Biden announces new round of judicial nominees

President Biden announced a new round of judicial nominees Thursday as the White House and Senate Democrats continue to push judges through the confirmation process at a rapid pace.

The three federal and one local D.C. judicial picks make up the president’s sixth round of nominees since his inauguration. 

The slate includes Beth Robinson, a justice on the Vermont Supreme Court whom Biden is nominating to sit on the powerful New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Robinson has been on Vermont’s highest court since 2011 and is the first openly LGBT justice to hold a seat there. 

Biden also nominated Mary Katherine Dimke to be a district court judge for the Eastern District of Washington, where she currently serves as a magistrate judge after multiple stints as a federal prosecutor.

Charlotte Sweeney, an employment law attorney in Denver, was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. If confirmed, Sweeney would be the first openly LGBT judge on the court.

Biden announced he would be nominating John P. Howard III for the D.C. Court of Appeals, the capital’s equivalent of a state supreme court. Howard is currently an administrative law judge with the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings.

The Senate has so far confirmed eight of Biden’s more than 30 judicial nominees, and on Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced five more for final floor votes.