Schumer urges Biden to tap voting rights experts for N.Y. judgeships amid escalating election fight
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged President Biden on Monday to tap a couple of prominent voting rights attorneys for federal judgeships in New York, signaling Democrats are hoping to bring the national battle over election access into the judicial arena amid partisan gridlock in Congress.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he first wants Biden to nominate Myrna Perez, the director of New York University Law School’s voting rights and elections program, for an open seat on the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Manhattan.
Dale Ho, the director of a similar program at the American Civil Liberties Union, should get the Biden nod for another opening on the federal court for the Southern District of New York, also based in Manhattan, Schumer said.
“Ms. Perez and Mr. Ho are two of the foremost voting rights experts in the country. With the national focus on voting rights right now, their elevation is timely. Their perspective will be invaluable,” Schumer said.
The recommendations come as Senate Republicans appear likely to later this month block passage of the “For the People Act,” a Democratic bill that would drastically expand voting rights on a federal level at a time when GOP legislators are enacting laws to make it harder to vote in several key battleground states.
In picking Ho and Perez, Democrats are hoping to provide a judicial counterweight to such voting restrictions, which are mainly being implemented by lawmakers inspired by former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
Perez would also be the first Hispanic woman to serve on the federal appeals court in Manhattan since Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor left the panel in 2009.
As Senate majority leader and New York’s top congressional Democrat, Schumer’s recommendations carry significant weight. The Democrat-controlled Senate, meantime, is likely to confirm any judicial nominations passed on by Biden, putting Ho and Perez on a glide path to their new jobs.
Last month, Schumer also recommended Biden nominate Eunice Lee, a public defender in New York, for another opening on the federal appeals court in Manhattan.
In his floor remarks Monday, Schumer said Lee, as well as Ho and Perez, would provide sorely needed diversity to the federal judiciary.
“Diversity on the federal bench is very important to me, both demographic diversity and diversity of experience,” he said. “The courts have long been packed with former prosecutors and corporate lawyers. It’s about time that civil rights attorneys, voting rights attorneys and federal defenders start getting the nod.”
Progressive judicial advocates hailed Schumer’s latest recommendations.
“There could not be a more fitting moment to elevate two of the nation’s top voting rights lawyers to the federal bench,” said Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice. “With his recommendations to the Biden administration so far, Chuck Schumer is showing a truly impressive commitment to diversifying the ranks of federal judges.”
