Senate custom dictates that home-state senators OK a confirmation
hearing for federal judicial nominees, but neither Sen. Jeff Flake, left
in this file photo, nor Sen. John McCain has done so for Rosemary
Marquez. (Cronkite News Service photo by Connor Radnovich)
By EVAN BELL Cronkite News Service
WASHINGTON – It has been two years since President Barack Obama nominated Rosemary Marquez to a vacant federal judgeship in Arizona, but the Senate has so far refused to give her a nomination hearing.
Arizona’s senators have to give the OK for a hearing under Senate custom, but staff for Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake offered only a “no comment” this week when asked about Marquez.
Supporters, meanwhile, continued to question the delay at a time when the U.S. District Court for Arizona has five vacant judgeships and is struggling under a crushing caseload.
“It’s really an outrage the Republicans have held up her nomination this long,” said Greg Kuykendall, an attorney in Tucson.
It was June 23, 2011, when Obama nominated Marquez and Jennifer Guerin Zipps to the Arizona district court, calling them “highly qualified candidates for the federal bench.”
Zipps had a confirmation hearing in July 2011 and was confirmed by the full Senate in October 2011. Marquez never got a hearing.
She had to be renominated in January, with 32 other stalled judicial nominees, when Obama began his second term.
“I urge the Senate to consider and confirm these nominees without delay, so all Americans can have equal and timely access to justice,” Obama said in a statement at the time. The White House did not respond to requests this week for comment.
Of those 33, the Senate has since confirmed 25 and held hearings on another two. Two nominees withdrew, leaving Marquez and three others with no action on their nominations.
Of the four, Marquez has had the longest wait by far. The next-longest wait has been since February 2012.
The average wait for a judicial confirmation hearing in the Obama era is 82 days, said Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“By any measure, waiting two years is quite a long time,” he said.
Marquez’s wait passed 700 days last month. Meanwhile, the seat she was nominated to fill has been vacant for more than 1,000 days.
Five of the 13 judgeships are currently vacant on the U.S. District Court for Arizona, which declared a judicial emergency in 2011 after Judge John Roll was killed in the Tucson shooting spree that wounded then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
A judicial emergency is when a “weighted filing” – the number of criminal and civil cases divided by the number of judgeships – exceeds 600. In Arizona, that number is 677.
Federal court management statistics in December reported that Arizona had the second-highest number of criminal felony filings last year – 449 – in the 9th Circuit, trailing only Southern California. Arizona also had the second-longest average for vacant judgeships at 24 months, behind California’s 37 months.
While the number of filings in the district decreased in the last year, “the judges still have to continue to work hard to keep up with the pace of the workload,” said Brian Karth, the clerk for the district court in Phoenix. Visiting judges help the court keep up with the pace of the work, Karth said.
Marquez was admitted to the Arizona bar in 1993 and served as a federal public defender before going into private practice in 2000. She remains in private practice in Tucson.
The American Bar Association – which rates federal judicial nominees as well-qualified, qualified or not qualified – unanimously gave Marquez a qualified rating.
“We remain optimistic that Ms. Marquez will make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee and on to the Senate floor for a vote,” said Peter Reyes Jr., the president of the Hispanic National Bar Association.
Marquez did not return a call seeking comment on her nomination.
Of 33 judicial candidates renominated by President Barack Obama in January, two have withdrawn and 27 have had Senate hearings or been confirmed. As of Friday, the remaining four had waited:
- William Thomas
Southern District Court of Florida
Originally nominated: Nov. 14, 2012
Days without a hearing: 219
- Brian Davis
Middle District Court of Florida
Originally nominated: Feb. 29, 2012
Days without a hearing: 478
– Jill Pryor
11th Circuit Court of Appeals (Georgia)
Originally nominated: Feb. 16, 2012
Days without a hearing: 491
- Rosemary Marquez
District Court of Arizona
Originally nominated: June 23, 2011
Days without a hearing: 729
By EVAN BELL Cronkite News Service
WASHINGTON – It has been two years since President Barack Obama nominated Rosemary Marquez to a vacant federal judgeship in Arizona, but the Senate has so far refused to give her a nomination hearing.
Arizona’s senators have to give the OK for a hearing under Senate custom, but staff for Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake offered only a “no comment” this week when asked about Marquez.
