WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced six judicial nominations for four federal district courts and one position on the Court of Federal Claims.
Magistrate Judge Leon Schydlower and Ernest Gonzalez, a senior attorney advisor, were nominated for the Western District of Texas.
Schydlower — who received his bachelors from the University of Texas at Austin and his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law — has been a magistrate judge in the district since 2015. He was a solo practitioner from 2002 to 2015 after a two-year stint as partner and associate at the Kemp Smith law firm in El Paso.
Schydlower also worked as special assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Hawaii following two years as a trial attorney on active duty for the U.S Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he has served since 2010.
Gonzalez has been a senior attorney advisor in the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs section of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division since earlier this year. He was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas from 2000 to 2003 and the Eastern District of Texas from 2003 to 2023.
Before working as a federal prosecutor, Gonzalez was an assistant district attorney in Bexar County, Texas. He received his bachelor’s from the University of Texas at San Antonio and his Juris Doctor from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.
Utah District Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen was nominated for the District of Utah. She has served on the bench of Utah’s Fifth District Court in Cedar City since 2020.
Before joining the bench, Allen served as a special and general counsel at Southern Utah University. She was previously a deputy county attorney for Iron County, Utah, following private practice work for Jensen, Graff and Barnes LLP and Allen Law PC.
Allen received her bachelors and Juris Doctor from Brigham Young University.
Judge Susan Bazis was nominated for the District of Nebraska, where she has served as a magistrate judge since 2017.
Before joining the federal courts, Bazis was a judge in Douglas County, Nebraska, from 2007 to 2016. She previously worked in private practice as a solo practitioner and with Paragas Law Offices and Kelly, Lehan & Hall P.C. She also served a stint as a public defender for Douglas County.
Bazis received her bachelors from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and her Juris Doctor from Creighton University School of Law.
Judge Kelly Rankin was nominated for the District of Wyoming, where he has served as a magistrate judge since 2012.
Rankin, who once was counsel to former Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, previously served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming. He also served as attorney for Park County and a deputy county attorney for the Park County Attorney’s Office and the Lincoln County Attorney’s Office.
Rankin received his bachelors and Juris Doctor from the University of Wyoming.
Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather, who serves in the District of Columbia, was nominated for the Court of Federal Claims.
Meriweather previously served in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia following work in private practice at Jenner and Block LLP.
Meriweather, who was a judicial clerk for Attorney General Merrick Garland in the late 1990s, received her bachelors from the University of Michigan and her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.
Biden has announced 209 federal judicial nominees during his administration.
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