Elizabeth Warren To Obama: Stop Nominating So Many Corporatists

[ProSense]

8. Senator Warren Urges Greater Professional Diversity on Federal Bench

Senator Warren Urges Greater Professional Diversity on Federal Bench

Cites New Report on Corporate Lawyer Dominance of Federal Judiciary, Calls for More Nominees With Broad Legal Experience

Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren delivered remarks today on "Broadening the Bench: Judicial Nominations and Professional Diversity" at an event hosted by the Alliance for Justice (AFJ). The senator advocated for greater professional diversity of the federal bench and discussed the importance of preventing a corporate capture of the federal courts.

Senator Warren noted a report from the AFJ that shows 71% of President Obama's judicial nominees have represented primarily corporate or business clients - statistics that are broadly in line with the current composition of the federal bench. "There are some really talented judges who came from the private sector..." said Senator Warren. "But I believe that diversity of experience matters. It matters that someone has represented people other than corporate clients, that they've had real experience with people who can't afford lawyers, that they've had real experience trying to fight for the public interest."

The senator explained that for years, "the judicial nominations process was largely held hostage to an intransigent Republican minority that looked for any excuse to block President Obama's efforts to nominate federal judges," and discussed the opportunity that the Senate's rules change provides the President and Senate to ensure that the next generation of judges will represent "the best and the brightest from every corner of the legal profession."

The senator also discussed the nomination of now District Court Judge Edward Chen. "President Obama stood behind the Chen nomination," said Senator Warren. "He had to re-nominate him three times over three years before the Senate finally confirmed him. When he was sworn in, Judge Chen said that despite the obstruction that he faced during this time, he never even considered withdrawing from consideration... because, ‘the federal bench is not just for people from large corporate law firms, or who represent only the wealthy, or who never speak out, or play it safe in their careers.'"

A video of the entire event is available here.

http://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=351

Didn't see the OP when I posted this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024454784

Elizabeth Warren: We Need to Stop Packing the Courts With Corporate Judges

—By Erika Eichelberger

On Thursday morning, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on President Barack Obama to nominate more judges to the federal bench who have backgrounds serving the public interest instead of corporate America.

Of Obama's judicial nominations so far, just ten—fewer than four percent—have worked as lawyers at public interest organizations, according to a report released Thursday by the Alliance for Justice, a network of civil rights organizations. Only 10 nominees have had experience representing workers in labor disputes. Eighty-five percent have been either corporate attorneys or prosecutors. At an event Thursday sponsored by several civil rights organizations, including the Brennan Center for Justice and the Alliance for Justice, Warren called for more balance in the system.

"Power is becoming more and more concentrated on one side," she said. "Well-financed corporate interests line up to fight for their own privileges and resist any change that would limit corporate excess… We have an opportunity to…fight for something that balances the playing field in the other direction."

Warren noted that now is the perfect time to take up that fight. Obstruction by Senate Republicans has stalled the confirmation of many of the president's judicial nominees over the years. More federal judgeships remained vacant during Obama's first term than during President George W. Bush's, and there are still more than 50 vacancies on the federal bench that need to be filled. "So it's unsurprising that the president and a majority of the Senate gravitated to nominating corporate lawyers…that most conservative senators could not object to," Warren said. In November, however, the Senate voted to put an end to GOP obstruction by ending the filibuster for judicial nominations. Now it only takes a simple majority of the Senate to confirm nominees to the federal bench. Theoretically, that means that Obama can nominate progressive candidates with experience representing the average American, and Democrats will be able to confirm those nominees without any Republican votes.

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http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/02/elizabeth-warren-judicial-nominations-brennan-center

Video of Senator Warren's speech: http://www.brennancenter.org/broadening-the-bench

The AFJ report is packed full of statistics.

BROADENING THE BENCH: Professional Diversity and Judicial Nominations

<...>

So far in 2014, the outlook on nominations is bright. With his first judicial nominations of the year, President Obama has already taken a positive step toward increasing professional diversity. On January 16, the President nominated four lawyers to fill district court vacancies in Illinois, Washington, Missouri, and Nevada. All four have professional backgrounds that are currently underrepresented among federal judges: two have substantial plaintiff-side trial experience, one is a former public defender, and one is a state court judge who was previously a solo practitioner focused on criminal defense.9 With just under three years left in President Obama’s Administration, there will be ample opportunity to turn these promising nominations into the norm, rather than the exception.

II. Current Statistics: Professional Diversity and President Obama’s Judicial Nominees

This section sets forth comprehensive professional diversity statistics for President Obama’s judicial nominations, divided into five parts: (A) civil public interest and public service advocacy; (B) criminal law; (C) private practice; (D) state and federal judges; and (E) overall professional diversity statistics.

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http://www.afj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Professional-Diversity-Report-020514.pdf

AFJ Report: Senate rules reform opens the door to more professional diversity among federal judges
http://www.afj.org/press-room/press-releases/afj-report-senate-rules-reform-opens-the-door-to-more-professional-diversity-among-federal-judges