Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Five Nominees for Consideration by Full Senate

WASHINGTON – Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced five nominations for consideration by the full Senate.

“Our Committee continues to advance highly qualified nominees to the federal bench, resulting in a confirmation pace ahead of both the Trump and Obama administrations. I thank the ten home state Senators for collaborating with the White House to identify the judicial and Executive nominees that we advanced today, including Republican Senators Young, Braun, Cornyn, Cruz, Lee, and Romney. By working together, we can continue to fill vacancies and help ensure a fair justice system for America,” said U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Additionally, Durbin provided remarks at the top of the hearing to highlight the importance of good faith collaboration between home state Senators and the White House to identify nominees to fill “judicial emergencies” as identified by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO). A full list of the AO-identified judicial emergencies, consistently updated, can be found here.

“We have 23 judicial emergencies overall. These are situations that I want to highlight for the Committee. We have got to make these our priority. They’re situations where the courts are not functioning properly because of workload, and this is not my judgment – it is the judgment of the Administrator of the Courts. I want to make this a priority in red and blue states,” said Durbin.

The following nominees advanced by voice vote. All other nominees on the agenda were held over for further consideration, standard by Committee rules.

• Matthew P. Brookman, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Indiana;

• Damien M. Diggs, to be United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas;

• Stephen K. Eberle, to be United States Marshal for the Western District of Pennsylvania;

• Justin L. Martinez, to be United States Marshal for the District of Utah; and

• Roy W. Minter, to be United States Marshal for the Southern District of Georgia.

An archived video of today’s hearing can be found here.

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