Supporters, meanwhile, continued to question the delay at a time when the U.S. District Court for Arizona has five vacant judgeships and is struggling under a crushing caseload.
“It’s really an outrage the Republicans have held up her nomination this long,” said Greg Kuykendall, an attorney in Tucson.
It was June 23, 2011, when Obama nominated Marquez and Jennifer Guerin Zipps to the Arizona district court, calling them “highly qualified candidates for the federal bench.”
Zipps had a confirmation hearing in July 2011 and was confirmed by the full Senate in October 2011. Marquez never got a hearing.
She had to be renominated in January, with 32 other stalled judicial nominees, when Obama began his second term.
“I urge the Senate to consider and confirm these nominees without delay, so all Americans can have equal and timely access to justice,” Obama said in a statement at the time. The White House did not respond to requests this week for comment.
Of those 33, the Senate has since confirmed 25 and held hearings on another two. Two nominees withdrew, leaving Marquez and three others with no action on their nominations.
Of the four, Marquez has had the longest wait by far. The next-longest wait has been since February 2012.
The average wait for a judicial confirmation hearing in the Obama era is 82 days, said Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“By any measure, waiting two years is quite a long time,” he said.
Marquez’s wait passed 700 days last month. Meanwhile, the seat she was nominated to fill has been vacant for more than 1,000 days.
Five of the 13 judgeships are currently vacant on the U.S. District Court for Arizona, which declared a judicial emergency in 2011 after Judge John Roll was killed in the Tucson shooting spree that wounded then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
A judicial emergency is when a “weighted filing” – the number of criminal and civil cases divided by the number of judgeships – exceeds 600. In Arizona, that number is 677.
Federal court management statistics in December reported that Arizona had the second-highest number of criminal felony filings last year – 449 – in the 9th Circuit, trailing only Southern California. Arizona also had the second-longest average for vacant judgeships at 24 months, behind California’s 37 months.
While the number of filings in the district decreased in the last year, “the judges still have to continue to work hard to keep up with the pace of the workload,” said Brian Karth, the clerk for the district court in Phoenix. Visiting judges help the court keep up with the pace of the work, Karth said.
Marquez was admitted to the Arizona bar in 1993 and served as a federal public defender before going into private practice in 2000. She remains in private practice in Tucson.
The American Bar Association – which rates federal judicial nominees as well-qualified, qualified or not qualified – unanimously gave Marquez a qualified rating.
“We remain optimistic that Ms. Marquez will make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee and on to the Senate floor for a vote,” said Peter Reyes Jr., the president of the Hispanic National Bar Association.
Marquez did not return a call seeking comment on her nomination.
JUDGE NOT...
Of 33 judicial candidates renominated by President Barack Obama in January, two have withdrawn and 27 have had Senate hearings or been confirmed. As of Friday, the remaining four had waited:
- William Thomas
Southern District Court of Florida
Originally nominated: Nov. 14, 2012
Days without a hearing: 219
- Brian Davis
Middle District Court of Florida
Originally nominated: Feb. 29, 2012
Days without a hearing: 478
– Jill Pryor
11th Circuit Court of Appeals (Georgia)
Originally nominated: Feb. 16, 2012
Days without a hearing: 491
- Rosemary Marquez
District Court of Arizona
Originally nominated: June 23, 2011
Days without a hearing: 729
1 comment:
Unless Arizona's US Senators turn in their "blue slips" (a written approval of a nomination, tradition has the paper blue in color), then Ms. Marquez will almost certainly not be confirmed. It is not a secret that Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will not schedule a confirmation hearing on a nominee over the objections of the home state senators. Sen. Leahy has said so publicly. No blue slips, no hearing. And the article should have pointed out that Ms. Marquez is also a big loser in the dispute, because many lawyers' clients mistakenly confuse nomination with confirmation, and a nominee's law practice often begins to shed clients and work when the nomination becomes public, on the clients' mistaken assumption that they have "lost" their lawyer. There is obviously a back story here that no one wants to publicly discuss, but for the sake of the District Court, the nominee, and the thousands of people who have contact with the federal district court each year, there should be a resolution of the process. Either she's going to get a hearing and a floor vote, or she isn't. And there are people who know which it it's going to be, but for whatever reason choose not to discuss it in public. - A judiciary observer
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