Excellent news from Louisiana & the 5th US Circuit Court, Judge Dana Douglas

[irisblue]

Link to tweet

She is in her late 40s, so President Biden and Senate Dems are building a legacy in the Federal Courts.

From her wiki page.
"From 2003 to 2013, she was a member of the New Orleans Civil Service Commission. In this role, Douglas authored an opinion affirming the suspension and termination of a police officer for committing a battery against a civilian. [3] In another case, Douglas affirmed disciplinary actions against officers who formed a limited liability company to administer their paid off-duty police details.[4]"


Nomination to court of appeals

On June 15, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Douglas to serve as United States Circuit Court Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. President Biden nominated Douglas to the seat to be vacated by Judge James L. Dennis, who will assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor.[9] On July 27, 2022, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[10][11] On September 15, 2022, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 16–6 vote.[12][13] On December 8, 2022, the United States Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 63–31 vote.[14] On December 13, 2022, her nomination was confirmed by a 65–31 vote.[15] She is awaiting her judicial commission. She is the first woman of color to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.[16].

more there

[Wounded Bear]

1. K & R...nt

[ananda]

2. More! And thank you!

!!!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Excellent news! Thank you, my dear irisblue, for posting this. n/t

[3catwoman3]

4. Great news. And what a lovely...

...photo.

[Fla Dem]

5. Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!

[W_HAMILTON]

6. I was wondering why we had to invoke cloture...

...but I guess we have to do that as a procedural move, even if we don't necessarily need the 63 votes that we did get to invoke cloture. Can anyone confirm? Even if she had a bare minimum of 50 votes plus Kamala's tiebreaking vote, we could have invoked cloture, correct? We don't need 60 votes to do this now with these sorts of nominees, right?

[James48]

16. No, we can't vote without first obtaining 60 votes.

We need 60 votes now for cloture.

All it takes is one Senator to object and request a vote, and then it takes 60 to stop debate (cloture) and then vote on the nomination. If there isn’t 60 votes, they can’t vote on the nominee.

Republicans have weapon used the cloture vote and now it is needed for almost everything. It used to be rarely used. Now it’s standard Republican tactic.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

17. Is that why it took 5 months to confirm?

[James48]

18. Yes.

As long at republicans keep blocking votes, nothing can move forward.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

19. There's yet another idiotic, obsolete rule to remove -- make it a simple majority.

[Bettie]

22. Didn't Republicans do judges with

a simple majority?

[Hekate]

26. IOKYAR

[Bettie]

27. If they did it, we should be too

because if they take the senate, they will say "Cloture? Yeah, we're not doing that".

[calimary]

32. THIS, Dammit!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

29. That's what I thought. I thought that was the only reason we had loose Cannon as a judge.

[grantcart]

25. Are you sure? My understanding is that judicial appointments don't require 60 votes

However under the power sharing agreement the Republicans can slow down the committee process and not vote the appointment to the floor.

[W_HAMILTON]

28. But this isn't the case for most nominees, including judicial ones.

Reid changed it and then McConnell further changed it. I was under the impression that 60-votes are no longer needed to invoke cloture for these sorts of nominees...

I know that the 60-vote threshold is still necessary for most legislative votes (due to no filibuster reform), but I thought it had essentially been done away for most (all?) nominees.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. yabba dabb a do.

congrats .

[RestoreAmerica2020]

8. Fantastic news! N/t Have a great day! 🌹

[iluvtennis]

9. Fantastic news! n/t

[mountain grammy]

10. Congratulations!

[CaptainTruth]

11. 5th Circuit covers Mississippi, Louisiana, & Texas

Think about the fact that's she's the first black female judge in that entire circuit.

I'm truly happy it finally happened, but I can't help feeling like it should have happened many years ago.

[irisblue]

15. The old saying, "Elections have consequences" is true here. Without PresBiden, now, this wouldn't be

2 nonpaywall articles on the 5th Circuit

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/nov/15/fifth-circuit-court-appeals-most-extreme-us

https://ballsandstrikes.org/legal-culture/which-is-the-worst-federal-appeals-court-and-why-is-it-the-fifth-circuit/

more at source

snip-"The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has historically been among the nation’s most conservative federal appeals courts. This is particularly true where abortion is concerned: Well before President Donald Trump’s nominating spree stacked the court with fringe right-wingers, it was instrumental in enabling the efforts of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi lawmakers to undermine reproductive rights. Today, 12 of the court’s 17 members are Republican appointees, and 6 of those 12 were nominated by Trump. With numbers like these, oral arguments have become genuinely unhinged of late, as evidenced by the latest go-round over Texas’ six-week abortion ban earlier this month."

[gademocrat7]

12. Great news!

[Joinfortmill]

13. Yes!

[ShepKat]

14. any time...

Anytime I hear of someone being the first at something where there should have been a 'first' decades ago- all i can say is - IT"S ABOUT FRIKIN TIME

[nightwing1240]

21. Took the words right from my lips

Well said!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

20. We need to remake the 5th Circuit

The 5th Circuit is the most conservative circuit and there are some real nut cases on that court including Edith Jones

[republianmushroom]

23. LIKE IT

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

24. excellent

[mcar]

30. President Biden just might save our democracy

with all these judicial appointments.

[LaMouffette]

31. Wonderful news! Thank you for sharing!

[11 Bravo]

33. Is it OK to point out that in addition to being a distinguished jurist ...

Judge Douglas is also gorgeous?

[Ilsa]

35. Brains and beauty. nt

[Cha]

34. That's Brilliant! TY, irisblue! nt