Senate Confirms EEOC Nominations

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Ilyse Schuman

On Wednesday the Senate officially confirmed the nominations of several members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission who had been placed with the EEOC via recess appointment in March 2010. The individuals and their terms are as follows:

  • Jacqueline Berrian, who President Obama had appointed to be the agency’s chair, will serve until July 1, 2014.
  • Chai Feldblum will serve as an EEOC Commissioner until July 1, 2013.
  • Victoria Lipnic will serve as an EEOC Commissioner until July 1, 2015.
  • P. David Lopez will serve as General Counsel for a term of four years.
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Senate Confirms Elena Kagan's Supreme Court Nomination

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Ilyse Schuman

As expected, the Senate on Thursday confirmed by a vote of 63 to 37 the nomination of U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to be the next Supreme Court justice. President Obama named Kagan as his pick to replace retiring justice John Paul Stevens on May 10, 2010. Kagan’s confirmation process has been relatively uncontroversial. Because she has never served in a judicial capacity, her views on various topics – including labor and employment issues – could not be gleaned from past opinions. Kagan will be the fourth woman to ever serve on the high court, and historically one of three to be sitting on the nine-member bench at one time. It is largely believed that Kagan will maintain the Court’s current ideological balance. Information on Kagan’s work history, responses to hearing questions, and letters and materials sent and received in connection with her nomination can be found here.

Kagan spent the majority of her legal career in academic settings, notably as a professor and dean of Harvard Law School. During her tenure at Harvard, Kagan opposed the Solomon Amendment, a law that requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to provide students access to military recruiters. When Kagan became Dean in 2003, a group of law students and faculty members formed the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR) and challenged the Solomon Amendment. Harvard maintained a nondiscrimination policy that barred recruiters whose employers maintained discriminatory employment policies. Kagan believed the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was in violation of the school’s nondiscrimination policy. The Supreme Court eventually upheld the legality of the Solomon Amendment, and Kagan reluctantly rescinded the school’s practice of disallowing military recruiters.

Prior to working at Harvard, Kagan in 1995 began serving in the Clinton Administration as Counsel to the President. In 1997, Kagan was named Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council. Kagan continued her government work in 2009 when she was confirmed as Solicitor General for the current administration. In this capacity, Kagan argued on behalf of the government in favor of limiting independent corporate and union spending during political campaigns in Citizens United v. FEC.  The Supreme Court ruled against the government by a 5-4 margin.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a series of hearings on her nomination the week of June 28 before ultimately voting 13-6 to send her nomination to the Senate. Transcripts from those hearings can be found here.
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Sonia Sotomayor Confirmed as Next Supreme Court Justice

Posted on August 6, 2009 by Jay Sumner

As anticipated, the Senate by a vote of 68-31 has confirmed the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. The floor debate had been largely considered ceremonial, as the Senate Judiciary Committee cleared her nomination last Tuesday by a margin of 13-6, primarily along party lines. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was the only Republican to approve her nomination. In recent days, a number of Republican Senators have joined Graham in his support of Sotomayor, which made today’s floor vote somewhat anticlimactic.

Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic woman to hold a seat on the high court. Sotomayor has spent the majority of her career in the public sector, most notably as an appointed judge to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the District Court for the Southern District of New York. Sotomayor’s opinions in labor and employment matters have tended to favor plaintiffs/employees more often than not. In particular, Sotomayor was part of the three-member Second Circuit panel that affirmed the lower court’s opinion in Ricci v. DeStefano, the reverse discrimination decision that was recently overturned by the Supreme Court. It is expected that Sotomayor will continue what is often termed her predecessor’s moderate to liberal approach to case interpretation as a member of the Supreme Court.

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