White House Counters Senator Complaints on Nominee Consultation

The White House is pushing back on complaints from Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) that he wasn’t consulted about the nomination of the state’s first American Indian federal judge.

Daines said this week that the path forward for Danna Jackson’s nomination is “uncertain” since he wasn’t contacted in advance of the announcement on April 24.

“Danna Jackson interviewed with Senator Daines’ staff in October 2023—seven months before her nomination,” a White House official said in an emailed statement. “The Senator’s office was aware that Jackson was being vetted well before she was nominated.”

Jackson, the tribal attorney for the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, would be Joe Biden’s fifth American-Indian appointee to the Article III courts if confirmed. The Montana US trial court is one of roughly a quarter of federal district courts that have never had a non-White judge.

Under current Senate practice, district court nominees require support from both home-state senators to move forward in the chamber.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has stood by the “blue slip” requirement despite calls from progressives to do away with it and accelerate the confirmation of judges in states with Republican senators.

Montana’s Democratic senator, Jon Tester, said that Daines was asked for roughly 18 months to put forward potential contenders for the judgeship. Judge Dana L. Christensen’s decision in December 2022 to assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor created the vacancy.

The White House official said “Jackson is both willing and interested in meeting with Senator Daines, but to date, his office has yet to take us up on that offer.”