WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden announced three judicial nominees on Wednesday for an appeals court and districts in New Jersey and Connecticut.
The selections bring Biden’s total number of announced federal judicial nominees to 191.
There was some concern about the future of Biden’s judicial picks last week after the death of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. Democrats held a one-seat majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee and some analysts questioned whether Republicans would block further appointments, but GOP politicians have signaled their intent to continue business.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Aframe was nominated for the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which covers Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and the territory of Puerto Rico.
Aframe has served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Hampshire since 2007. He was previously a law clerk to Appeals Court Judge Jeffrey Howard and an associate at Choate Hall & Stewart LLP. He received a bachelor's degree from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.
Magistrate Judge Edward Kiel was nominated for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Kiel, who has been a magistrate judge in New Jersey since 2019, was previously a partner at Cole Schotz PC. He also worked as an associate at the firm following stints with Beattie Padovano and Jamieson Moore Peskin & Spicer. He received his bachelor's from Rutgers University and his Juris Doctor from Notre Dame Law School.
Sarah Russell, a law professor and director of the Civil Justice Clinic at Quinnipiac University School of Law, is nominated for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Before joining the university in 2011, Russell was a director of the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School.
Russell also served as an assistant federal public defender in Connecticut. She received her bachelor's from Yale College and her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.
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