The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed two judges to sit on the U.S. District Court in Atlanta, filling vacancies that had been dubbed judicial emergencies and had been left open for more than two years.
The Senate gave final approval, without opposition, to Atlanta lawyer Amy Totenberg and Judge Steve Jones from Athens, both of whom President Barack Obama had to renominate this year.
Georgia's two Republican senators applauded the votes. Saxby Chambliss called Jones "an exceptional lawyer and person" and Totenberg "a smart, accomplished attorney." Johnny Isakson said the confirmations "will bring much-needed relief.”
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, said both confirmations took much longer than they should have, "especially because the nominees were well-qualified and noncontroversial, were overwhelmingly confirmed and the [Atlanta court] desperately needed to have the vacancies filled so that it could deliver justice."
Totenberg and Jones were unanimously approved last year by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but when the full Senate did not vote on them before the Congress adjourned in December, their nomination process had to start anew this year. Once again, the panel unanimously approved them.
Before the vote, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, laid some of the blame on the White House, noting Obama took more than a year to nominate Totenberg and more than a year and a half to nominate Jones after the two vacancies opened up in December 2008.
The busy federal court in Atlanta is allotted 11 judges. Before Monday, it had four vacancies, three that had been designated as "emergencies" -- based on the age of the vacancy and the caseloads -- by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Last year, the number of pending cases in the court totaled 4,363, up from 3,726 in 2008, court statistics show.
Totenberg is a former part-time Atlanta Municipal Court judge and Atlanta Board of Education general counsel. More recently, she served as a private mediator and arbitrator. She is the sister of Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio's legal affairs correspondent. Jones is a former assistant district attorney and Municipal Court judge. Since 1995, he has been a Superior Court judge, hearing cases in Clarke and Oconee counties.
In January, Obama nominated federal defender Natasha Perdew Silas and U.S. Magistrate Linda Walker to fill the remaining vacancies on the court.
Obama also has two vacancies to fill on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which hears federal cases from Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Judge Stanley Birch of Atlanta retired from the court in August, and Judge Susan Black of Jacksonville took senior status on Friday.
The White House has begun vetting Daisy Floyd, who served as dean of Mercer University's law school in Macon from 2004 to 2010, as a possible nominee to take Birch's seat, according to lawyers familiar with the nominating process. Floyd, who did not return phone calls seeking comment, continues to teach at Mercer as a law professor. A White House spokeswoman on Monday declined to comment.
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