March 12, 2014
Fierce Democratic Critic Of Obama Judicial Pick Praises Latest Choice For Bench
BuzzFeed
Evan McMorris-Santoro
WASHINGTON — The recent icy relations between a Democratic representative and President Obama over a nominee for the federal bench in Georgia are starting to thaw after Obama announced Leslie Joyce Abrams, an assistant U.S. attorney and the sister of a prominent Democratic state lawmaker, as his pick for another empty slot on the Georgia district court.
“She should be fine and a step in the right direction,” said a senior aide to Rep. David Scott, the Democrat locked in a war of words with the White House over another Obama nominee to the Georgia court, Michael Boggs.
If approved by the Senate, Abrams would be the first African American woman on the federal bench in Georgia.
Abrams’ sister is Stacey Abrams, the leader of the Democrats in the Georgia state House. Her nomination was announced late Tuesday afternoon and the aide to Scott said the representative hasn’t had “a lot of chance to vet” her.
But the initial take is positive, and there are signs the White House is trying to get Scott back on the president’s good side. The aide to the representative said the White House gave Scott “a little heads up” on the nomination before it was announced.
The aide said Scott had no role in Abrams being selected.
Scott has been the most vocal opponent of Boggs, a former Georgia Democratic lawmaker singled out by progressives, LGBT rights groups, civil rights advocates, and NARAL for his political positions in the state legislature.
The fight between Scott at least and the White House has become pretty nasty, with the representative accusing Obama of “disrespect” with the Boggs nomination, leading the Obama administration to offer up White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler for a rare interview to defend the pick.
It’s not clear if the other critics of the Boggs nomination share Scott’s sentiments about Abrams. NARAL, the leader of the progressive coalition opposing Boggs in the Senate, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Obama Taps Atlanta Federal Prosecutor for Albany Judgeship
R. Robin McDonald, Daily Report
March 12, 2014
An assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta was nominated by the White House late today for a federal judgeship in Albany.
The White House nominated Leslie Joyce Abrams to the post vacated by retiring U.S. District Judge Louis Sands. Albany is in the Middle District of Georgia.
Abrams' sister is Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, the minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives.
Leslie Abrams could not be reached for comment. But her sister told the Daily Report after the announcement, "I'm very proud of her. I think she will make an excellent judge. She is thoughtful and brilliant and fair-minded."
"Leslie has had a long commitment to public service and to justice and she believes that the court system is essential to guarantee each citizen the full measure of their rights."
At the U.S. attorney's office, in addition to her trial work, Leslie Abrams developed and implemented U.S. Attorney Sally Yates' community outreach efforts in crime prevention, prisoner re-entry and violent crime reduction.
Previously, Abrams worked as a litigation associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, MeagherFlom in Washington from 2003 to 2006 and again from 2007 to 2010. From 2006 to 2007, she worked as an associate at Kilpatrick Stockton in Atlanta.
Abrams began her legal career serving as a law clerk for Judge Marvin J. Garbis of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. She received her law degree in 2002 from Yale Law School and her B.A. in 1997 from Brown University.
Stacey Abrams said that her sister had been under consideration for a nomination to the bench in the Northern District of Georgia, where she has practiced as an assistant U.S. attorney since 2010 and where there are three open seats on the bench.
But her name was not included as part of a deal the White House struck with Georgia's two Republican U.S. senators last fall. That deal included nominations for Northern District seats of two candidates who were placed in their current judgeships by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal: Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs, who hails from the Southern District of Georgia, and DeKalb County State Court Judge Eleanor Ross.
That slate has been criticized by liberal and Democratic groups because Ross is the only black candidate in the group, because Boggs took very conservative positions as a state legislator and because another nominee, Mark Cohen, defended the state’s voter identification law.
Abrams' nomination is the third in Georgia in which the Obama White House has nominated candidates from one federal district to a judicial post in another federal district.
During the president's first term, he nominated Judge Steve Jones—then an Athens superior court judge in the Middle District—to a spot on the Northern District bench. Boggs is from Waycross, in the Southern District.
Read more:
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Huffington Post
Democratic Critics Of Obama Judicial Nominee Unmoved By New Choice For Bench
Updated: 03/12/2014 8:59 pm EDT
Jen Bendery
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama has been fighting with members of his own party for months over a controversial judicial pick. But he appeared to make a peace offering with Tuesday's nomination of Leslie Abrams to serve as a federal district court judge in Georgia.
Abrams, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Georgia since 2010, would be the state's first black female judge if she's confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia -- a detail not lost on Georgia Democrats eager to boost their state's judicial diversity.
"The Abrams nomination is a good move in the right direction to fill the vacant judicial seats in Georgia," Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.). said Wednesday.
"I'm happy that this young lady, Ms. Abrams, was nominated to serve," said Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). "She's qualified, she's paid her dues and she'll make an excellent district court judge."
It's been a while since a Democrat has praised an Obama Georgia judicial pick. For months, the White House has been under fire from civil rights leaders, abortion rights groups and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community over an Obama district court nominee for Georgia, Michael Boggs. During his time as a state legislator, Boggs voted to keep the confederate insignia on the Georgia state flag, to tighten restrictions on access to abortion and to ban same-sex marriage.
