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The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced President Trump’s “norm-shattering” pick for a 3rd Circuit seat traditionally reserved for Delaware residents. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court will wade into a major legal battle over the first-ever bid by a president to fire a Fed official; the federal judiciary can only sustain paid operations through October 17 amid the government shutdown; and Utah became the latest state to allow law school graduates to skip the bar exam. Polar bears took over an abandoned Soviet-era research station and we have photos. Let’s dive in.

U.S. Senate panel advances conservative academic's nomination to appeals court

Tom Williams/Pool via REUTERS

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced four of President Trump's latest judicial nominees, including a conservative academic nominated to a federal appeals court seat in Delaware despite not being a member of the state's bar. Here’s what to know:

The committee voted 12-10 along party lines in favor of Jennifer Mascott, a conservative academic with minimal ties to Delaware, filling a seat traditionally reserved for Delaware residents on the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit.
Mascott previously clerked for Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh and recently served in the White House Counsel’s Office. Read more about her background here.
Senator Chris Coons, Delaware's senior Democratic senator, objected to Mascott's "norm-shattering" nomination, highlighting her lack of Delaware legal experience. Many talented conservative lawyers live in Delaware, he said, yet Trump picked someone whose main link to the state is a beach house she owns.
In a different era, Coons' objection might have tanked Mascott's nomination, given the long-standing Senate custom of only allowing judicial nominees to advance whose home state senators return "blue slips" supporting them. But Senate Republicans ended the blue slip custom for appellate court nominees during Trump's first term.
Mascott is Trump's second nominee to the 3rd Circuit in his second term, after recently winning Senate confirmation of his former personal lawyer, Emil Bove, who was at the DOJ, to the court.
Three other nominees advanced on Wednesday: Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour and Harold Mooty, a partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, who if confirmed would serve in Alabama's Northern District, and Alabama Supreme Court Justice Bill Lewis, who would serve in Alabama's Middle District. Read more here.

More top news

U.S. senators question independence of Trump's NLRB picks after member's firing

Coming up today

Jessica Leslie, a former federal grand juror who leaked information about an investigation into the handling of the high-profile murder prosecution of Karen Read is set to be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston. Read was acquitted in June on charges that she killed her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in 2022 with her car.

Industry insight

Last week, the Utah Supreme Court approved a program allowing graduates of ABA-accredited law schools to obtain law licenses after completing 240 supervised practice hours, making Utah one of the few states to waive the bar exam requirement. Read more here.
Moves: Asset recovery partner Geoffrey Derrick moved to Boies Schiller from Kobre & Kim … Willkie named Kathy Wunderli co-chair of the firm’s private wealth group. She returns to the firm from Wealth.com … Holland & Hart added former U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho, Josh Hurwit as a commercial litigation partner … Private client partner John Boxer returned to Morgan Lewis from Metropolitan Wealth Management where he was GC … Corporate partner Robert Lustrin left Reed Smith for Eckert Seamans … Cozen O’Connor added healthcare partner Andrew Kessler from Wood Smith Henning … Private wealth planning partner David Berek joined Venable from Mayer Brown … Former senior Congressional staffer and SEC official Kimberly Hamm moved to Morrison Foerster … Simpson Thacher tapped Christopher Ludwig to lead its shareholder engagement and activism defense group from Barclays Capital … Product liability attorney Joshua Wes moved to Barnes & Thornburg from Tucker Ellis … MG+M added seven personal injury partners from Berkes Crane Santana … Quarles & Brady elected 11 new partners.

$350 million

That's the amount U.S. cities say President Trump's executive orders put at risk in DHS grants to local governments. More than two dozen cities and counties in California, Washington and Arizona sued the Trump administration, arguing that Trump has illegally attempted to attach new political conditions to funding from DHS and FEMA, including grants that local governments use to prepare for and recover from disasters. Read more.