New C.D. Cal. Judge

Law.com reports Milbank Managing Partner Confirmed to Central District of California -- Milbank’s Mark Scarsi will help reduce the dozen judicial vacancies the court’s chief judge has said pose a “grave danger” to the justice system.

• With Scarsi, the court will now have nine judicial vacancies, and President Donald Trump has put forth nominations for all but two unfilled judicial positions in the Central District.
• The Senate is also slated to hold a cloture vote on three other nominees for the seats in California Tuesday. If those votes pass, the nominees could be confirmed by the end of the week. Those nominees are Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Blumenfeld and Costa Mesa Greenberg Gross partner John W. Holcomb, for the Central District; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Robinson to the Southern District of California.

Law360 has GOP Leader Makes Late Drive To Leave 'No Vacancy Behind'

• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has just shy of four weeks left before his chamber's 2020 session is relegated to lame-duck status, and with dozens of court nominees still on tap, the question hangs over Washington as to how many he can get confirmed before the November election.
• More than 60 seats remain unfilled in the federal trial courts, with a large slate of Trump nominees in waiting, though McConnell has already made good on his pledge to push through all of the president's circuit court appointees.
• Although California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, has long decried Trump filling appellate seats without what she considers adequate consultation, she has nevertheless pressed to get trial seats in the Golden State filled because of the shortage on the bench.