AZ Attorney blog, May 8, 2012

http://azatty.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/arizona-lawyers-among-those-who-advocate-on-judicial-vacancies/

Yesterday, approximately 150 lawyers and other legal leaders traveled to Washington DC to speak on the need to fill judicial vacancies. Some Arizona lawyers participated in the event on Capitol Hill and at the White House.

As the BLT Blog reported: [etc]

And here is a release we received regarding the local attorneys and their trip East:

Arizona Community Leaders, Legal Experts and Advocates to Meet with White House On Judicial Vacancy Crisis

WASHINGTON, DC – Four Arizona community leaders, advocates and legal experts will travel to the nation’s capital on Monday, May 7, to meet with White House officials about the vacancy crisis in America’s federal courts. Nationwide, one in nine federal judgeships are vacant. Nearly one out of every ten federal judgeships remains vacant, and 250 million Americans live in a community with a courtroom vacancy.

Arizona’s courts are reeling from two judicial emergencies while Senators McCain and Kyl refuse to allow a hearing on nominee Rosemary Márquez, a former Pima County Public Defender and former assistant federal public defender.

Even worse, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which serves the entire West, has three nominees who have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and are waiting for a floor vote – Paul Watford, Andrew David Hurwitz, and Jacqueline Nguyen.

Local invitees to the White House meeting include:

• Lou Hollingsworth, Partner, Hollingsworth Kelly
• Stan Lubin, Member, American Constitution Society Judicial Nominations Task Force
• Nick Enoch, Member, American Constitution Society Judicial Nominations Task Force
• Patty Ferguson, National President, National Native American Bar Association

They will join approximately 150 individuals from 27 states in a day of discussions with White House staff. A deal between Senate Republicans and Democrats to allow judicial nominations to proceed in the Senate expires May 7th, and the advocates are urging the Senate to hold final up-or-down votes on all pending nominees.

After the White House meeting, participants will visit the offices of Senators McCain and Kyl to urge them to work to end the delays that have plagued the Senate confirmation process since the beginning of the Obama presidency.

Political and government coverage from NewsOK Posted by Chris Casteel on May 7, 2012M at 3:44 pm

http://blog.newsok.com/politics/2012/05/07/oklahomans-urge-action-on-federal-judicial-nominees/

Three prominent Oklahomans visited the White House and Capitol Hill on Monday to urge Senate confirmation of federal judicial nominees. The process of approving judges to the federal bench often slows in the months leading up to a presidential election as lawmakers from the party out of power sometimes stall action in hopes that they’ll win the White House and get a chance to replace the nominees with their own.

Former U.S. Attorney Dan Webber, former Seminole Nation Chief Enoch Kelly Haney and Jeremy Aliason, executive director of the National Native American Bar Association, went first to the White House to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler about the vacancy rate.

They then went to Capitol Hill to meet with representatives from the offices of Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, and Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa.

The Oklahoma senators have cleared two nominees from the state for a hearing: Robert E. Bacharach, a federal magistrate judge in Oklahoma City who has been nominated for a seat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and John E. Dowdell, a Tulsa attorney who has been nominated for a U.S. district judgeship in Tulsa.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday that includes a look at Bacharach and Dowdell.

Webber said the Oklahomans asked that the senators be pro-active in pushing for full Senate action on the Oklahoma nominees if they are approved by the committee.

Webber said Haney also advocated at the White House for more Native American nominees for positions around the country.

Tribal Law Updates, May 8, 2012

http://tlpi.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/narf-joins-with-other-national-organizations-to-call-for-end-to-judicial-vacancy-crisis/

Yesterday the  Native American Rights Fund (NARF) joined with 28 other national organizations to call for an immediate end to the persistent and destructive obstruction of judicial nominees in the United States Senate.  The joint statement released by NARF and others reads as follows:

Regardless of where you live or what issues you care about, all Americans deserve a judiciary that works for them.  Today’s White House briefing with community leaders, legal experts and advocates for an effective judiciary is an unequivocal statement about that priority.

Recent cases demonstrate that no matter the issue – health care, immigration, marriage equality, workers’ rights, employment discrimination, environmental regulation, privacy, and ethics – the courts will continue to play an increasingly important role in the lives of hardworking Americans. But the courts can’t function without judges.  Unprecedented obstruction by a minority in the Senate has left the nation with 96 current and future vacancies on the federal courts, leading to a substantial backlog of cases that undermines our system of justice and makes it impossible for most Americans to have their case heard in a timely manner.

It’s troubling to realize that, more than four months into 2012, the Senate has voted only on nominees who were pending on the Senate floor last year and eligible for a confirmation vote in 2011.  Today, in fact, marks the first time this year that the Senate is scheduled to vote on nominees who were not pending in 2011.

This vacancy crisis, which has left 250 million Americans living in communities with unstaffed federal courtrooms, must end, and the confirmation process must not be allowed to be slowed even further by election-year politics.  We believe that every nominee submitted by the President this year deserves a yes-or-no vote confirmation vote.  Together, we will continue to fight for a fair judiciary and stand with the American people to ensure they have timely access qualified judges to hear their disputes and have their day in court.

Signed,

• Alliance for Justice
• American Association for Justice
• American Constitution Society for Law and Policy
• American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
• Asian American Justice Center, member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice
• Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
• Center for American Progress
• Communication Workers of America (CWA)
• Compassion & Choices
• Constitutional Accountability Center
• Defenders of Wildlife
• Hispanics for a Fair Judiciary
• Hispanic National Bar Association
• Human Rights Campaign
• The Justice at Stake Campaign
• Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
• League of United Latin American Citizens
• NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.
• National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA)
• National Bar Association
• National Congress of American Indians
• National Council of Jewish Women
• National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA)
• National Partnership for Women & Families
• National Women’s Law Center
• Native American Rights Fund
• People For the American Way
• Union for Reformed Judaism

 Fundamental Knowledge & Skills for Tribal Court Judges – April 24-26, 2012

This training will cover the basic skills required for conducting trials.  Topics include: courtroom management; basic evidentiary rulings; ethics and demeanor; due process; equal protection; sentencing; and other substantive law.  Breakout sessions and demonstrations will be conducted to provide opportunities for judges to practice and receive feedback.  New judges who complete this course will be able to conduct criminal trials from start to finish; will understand the responsibilities and protections under the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA); and will gain an understanding of the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 (TLOA).   Experienced judges will enhance their courtroom skills.

Registration Deadline:   April 18, 2012

Attached is the registration form. There is no cost to register.

Please fax your completed form to: (505) 277-1035 or email it to: begay@law.unm.edu

Training Site: BIA’s National Indian Program Center (NIPC),

1011 Indian School Rd. NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Registration Form