More Biden judges will be confirmed, but four appeals court nominees won’t see a vote under Senate deal
CNN
Senate leaders have reached a deal that will smooth the path for Democrats to confirm several of President Joe Biden’s district court nominees, averting Republican procedural tactics that significantly slowed down the process, in exchange for ending efforts to confirm four pending appeals court nominees.
Senate leaders have reached a deal that will smooth the path for Democrats to confirm several of President Joe Biden’s district court nominees, averting Republican procedural tactics that significantly slowed down the process, in exchange for ending efforts to confirm four pending appeals court nominees. Liberal court activists are already bashing the agreement, reached late Wednesday night, for how it will aid President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to pick up on his makeover of federal circuit courts when he returns to the White House. However, the four Biden appellate nominees already faced tough odds of confirmation, with some, like 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Adeel Mangi, facing opposition among Democrats as well. “The trade was four circuit nominees — all lacking the votes to get confirmed — for more than triple the number of additional judges moving forward,” a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. The deal comes after Trump called for Republicans to do everything they could to stop the Democratic-led Senate from confirming Biden’s remaining judicial nominees before the change of party control in Washington next year. Even when they haven’t had the numbers to block Biden picks outright, Republicans have employed various floor maneuvers that greatly increased the amount of time the Senate had to spend on each of the pending nominees. Not counting the four Biden picks that, under the Senate’s agreement, will not come up for a vote, there are about 14 judicial nominees – all of them for district courts – in the pipeline, though two of them are still going through the committee process.
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A California woman told police that Trump Cabinet pick Pete Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” a police report obtained by CNN shows.
For more than a decade, Chinese students have flocked to the United States, drawn by the prestige of an overseas education and the glamor of the American Dream. But that’s changing now – and recent statistics suggest the allure may be wearing off.
After rarely being seen in public in the two weeks since he delivered a brief, 46-second victory speech on election night, JD Vance reemerged this week to play one of the most important roles he will be expected to fill as Donald Trump’s No. 2: His point person on Capitol Hill.
A Florida man was arrested Wednesday and charged in a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange this week, according to the FBI.
The Senate on Wednesday voted down an effort led by Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to block a series of planned US weapons sales to Israel.
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A former University of Virginia student pleaded guilty Wednesday to fatally shooting three football players and wounding two other students on the Charlottesville campus in 2022.
Donald Trump is considering a right-wing media personality and people who have served on his US Secret Service detail to run the agency that has been plagued by its failure to preempt two alleged assassination attempts on Trump this summer, sources familiar with the president-elect’s thinking tell CNN.
The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that called for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, on the grounds it would not have secured the release of hostages.