Nevada judge Togliatti still awaiting Senate confirmation

WASHINGTON — Time is running out for Senate confirmation of a Nevada judge nominated by President Donald Trump for a seat on the Nevada bench that has been vacant for so long it’s considered an emergency.

Trump nominated senior state court Judge Jennifer Togliatti for the U.S. District Court position that’s been vacant since 2018, when Judge James Mahan took senior status.

Togliatti has the support of the state’s two Democratic senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen. She sailed through her Senate confirmation hearing in March chaired by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But a full Senate confirmation vote on the nomination has yet to take place as the lame duck session winds down with just weeks left.

The Senate confirmed judicial nominees this week, and next week Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has scheduled votes on five district judge nominees from red states, Kentucky, Florida, Kansas and two from Mississippi.

Those nominees were advanced by the Judiciary Committee after the Togliatti nomination was sent to the Senate.

Prioritizing seats

McConnell views filling every judicial vacancy as a GOP Senate legacy.

Others question his priorities.

“What he is doing is avoiding the blue state nominees,” Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond Law School professor.

“He’s cherry picking, and to her disadvantage,” said Tobias, a founding faculty member of the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law.

Nevada has seven federal judges, but two seats are vacant and both are considered emergencies by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts due to caseloads and the length of time that both seats have remained unfilled.

Togliatti served as chief justice of the 8th Judicial District Court in Clark County, and was a mediator before she was tapped by Trump to fill the Las Vegas-based seat vacated by Mahan.

“Judge Togliatti is a talented, trusted member of Nevada’s legal community and an extremely qualified candidate to serve on the federal district court for Nevada,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.

Rosen also called Togliatti a qualified candidate during her confirmation and urged her Senate colleagues to vote their approval.

There are seven district judge seats in the Nevada Judicial District. Besides the vacant Mahan seat, Judge Robert Clive Jones took senior status in 2016.

Process could start over

If Togliatti is not confirmed by the Senate before the lame duck session ends, the process would begin again with President-elect Joe Biden and the new 117th Congress, which may or may not have a GOP-led Senate.

But McConnell could still seek a confirmation vote at the end of the current Congress; there are three weeks in December when the Senate will meet before tentative adjournment on December 18.

“It’s not like we are at the bitter end, yet,” Tobias said. “But time is running out.”

In the past four years, McConnell has engineered a conservative remake of the federal judicial bench, confirming three Supreme Court justices, more than 50 appellate court justices and more than 160 federal judges.

There are about 10 more federal judges awaiting confirmation, and McConnell has taken pride in his record of filling judicial vacancies that existed after Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s nominees in his final years as president.

McConnell said the GOP-led Senate, by filling judicial seats with conservative nominees, has been “an important contribution to the future of this country.”

Still, Tobias said it was obvious that McConnell was favoring red states over blue states as he schedules confirmation for justices and administrative appointees.

In addition to Togliatti, another Trump nominee, Connecticut Judge Barbara Jongbloed, has been advanced to the full Senate by the Judiciary Committee, but leapfrogged by nominees from red states for confirmation.

Cortez Masto said she would continue to urge for Togliatti’s “swift confirmation in the Senate so she can begin serving Nevadans from the federal bench.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.