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Senate Confirms Two Fed Judges Tuesday and Two More Wednesday

July 31, 2019 Mark Curriden

Four Texas lawyers have been approved by the U.S. Senate for federal judgeships so far this week, and three more may get the nod in the next day or two.

Senators voted along political party lines Wednesday to confirm Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Brown for a seat on the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas and Brantley Starr, a senior aide for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The confirmations came 24 hours after the Senate approved federal prosecutor James Wesley Hendrix to a federal judgeship in the Northern District of Texas and appellate law expert Sean Jordan to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The Senate voted 50-40 to confirm Brown, whose chambers are expected to be in Galveston. The body approved Starr, whose courtroom will be in Dallas, by a 50-39 vote.

On Tuesday, senators voted 89-1 to confirm Hendrix, an assistant U.S. Attorney in Dallas, to the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas. He will have his chambers and courtroom in Lubbock. The legislative body also confirmed Jordan, a UT Law alum, 54-34 on Tuesday. He will replace Judge Richard Schell in the Eastern District of Texas

Three more federal judgeships are expected to be considered before the end of the week.

All four lawyers are expected to receive their commissions from President Trump and be sworn into office within the next two weeks.

The appointment of Brown to the federal bench also provides an opportunity for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to appoint a replacement to the Texas Supreme Court.

The son of a Dallas police officer, Justice Brown is a graduate of the University of Houston Law Center and practiced civil litigation at Baker Botts in Houston. Then-Gov. Rick Perry appointed Brown to served as a civil district judge in Houston in 2001 and then to the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston in 2005.

In 2013, Perry appointed Brown to the Texas Supreme Court.

Starr, who is 40 and a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, practiced civil and appellate litigation at King & Spalding before becoming a staff attorney for Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman. In 2015, he joined the Texas Attorney General’s Office, where he served as deputy first assistant and worked on high-profile political cases for his boss, Ken Paxton.

Hendrix, a 2003 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and law clerk for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, was originally nominated in 2016 by President Obama, but the Senate failed to confirm his appointment.

President Trump re-nominated Hendrix, who practiced commercial litigation at Baker Botts for three years, in January 2019 at the recommendation of Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Hendrix’s nomination in April by a 22-0 vote. The only senator who voted against Hendrix on Tuesday was Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

The Senate confirmed Jordan, also a UT Law alum, 54-34 on Tuesday. He will replace Judge Richard Schell of the Eastern District of Texas.

A paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, Jordan served as deputy solicitor general for the Texas Attorney General’s office and currently is a partner at Jackson Walker, where he co-heads the firm’s appellate practice.

Jordan will have his courtroom and chambers in Plano, but will also sit from time to time in Sherman.

Mark Curriden

Mark Curriden is a lawyer/journalist and founder of The Texas Lawbook. In addition, he is a contributing legal correspondent for The Dallas Morning News.

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