Senate Judiciary Committee advances 2 9th Circuit nominees

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee advanced dozens of President Donald J. Trump's federal bench nominees to the Senate floor Thursday, including two for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The marathon meeting lasted more than two hours, as senators sparred over the president's nominee for attorney general, William Barr, the blue slip tradition and the increasing polarization of the judicial confirmation process, an issue about which both sides of the aisle seemed to agree.

Minutes after senators voted Barr out of committee on a partisan 12-10 vote, they considered the nominations of Perkins Coie LLP partner Eric D. Miller and U.S. Magistrate Judge Bridget Shelton Bade to the 9th Circuit.

If confirmed, the two nominees would bring to four the number of Trump appointees for the San Francisco-based federal appeals court. There are six vacancies, including the two seats for which Miller and Bade have been nominated.

Miller, who has been tapped to fill a seat on the federal appeals court reserved for Washington state attorneys, survived a narrow partisan vote of 12-10.

He lacks the support of his home state's Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both of whom have not returned blue slips on the nomination, saying that Trump and the White House Counsel's Office did not consult meaningfully with them during the selection process.

Miller

Further adding to objections raised by Democrats are stances he took throughout his career in private practice on tribal sovereignty issues, which have prompted the National Congress of American Indians to oppose to his nomination.

California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris described Miller Thursday as a "nominee who has repeatedly advocated against Native American tribal sovereignty."

One of Miller's biggest legal victories on this issue came in 2017, when he persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to agree that sovereign immunity doesn't protect a tribal employee subject to a civil lawsuit pertaining to actions in his individual capacity. The decision was unanimous. Lewis v. Clarke, 2017 DJDAR 3953 (U.S. Apr. 26, 2017)

During his confirmation hearing last year, Miller defended his legal work, saying it was all done to advance client interests.

"My job as an advocate is not to advance my own views, but to advance the client's views and do the most that I can within the bounds of the law to zealously achieve the client's interests," he told the committee in October.

Bade (pronounced BAY-DEE) received some bipartisan support, with five Democrats breaking ranks to support her nomination. She was voted out of committee 17-5.

Bade did receive blue slips from her home state senators when she was first nominated in 2018. And unlike her fellow nominees to the 9th Circuit, Bade is Trump's only pick so far who has judicial experience.

However, during her seven years as a magistrate judge, Bade has not heard many high profile or contentious matters that could give an insight into her jurisprudence in politically charged areas of the law.

She was not the administration's first pick for the seat. Lawyers in the White House Counsel's Office advocated for two potential candidates they viewed as more conservative, before agreeing to nominate Bade.