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Norton Thanks Senators Johnson and Carper for Committee Confirmation of Three D.C. Superior Court Nominees

April 25, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today thanked the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) for voting to confirm three D.C. Superior Court nominees—Julie H. Becker, Steven N. Berk, and Elizabeth C. Wingo. Upon the confirmation of these latest nominees by the Senate, a total of seven Superior Court nominees will have been confirmed this Congress, the first local judges confirmed since 2013.

“I am grateful to the committee for working to ensure our local court is fully staffed,” Norton said. “I hope the Senate will move just as quickly to confirm this latest group of highly-qualified nominees to the Superior Court.”

Norton emphasized that the D.C. judges are the District’s only trial and appellate judges, and as Article I judges, they have to be confirmed by the Senate. Before the Revitalization Act of 1997, the District paid for the D.C. Courts, even though the judges were nominated by the president.

The D.C. courts, which consist of the Superior Court and the Court of Appeals, adjudicate local criminal and civil matters. The Home Rule Act of 1973 established the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission (JNC), whose members are appointed by D.C. and federal government officials. The JNC makes three recommendations to the president for each vacancy on the D.C. courts, and the president appoints, with the advice and consent of the Senate, one of the three.