Momentum Continues with the Biden Administration’s Historic Slate of Judicial Nominees

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 23, 2024 – Fresh off the 201st judicial confirmation on Wednesday, today the Biden administration announced its 50th slate of judicial nominations. All four nominees are women, one is a sitting judge, and three are professionally diverse lawyers who have demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to equal justice.

Karla Campbell, nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Tennessee), is a labor lawyer who is Of Counsel at the labor, employment, and civil rights law firm of Stranch, Jennings, and Garvey. Before joining the firm, Campbell was a litigation attorney in Washington, D.C and clerked for Judge Jane Stranch of the Sixth Circuit, the judge whose seat she is nominated to.

Catherine Henry, nominated to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, is a senior litigator with the Federal Community Defenders Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where she has worked since 2002. She is also a Professor of Trial Advocacy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has been an adjunct professor in the Temple University School of Law Masters in Trial Advocacy Program. Before becoming a federal defender, she worked as an Assistant Defender in Philadelphia for five years.

Mary Kay Lanthier, nominated for the United States District Court for the District of Vermont, is a longtime public defender with more than 25 years of experience who serves as the supervising attorney in the Rutland County branch of the Office of the Defender General in Vermont. She is also an adjunct faculty at Vermont Law and Graduate School. She served in the past as chair of the Vermont Chapter of the American College of Trial Lawyers and is current treasurer for the Vermont Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Justice Julia Lipez, nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Maine), has served on the Oxford County Superior Court, the county trial court of general jurisdiction, since 2022. Before joining the bench, she worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and in private practice.

Alliance for Justice Vice President of Strategy, Keith Thirion, issued the following statement:

“At 201 judicial confirmations and counting, the Biden administration is not letting its foot off the gas. This new slate of judicial nominees shows the commitment the administration has made to filling the judiciary with exceptional nominees committed to the law from all areas of former legal practice. Adding judges who’ve served as public defenders and those with labor and economic justice backgrounds, is another positive step toward increasing much-needed diversity on the federal bench. And this slate continues to show the President’s commitment to gender diversity on the bench, having appointed a significantly higher percentage of women to the federal bench than any other president in American history.”