President Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated the top federal prosecutor in Memphis, Tennessee, to serve as a judge on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which drew swift opposition from one of the state's two Republican senators.
Kevin Ritz, who has served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee since 2022, was nominated by the Democratic president. The White House also announced four candidates to serve as trial court judges in four states.
If confirmed, Ritz, who has worked as a prosecutor since 2005, would take a seat on the Cincinnati-based federal appeals court currently held by U.S. Circuit Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, an appointee of former Republican President George W. Bush. He formerly clerked for.
Gibbons in August said she would take senior status, a form of semi-retirement for judges over the age of 65 who have completed at least 15 years on the federal bench. Presidents may name new full-time judges to fill those judges' seats.
Ritz's nomination drew immediate opposition from Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In a statement, she cited a tradition of the White House consulting with senators about judicial nominees from their home states. She said the White House had abandoned discussions with her and her fellow Tennessee senator, Bill Hagerty, to identify a well-suited nominee from their state.
"Senator Hagerty and I attempted to work in good faith with the administration to identify highly qualified nominees to fill this vacancy, but unfortunately, the White House had other plans," she said.
The White House had no immediate comment.
Biden has already named three other judges to the court, U.S. Circuit Judges Stephanie Davis, Andre Mathis and Rachel Bloomekatz. They are among the six active Democratic appointees, who serve with 10 Republican appointees.
Blackburn and Hagerty had objected strongly to Mathis' nomination, which was the last Biden put forward to fill a vacancy from their state, saying he went with an "unqualified" nominee over an alternative candidate she backed without meaningfully consulting them.
While under current Senate custom so-called "blue slips" from home-state senators are not required for circuit court nominees to be considered, Blackburn's opposition helped complicate Mathis' confirmation.
At the district court level, the White House also said Biden was nominating Brian Murphy, a partner at Murphy & Rudolf and former public defender, to served as a federal judge in Massachusetts.
Another former public defender, Washington Court of Appeals Judge Rebecca Pennell, was nominated to served on the Eastern District of Washington.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeannette Vargas was nominated to become a judge in the Southern District of New York, and in Florida's Southern District, Biden nominated Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton lawyer Detra Shaw-Wilder to become a judge.
Read more:
Biden gains 6th Circuit vacancy to fill as Gibbons takes senior status
U.S. Senate confirms Biden appellate judge pick opposed by home state senators
