Category: Federal

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) provided additional guidance Thursday on its polling criteria for this month’s presidential debate, knocking Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) out of qualifying.   The DNC will not count two ABC News/Washington Post polls that used open-ended questioning. Without those polls, Bullock now has only two of three necessary polls to…

Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Ted Cruz (Texas), both Republicans and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opposed the nomination of Michael Bogren to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. President Donald Trump nominated Bogren to the court on March 11, 2019, and the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on…

Judge Jesse Furman of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on June 5, 2019, declined to amend the record in Department of Commerce v. New York to bring new evidence alleging contradictory testimony by Trump administration officials before the United States Supreme Court as the court considers the case.…

Federal Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells retired at the expiration of her term on June 3, 2019. Wells was originally appointed to the position on June 4, 2003. She earned both her undergraduate degree and Juris Doctor degree from the University of Utah, graduating from the university’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in 1977. She became…

Welcome to the June 3 edition of Bold Justice, Ballotpedia’s newsletter about the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and other judicial happenings around the U.S. Looking for some good beach reading during summer vacation? We’ve got you covered! Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the Daily Brew for the most up-to-date political…

The Democratic National Committee announced on May 29 that it was doubling the fundraising and polling qualification thresholds for the third and fourth set of Democratic primary debates scheduled in September and October.   Candidates must register at least 2 percent support in four major polls released after June 28 or receive contributions from 130,000…

All 13 Republican women in the U.S. House endorsed Joan Perry over Greg Murphy in the July 9 Republican runoff for North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, according to Roll Call on May 29, 2019. The two advanced from a field of 17 candidates in the April 30 Republican primary, with Murphy receiving 22.5 percent of…

According to Ballotpedia’s monthly federal judicial vacancy count, the U.S. Senate has confirmed 15 of President Donald Trump’s (R) nominees to Article III federal judicial seats since April 25, 2019. Article III judges are those judges who serve on courts authorized by Article III of the Constitution, which created and enumerated the powers of the…

Thad Cochran, a Republican senator from Mississippi from 1979 to 2018, passed away on May 30, 2019. He was 81 years old.   Cochran resigned from the Senate on April 1, 2018, citing health concerns. He was replaced by interim Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R), who later won a November 2018 special election to serve the…

The first set of Democratic presidential primary debates is a month away and 20 presidential candidates have met the polling or fundraising criteria to qualify. If any additional candidates qualify, the Democratic National Committee will use a series of tiebreakers to determine who keeps their spot on the stage and who is removed. The debates…