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Senate Adds Fourth Trump Nominee to Ninth Circuit

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed an Arizona magistrate judge and former federal prosecutor to a seat on the Ninth Circuit, the fourth Trump nominee to be approved for the San Francisco-based appeals court.

WASHINGTON (CN) - The Senate on Tuesday confirmed an Arizona magistrate judge and former federal prosecutor to a seat on the Ninth Circuit, the fourth Trump nominee to be approved for the appeals court – and one of few not affiliated with the Federalist Society.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. (Photo credit: Sanfranman59/Wikipedia)

Bridget Bade has served as a magistrate judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona since 2012 and spent the previous seven years as a federal prosecutor in Phoenix. She also spent time at the Justice Department from 1991 to 1995, working as a trial attorney in the Civil Division's environmental torts litigation section.

Bade left the Justice Department and took a position as a shareholder at the Phoenix firm Beshears Wallwork Bellamy.

She does not appear to be affiliated with the Federalist Society, the conservative organization that has had a hand in picking many of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees.

Unlike many of Trump's nominees to federal circuit courts, Bade received fairly substantial bipartisan support. Some Democrats objected to Republicans' handling of her pass through the Senate, as her nomination hearing was held while the Senate was out of town on recess last year and no Democrats attended the hearing to ask questions.

When asked by Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., about the most difficult argument she handled as a prosecutor, Bade recalled oral arguments before the Ninth Circuit in a case involving child sex tourism. In response to the written questions submitted after her nomination hearing, she said it was difficult to pore through the "voluminous" record of sexually explicit messages about children in the case, especially since the argument was attended by hundreds of people.

"The argument was successful, and I did not experience difficulties during the argument, but the preparation for the argument was more difficult and time-consuming than for other arguments as I considered how to present the record evidence in the setting of the argument," Bade said.

She passed through the Senate 78-21 on Tuesday afternoon.

Bade joins Eric Miller, Ryan Nelson and Mark Bennett as Trump appointees confirmed to the Ninth Circuit.

Categories / Courts, Government, Politics

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