Bridget Bade Up Next in Trump Wave of Appeals Court Judges
Published in Bloomberg Law
The Senate has scheduled a vote next week on a procedural motion to end debate on the nomination of Magistrate Judge Bridget Bade to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Bade would be the fourth of Trump’s appointees to the San Francisco-based court, which he’s criticized as being too liberal after rulings against him in highly publicized immigration controversies.
Three others are in the Ninth Circuit pipeline as part of a drive by Trump and the Republican-led Senate to reshape the judiciary with conservatives. Thirty-six of Trump circuit nominees have been confirmed so far, six this year.
Bade has served at the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona since 2012. She was an assistant U.S. attorney and worked as special counsel at Steptoe & Johnson in Phoenix.
Although she’ll likely receive some support across the aisle, Senate Democrats complained about the decision by Judiciary Committee Republicans to hold her confirmation hearing during a Senate recess. The hearing was attended by only two GOP members, and no Democrats.
Despite her clerkship for conservative Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones from 1990 to 1991, Bade has drawn far less criticism than Miller and other Trump nominees attacked for being too conservative.