Diversity a premium as Democrats race to fill an unusual number of openings on Connecticut’s U.S. District Court

With the state’s two Democratic senators and a friendly White House hurrying to fill what for a small state like Connecticut is a big number of federal judgeships — three open seats — there is a new impetus to improve diversity in the courts.

For decades, the senators directed a vetting process that selected prospective jurists from the state’s most experienced federal litigators — which meant, by virtue of their jobs, that top criminal prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s office often dominated the pool of prospects. This time around, President Joe Biden — a critic of what he calls the country’s racist criminal justice system — is pushing the selection process in a direction that could produce the most diverse class of new judges ever, in Connecticut and elsewhere in the country.

Even before taking office, Biden put the Senate on notice that he “is eager to nominate individuals who reflect the best of America, and who look like America.”

“We are confident this is a shared goal,” the White House Counsel’s office told senators by letter, days before the inauguration. “We therefore ask that you propose talented individuals who would bring to these critically important roles a wide range of life and professional experiences, including those based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, veteran status and disability.”

Meanwhile, there is growing concern that the White House and Democrats need to move quickly to win approval for the new judges before mid-term elections in 2022 potentially disrupt the process.

Based on what is known so far about the search for new Connecticut judges, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Christopher Murphy have take Biden’s instructions to heart, as have their colleagues elsewhere in the country. By tradition, the senators recommend a small group of prospective judges to the White House, which then chooses its nominees and sends them to the Senate for confirmation.

Connecticut is allocated eight federal judgeships, which are lifetime appointments with an salary of about $211,000. The judges work with extensive staffs at courthouses in Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven and preside over cases involving complex business disputes and sophisticated crime such as interstate fraud, racketeering and political corruption. Seven semi-retired, or senior federal judges continue to work in the state.

Blumenthal and Murphy will not reveal the names they delivered to the White House — or much else about how they chose those those names.

But the trial lawyers who depend on the federal courts for livelihoods follow the application and screening process closely, and their prognostications have been uncannily accurate in the past. This time they suggest — as things now stand — that the two senators have sent the White House a half-dozen of so prospective judges weighted in favor of candidates who are public defenders or are Black. For the first time in memory, the group does not contain a federal prosecutor.

Included among those names believed to have reached the White House are a state Superior Court judge, a senior member of the state attorney general’s staff and two former federal public defenders. Three of the four are women.

The prospective Connecticut jurors look much like nominees and potential nominees emerging in other states — most of them Black, many women and and many with backgrounds in public defense or legal aid work. In New Jersey, Biden has nominated a man who could become the nation’s first Muslim federal judge.

Missing from the prospective Connecticut nominees, according to lawyers following the process, is Barbara Bailey Jongbloed, a highly regarded Superior Court judge, who early in her career was with the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Haven. On the recommendation of Blumenthal and Murphy in 2019, former President Donald J. Trump nominated Jongbloed — a Democrat whose father worked for former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy — to fill an earlier vacancy on the court.

Jongbloed’s nomination expired in January, victim of partisan Washington politics that delayed a Senate confirmation vote. Elsewhere in the country, blue state senators have resubmitted the names of prospective judges whose nominations, like Jongbloed’s, expired for partisan reasons beyond their control.

There still is concern, even with a new round of judicial nominations under a new administration, that confirmation votes could be jeopardized by politics — particularly if the 2022 midterm elections hand control of he Senate back to Republicans. As a result, the White House is pressing senators to move quickly on recommendations, and the Democratic chair of the judiciary committee has begun scheduling confirmation hearings.

Hearings are scheduled on the order of nominations, which has raised concern that delays from background checks and bar association vetting could push some hearings past the midterms.

“I think the sense in most places is trying to move this along by getting names to the White House quickly, because folks don’t want to wind up at the back of the queue,” said University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias, who tracks federal judicial nominations.

There are more than 70 federal judicial vacancies across the county, and in relation to population, those in Connecticut are significant.

The three vacancies on the eight judge court opened when judges decided to assume semi-retired, senior status based on age and years on the bench. Connecticut now has seven senior federal judges who are entitled to take reduced caseloads.

Until the recent round of semi-retirements, three of the eight active judges were Black and three were women. Of the combined active and senior judges now on the court, four are women and three are Black. If the lawyers who watch the court closely are correct, Blumenthal and Murphy will increase the number of women and Black candidates with their recommendations.

A Blumenthal spokeswoman said judicial diversity has always been his goal and that he and Murphy “conducted significant outreach to bar and legal associations, state and federal public defender and prosecutor offices, and legal aid societies.” One participant in the process said the senators received about 47 applications for three positions — about twice the number it received for a single opening about two years ago.

The senators formed a committee of eight volunteers to screen the applicants — five women and three men. At least three had specialized backgrounds in legal aid and racial justice. Committee members were told that Biden is “particularly focused on nominating individuals whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench, including those who are public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys, and those who represent Americans in every walk of life,” Blumenthal’s office said.

In the past, similar committees have interviewed candidates for the judgeships, but there was a decision this time to leave interviews to the senators because of pandemic concerns, as well as the number of vacancies and applications.

The court’s ethnic balance has been a factor in judicial appointments for decades, but in a different context. Former U.S. Sen. Thomas Dodd made history by recommending the appointment of the first Jew, the first Catholic and the first Italian to the court. President John F. Kennedy nominated M. Joseph Blumenfeld and T. Emett Clairie in 1961 and President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Robert Zampano in 1967.

Former Sen. Abraham Ribicoff recommended Jose A. Cabranes who was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and became the first Puerto Rican appointed to the federal bench in the mainland United States. Cabranes also remains the last Puerto Rican appointed the the federal bench in Connecticut. He moved to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1994.