Biden taps judicial nominees for New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Washington

WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden announced five judicial nominations Wednesday for federal courts in New York, Georgia and Pennsylvania and to fill two seats at the District of Columbia Superior Court. 

With the latest round picks, the 53rd of his administration, Biden has nominated a total 254 people to federal positions and 25 nominees to serve on Washington's local court. 

The same day as Biden's announcement, Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis vowed to block a previous Biden nominee — Ryan Park, North Carolina’s solicitor general, tapped to serve as a judge on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals — and said he had whipped support among Republicans and some Democrats to do so. Other recent nominees have faced partisan challenges from Congressional Republicans, and one nominee's bid was sunk by Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia.

Biden on Wednesday tapped Judge Anthony Brindisi for a seat in the Northern District of New York to succeed U.S. District Judge David Hurd, who announced he would take senior status on March 27 after reversing an initial 2022 plan to step down. 

Brindisi has served as a judge on the New York State Court of Claims in Utica, New York, since 2022, and has been an acting justice in New York Supreme Court, the state's trial court, in Oneida County since the beginning of the year. 

Between 2019 and 2021, Brindisi was a Democratic representative for New York’s 22nd Congressional District; he narrowly defeated Republican Claudia Tenney in both 2018 and 2020, the latter by just over 100 votes. 

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand welcomed Brindisi’s nomination in a statement on Wednesday. 

“Judge Brindisi is an exceptionally qualified and dedicated attorney with a long track record of service to the people of New York,” Gillibrand said. “He is tough and fair and has a sharp legal acumen. I am proud that President Biden has nominated him to the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York at my recommendation, and I look forward to voting for his confirmation in the Senate.”

For the Northern District of Georgia, Biden named Tiffany Johnson, who since 2017 has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the district. She worked in the Northern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney's Office’s civil division until 2020, when she transferred to its criminal division. 

Ossoff welcomed Johnson’s nomination in a statement, expressing his satisfaction that Biden had accepted his and fellow Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock’s recommendation to nominate her. Warnock released his own statement applauding her nomination.

“Johnson is a first-generation college graduate and a dedicated public servant with a distinguished record of community and legal service,” Warnock said in his statement. “I look forward to confirming this fair and qualified nominee.”

Biden’s choice for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Keli M. Neary, has served as the executive deputy attorney general for the civil law division of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General since 2019. Neary previously held positions as the deputy, senior deputy and then chief deputy attorney general between 2012 and 2019. 

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman lauded the nomination, noting Neary’s time at the state’s civil law division as a “tireless defense of the Constitution and the rights of Pennsylvanians.”

“Keli Neary’s professional journey is one of resilience and integrity, and her extensive law career has prepared her to level up to the federal bench,” Fetterman said in the statement. “I am confident she will serve the people of Pennsylvania with distinction.” 

Biden named James Graham Lake to the D.C. Superior Court. Lake has led the workers’ rights & antifraud section of Washington's attorney general's office since 2021 after working as an associate at Washington firm Bredhoff & Kaiser between 2014 and 2019. 

Lake served as a clerk for former U.S. Chief Judge for the D.C. Circuit Harry T. Edwards from 2013 to 2014, and also clerked for U.S. District Judges for the District of Connecticut Mark Kravitz, Janet Arterton and Michael Shea. 

The second D.C. Superior seat could be filled by Nicholas George Miranda, chief of the victim witness assistance unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office since 2021. Miranda joined the office in 2012 and has worked in its cyber crimes, federal child exploitation and human trafficking units. 

Miranda was briefly an associate member of the White House counsel from August 2016 to January 2017 under the Trump administration. He worked as an associate with firm Morrison & Forester from 2009 to 2012, before which he served as a law clerk for U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus of the 11th Circuit from 2008 to 2009.

Biden's nominations to D.C. Superior comes at a vital moment for the local court, as it deals with 13 vacancies of its total 62 judgeships, causing severe delays and extreme workloads. In a May 15 interview with the local NBC station NBC4, Anita Josey-Herring, warned that the court was reaching a "breaking point."

"The fact of the matter is, it's not sustainable," Josey-Herring said. "We don't have the time to do that extra careful, thoughtful consideration because of the pace at which we're moving. I've been playing chess with the assignments to make sure we can keep the court up and running. We're running out of moves."

Washington, as a semi-autonomous federal district, is the only city in the nation that must rely on the Senate for judicial confirmations, the timeline of which has only increased in recent years.

All five nominations will be grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee before potentially being recommended to a vote before the full Senate. 

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