President Biden secured the confirmation Saturday of the fourth federal appeals court judge of his administration. The nomination of Eunice Lee to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was approved by the Senate on a 50-47 vote.
Lee, who has more than two decades of experience handling appeals in criminal cases and who has been a law school adjunct professor for nearly as long, will become the second Black woman ever to serve on the New York-based court when she receives her commission. She will also become the first 2nd Circuit judge since 1978 to have worked as a public defender.
A Yale Law School and Ohio State University Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Lee began her career by clerking for two federal judges: Susan Dlott of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and Eric L. Clay of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lee will join Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Candace Jackson-Akiwumi of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Tiffany Cunningham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as Biden-appointed federal appellate judges.
Six other nominations to the federal circuit courts of appeal, including Denver’s Veronica Rossman, are pending before the Senate.
Five new federal district court judges, including Regina Rodriguez of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, were confirmed since Biden took office in January.
Nominations of eighteen other potential U.S. district judges, including Denver employment lawyer Charlotte Sweeney for Colorado’s federal trial court, are also before the Senate.