04.14.17

Senators Cantwell and Murray Reaffirm Bipartisan Choices for Western District Vacancies

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Today, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA)and Patty Murray (D-WA) released the following statements after forwarding the candidates selected by Washington state’s bipartisan judicial selection committee to the Trump Administration:

Senator Cantwell: “This bipartisan judicial selection committee is so important to our judicial system. It helps ensure an independent, bottom-up process to identify qualified, mainstream judicial nominees. I hope President Trump will continue to use our bipartisan process and nominate one of these highly qualified candidates selected by this committee to reflect the voice and values of our state.”

Senator Murray: “On Wednesday I talked to White House Counsel Don McGahn about the urgent need to fill the vacancies on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, as well the importance and strong history of our state’s bipartisan judicial selection process. I reminded him that the bipartisan selection process that Senator Cantwell, Rep. Reichert, and I set up in 2015 to fill these vacancies had already done the work of screening candidates and had come up with a list of five highly qualified candidates that were sent to the previous Administration.  Per his request, I followed up today to reaffirm the list of highly qualified candidates that had been selected by our bipartisan committee.  I am glad that this Administration is taking steps to continue this important bipartisan process, and I look forward to the President nominating judges from our bipartisan list as quickly as possible.”

About the Bipartisan Selection Process: Following long-standing Washington state tradition, and in order to ensure a bipartisan process to fill vacant seats on the federal courts, Sens. Murray and Cantwell joined Rep. Reichert in July of 2015 to create a new judicial selection committee to evaluate interested candidates. The committee, comprised of three Democrats and three Republicans from Western Washington, screened potential candidates and presented its choice of the most highly-qualified to Murray and Cantwell, who then forwarded the names to President Obama. The committee members included Jenny Durkan, John Wolfe, Ian J. Warner, Mike McKay, Rob McKenna, and Mack L. Hogans. 

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