Republican Senator Blocks Biden Nominee for Miami Trial Court

A Florida Republican senator is withholding his support for Joe Biden’s nominee to be the second Black woman on the Miami-based US trial court.

Sen. Rick Scott said that the White House didn’t properly consult him before the administration announced plans to nominate Detra Shaw-Wilder to the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, according to a Scott spokesperson.

“Until they work with us, I’m not moving forward,” Scott told the Miami Herald in a May 29 interview.

Scott said that he and the White House have had “good faith consultation” on four other judicial nominees, including to the Miami trial court and the Orlando-based Middle District of Florida, and two US attorney nominees.

“In this case, they decided not to do that,” he said. “Until they work with us, I’m not moving forward.”

The White House pushed back on Scott’s complaint.

The senator’s staffers interviewed Shaw-Wilder roughly two years ago, according to White House spokesperson Andrew Bates, and Scott interviewed her in January 2023. Fellow Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s judicial nominating commission had recommended Shaw-Wilder.

“If that’s not consultation, then what is?” Bates said in a statement.

Withholding Support

Beyond Shaw-Wilder, both Scott and Rubio have both recently vowed not to support any Biden judicial nominees. The two are among a coalition of Republican senators that said in a May 31 open letter that they won’t vote to confirm the administration’s political and judicial appointees, six months before Election Day.

That support is mandatory for nominations to district courts to advance in the Senate. The stance from the two Florida senators potentially leaves three trial court vacancies and the seat intended for Shaw-Wilder in the hands of a Republican president, should Biden lose his reelection bid. Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee.

Scott’s statement came a week after Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) cited a lack of consultation in announcing he wouldn’t submit a blue slip for Danna Jackson’s nomination to the US District Court for the US District Court for the District of Montana.

Jackson is the tribal attorney and a member of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, according to a Native American Rights Fund statementat the time of her nomination.

Shaw-Wilder’s confirmation would have fulfilled a “dying wish” by Southern District of Florida Judge Marcia Cooke that she be replaced by a Black woman, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) said in a release. Cooke, who died of cancer in 2023, was the first Black woman to serve on the court.