Another of the president's Georgia judicial picks, Mark Cohen, has come under attack for successfully defending Georgia's voter ID law in court. But progressives have singled out Boggs as the big problem, and more than two dozen groups have appealed to Senate Democrats to sink his confirmation.
Neither Scott nor Johnson said Abrams' nomination would be enough to make them relax efforts to derail Boggs and Cohen.
"The focus on a couple of the earlier unacceptable nominations will not stop until they are denied lifetime appointments," said Scott.
"When it's all said and done, I only have one craw sticking at me," said Johnson. "That is the former legislator who showed his political leanings with his votes to not get rid of the Confederate emblem on Georgia's flag, to make it more difficult for women to get the health care they need, and also for his stand on the constitutional amendment stating that marriage was between a man and a woman."
NARAL Pro-Choice America, which has been actively lobbying the Senate to reject Boggs, also signaled that Obama's latest nomination won't affect its plans.
"This will not change our focus, which is defeating the nomination of Michael Boggs," said Samantha Gordon, the group's director of public affairs. "Boggs' proactive anti-choice record is extreme and out of step with the majority of Americans."
The White House is backing Boggs and Cohen because they're part of an all-or-nothing package of six judicial nominees that the president agreed to last year with Georgia's Republican senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson. Obama made major concessions in the deal -- four of the six nominees are GOP picks and just one is African-American. But the tradeoff for the White House is that other Democrat-backed nominees in the package can move forward after years of going nowhere.
Abrams isn't part of that package. But it's hard not to see her nomination as the White House trying to make nice with Democrats. A Chambliss aide said the White House didn't negotiate Abrams' nomination with Chambliss or Isakson, and neither senator had much to say about her when approached by The Huffington Post.
"I don't know her. I don't know her at all," Chambliss said. "We will follow the normal course of our review of her."
Isakson said he doesn't discuss judicial nominations, but said he'll put out a statement about Abrams at some point.
A White House aide did not respond to a request for comment.
For now, all eyes are on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has yet to schedule a hearing on any of the Georgia nominees. A committee aide said some paperwork remains unfinished.
Johnson said it's not too late for Obama to withdraw Boggs' nomination and replace him with someone else.
"That would hurt whatever agreement he had with the senators," Johnson said. "But I would not cry if the agreement was breached."
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Prosecutor tapped for U.S. judge’s post
AJC -
Obama makes pick amid turmoil over previous nominees.
By Daniel Malloy
WASHINGTON — Leslie Joyce Abrams, an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, was nominated by President Barack Obama on Tuesday for a federal District Court judge’s post in Middle Georgia — and thrust into a political quagmire over the state’s judicial nominees.
Georgia Democrats, civil rights leaders and liberal groups have attacked the White House for a package of six pending judicial nominees that was negotiated with the input of Georgia’s two Republican senators.
Abrams, the sister of state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, was not pre-cleared by U.S. Sens. Johnny Isak-son and Saxby Chambliss, who would need to give the go-ahead for her to be considered in committee under Senate custom.
It’s unclear whether the nomination will help thaw White House relations with Georgia Democrats, who were livid about being shut out of previous negotiations with the senators and also were not consulted in advance on the Abrams pick. They wanted more African-American judges and have griped about conservative aspects of two of the previous nominees’ records.
The White House and other supporters cast Abrams as a well-qualified choice. In addition to being the first female federal judge in the Middle District if confirmed, Abrams could become the first African-American female federal judge in the state if the nomination of DeKalb County State Court Judge Eleanor Ross fails as part of the disputed package.
Abrams has been a federal prosecutor for four years, participating in nearly 100 cases, ranging from sex crimes against children to bank fraud. She also did community outreach for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including a partnership with the Urban League. Before her time as a prosecutor, Abrams worked in civil and complex litigation with firms in Washington and Atlanta.
Ben Jealous, a former head of the NAACP, has known Leslie and Stacey Abrams since college. He recalled a case in Mississippi where Leslie Abrams’ work helped get a pardon for a juvenile who was charged with being a murder accomplice but was actually victimized by the killer.
“She also, quite frankly, has a range of experiences, from growing up the daughter of a librarian and a dock worker in southern Mississippi ... to attending some of the greatest law schools and universities in the country and working right at the top of the profession ever since,” Jealous said. “That really allows somebody to empathize and understand a wide range of people in our society and their predicaments and what justice should look like in their case.”
U.S. Rep. David Scott, an Atlanta Democrat, has been the chief congressional critic of the previous nominees. But Scott’s chief of staff, Michael Andel, praised Abrams: “She seems like a good solid pick.”
The previous nominees pending are Atlanta attorney Jill Pryor and District Court Judge Julie Carnes for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals; and Ross, state Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs, attorney Mark Cohen (former chief of staff for Gov. Zell Miller) and Atlanta attorney Leigh Martin May for the Northern District of Georgia.
Boggs, in particular, has been under attack for his positions in the state House on abortion, same-sex marriage and keeping the Confederate battle emblem on the Georgia flag.
Liberal groups are pushing Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Boggs’ nomination, which would likely torpedo the whole deal.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond Law school professor who closely tracks the judicial nominee process, said the Abrams nomination could be a “helpful distraction” from the other fight and could sneak through this year if the White House pushes for her.
As for the other six nominees, Tobias said, “I don’t see any way out of this mess.”