Schiff casts first Judiciary vote as Democrats round out Biden appointments

WASHINGTON (CN) — Hot on the heels of his swearing-in ceremony, California Senator Adam Schiff on Thursday joined the Senate Judiciary Committee to cast his first vote for federal judicial appointees — coincidentally, the last such vote planned for this Congress.

Schiff, who was elected in November to fill the seat left vacant by the late Democratic lawmaker Dianne Feinstein, received a warm welcome from members of the upper chamber’s legal affairs panel.

“I’m really honored to be on the committee,” he told his new colleagues. “I’m only glad the committee isn’t bigger, because if it was, I’d be sitting on the ground,” he quipped, referring to his seat right at the end of the Judiciary Committee’s curved dais.

Schiff added that he was proud to fill the shoes of Feinstein, who he called a “dear friend and mentor” and a “giant” in the Senate.

Lawmakers also had words of praise for former Senator Laphonza Butler, who was tapped to serve on the Judiciary Committee after Feinstein died in September 2023. Committee chair Senator Dick Durbin said that Butler “rose to the occasion” as the late senator’s replacement and that she was a valued member of the panel.

Schiff’s addition to the committee, though, came as Democrats prepare to hand the Judiciary gavel over to Republicans. Thursday’s business meeting was the last one scheduled for this Congress, and Democrats’ final opportunity to advance President Joe Biden’s remaining judicial nominees before January.

Durbin, set to give up his chairmanship, reflected during the meeting on his time as panel head.

“This may be the busiest committee in the Senate,” he said, pointing out that the Judiciary Committee has advanced 373 presidential nominees to the full chamber, including 242 federal court appointments.

Durbin thanked the committee ranking member, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, for his partnership in leading the Judiciary committee, and offered a plea for bipartisanship to the incoming panel chairman, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.

“Working with you has, for the most part, been a pleasure,” Durbin said of Graham “I hope that we can continue to work on a mutually bipartisan basis under Chairman Grassley.”

Graham, for his part, said he was looking forward to working under Grassley and a Republican majority next Congress.

“On our side of the aisle, Americans have turned the page politically, and the burden falls on all of us to do the best we can within the confines of where we come from and our political views of how the Judiciary Committee should operate,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced its last slate of Biden judicial nominees: Benjamin Cheeks, nominated to the Southern District of California, and Serena Murillo, tapped by the White House to fill a vacancy on the Central District of California.

Both nominees were favorably reported to the full Senate on 11-10 party line votes.

With no further committee votes scheduled, several of the White House’s pending nominees may not get a shot at confirmation, including Sarah Netburn, selected to join the Southern District of New York. Netburn, currently a magistrate judge in the same court, failed to advance out of the Judiciary Committee in July after a prominent defection by Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff.

Ossoff, a Democrat, refused to back the nominee after Republicans on the committee raised concerns about her decision record. Lawmakers pointed to Netburn’s recommendation in a 2022 case that an incarcerated transgender woman be moved from a men’s prison to a women’s prison. Republicans argued that her recommendation, which was adopted by a federal court and supported by prison officials, put incarcerated women in danger.

The Georgia senator cast the deciding vote against sending Netburn’s nomination to the Senate floor, telling Courthouse News at the time that he had concerns about the “wisdom” of her recommendation. Ossoff has long been a proponent of civil rights in prisons and supported a bill earlier this year hiking oversight on federal prisons.

The lawmaker has as recently as last month refused to say whether he had changed his mind about voting for Netburn — though it now appears that he will not get another opportunity to go on record.

Senate Democrats have been in a dead sprint to confirm as many of Biden’s judicial nominees as possible before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. As it stands, they are on track to surpass the 234 judicial confirmations Trump racked up in his first term in office.

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