Red State Trial Court Picks Advanced by Senate Judiciary Panel

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced two Texas trial court picks as the Biden administrations seeks to fill red state vacancies.

Ernest Gonzalez and Leon Schydlower, both nominated for the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, were approved with bipartisan support by the committee narrowly controlled by Democrats. The Western District, which includes Austin and El Paso, has a shortage of judges.

Gonzalez was a long time assistant US attorney before joining the Justice Department’s Narcotics and Dangerous Drug unit, and Schydlower is a US magistrate judge. They’re Biden’s second and third nominees to trial courts in Texas who’ve seen a smooth confirmation process. The Senate confirmed Biden’s first trial court nominee in the state, John Kazen, to the Southern District of Texas in January.

The recent picks are nominated to fill vacancies considered “judicial emergencies,” or vacancies that increase the work for the remaining judges. The Western District of Texas, a court that sits near the U.S.-Mexico border, has “an enormous criminal docket,” Schydlower, who’s been a US magistrate judge for the court for eight years, said during his confirmation hearing.

Texas, along with Florida, have had the most trial court vacancies among states led by two Republican senators. The White House turned its focus to these vacancies in 2023, after spending much of Biden’s term so far filling blue state seats.

Also Thursday, the panel advanced Ann Marie McIff Allen for the District of Utah; Susan Bazis for the District of Nebraska; Kelly Rankin for the District of Wyoming; and Robin Meriweather for the US Court of Federal Claims with bipartisan support.

Allen, Bazis, Rankin, and both Texas nominees were backed by their Republican home state senators, whose support is required in order for the trial court nominations to advance in the Senate.