if you come to State Court we can try to address it before something else major happens and you wind up in Superior Court for a more serious offense,” Colvin-Leary said.

[SOURCE: WPXI]