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Norton Says Sharp Questioning by Republican Senator Casts Doubt that Unqualified D.C. District Court Nominee Will Get Through

December 15, 2017

Trump Has Nominated All White Nominees to Serve on D.C. District Court, Highlighting Larger Trend of Lack of Diversity

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that yesterday's confirmation hearing for Matthew Petersen to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where Peterson could not answer basic questions about federal legal procedure, shows the peril of avoiding the vetting process involving District of Columbia residents in nominating D.C. federal judges. Norton said that if she had blue-slip authority, as Senators do, Petersen would never have gotten to the hearing stage.

Presidents Obama and Clinton granted Norton senatorial courtesy to recommend to the president federal district judges, the U.S. Attorney, and other federal law enforcement officials who serve the District, resulting in the D.C. District Court becoming one of the most high-quality and diverse federal benches in the nation. She chose to form a Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission, comprised of distinguished lawyers and laypeople from every ward, chaired by Pauline Schneider, a former president of the D.C. Bar, to screen and recommend candidates to her, all of whom were D.C. residents. Norton then made her recommendations to the president, who nominated all of her selections. Unlike President George W. Bush, who extended her at least the courtesy of consultation, Trump has not provided Norton with any role in the nomination of federal district court judges and federal law enforcement officials in the District. However, after Norton protested, her office worked with the offices of Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and committee member Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) to require all D.C. district court nominees to meet with Norton before their committee votes.

Norton also said that all four nominees to the D.C. Court have been white, in stark contrast to the ten nominees (four African Americans, including two African American women, one Hispanic, and the first-ever Asian American) confirmed to the D.C. Court under President Obama, all recommended by Norton after a rigorous vetting process by her Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission. Nationwide, as of the end of October, 91.2 percent of Trump's judicial nominees have been white, while President Clinton's nominees were 72.4 percent white, President Bush's were 85.5 percent white and President Obama's were 50.0 percent white through the same point of their first terms. Norton, who is chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Judicial Nomination Working Group, will host a CBC roundtable to discuss the lack of diversity and, in some cases, lack of qualifications, of President Trump's nominees for the federal bench Tuesday, January 9, 2018, at 3:30 p.m., in 2253 Rayburn House Office Building.

"There is zero chance that a nominee without qualifications and experience, such as Matthew Petersen, could have made it through the process my Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission used to vet candidates for me to recommend to the president," Norton said. "This latest nomination highlights the inequality D.C. faces by not having senatorial courtesy. Petersen was nominated not because he has the necessary qualifications, but due to his close ties to White House Counsel Donald McGahn, who served as a Federal Election Commissioner alongside Petersen. The nomination of four white nominees to the D.C. District Court continues the Trump administration's failure to give any attention to the need for diversity on the federal bench. I would be more than happy to convene our nominating commission to gather names of qualified candidates to submit to the White House."

Half of the six Senate-confirmed district court nominees this year were for the D.C. district court. Norton said the high volume of D.C. district court confirmations shows that the Trump Administration and Senate Republicans are fast-tracking D.C. nominees due to the District's lack of Senate representation.