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A full federal appeals court declined to take up Democrat groups’ challenge of Florida’s 2021 election integrity law on Thursday, marking a major win for Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled state legislature. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Thursday’s decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals “let stand an April ruling by a three-judge panel of the [court] that sided with the state on major issues in the case.” The 11th Circuit’s April decision effectively overturned a prior ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker — an Obama appointee — who baselessly claimed the law in question discriminated...

On Thursday, a panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals handed Florida Governor a huge victory over Marc Elias, judicial overreach, and industrial strength stupidity. By a 2-1 decision, an Obama judge dissenting, the panel upheld nearly all of Florida’s overhaul of voting rules in May 2021. I would call it controversial, but it was only controversial to people whose lives depend upon supporting vote fraud. In May 2021, the Florida legislature passed a major overhaul of state election law. The law’s goals were to make elections more transparent and trustworthy while outlawing known abuses of the system,...

The 11th Circuit just issued its decision in L. Lin Wood's appeal of the district court's denial of his request for an injunction against the Georgia election results. The decision holds that (a) Wood lacks standing, and (b) even if he didn't, any election challenge is now moot because Georgia already certified its electoral votes.

It will be some time before Donald Trump announces a nominee to fill the vacancy left by Antonin Scalia, according to transition insiders. But two names continue to emerge to the top of the president elect's list of potential Supreme Court justices. Judges Diane Sykes and William Pryor are among the top contenders, according to multiple sources familiar with the process. CNN's Donald Trump Supreme Court nominee shortlist The Supreme Court vacancy is "actively being discussed," but there is no timetable at the moment, Trump transition aide Jason Miller told reporters Thursday. "The President-elect, he had previously put out a...

Today Donald J. Trump released the much-anticipated list of people he would consider as potential replacements for Justice Scalia at the United States Supreme Court. This list was compiled, first and foremost, based on constitutional principles, with input from highly respected conservatives and Republican Party leadership. Mr. Trump stated, “Justice Scalia was a remarkable person and a brilliant Supreme Court Justice. His career was defined by his reverence for the Constitution and his legacy of protecting Americans’ most cherished freedoms. He was a Justice who did not believe in legislating from the bench and he is a person whom I...

Don Willett is a Texas Supreme Court justice:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Willett David Stras is an associate justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stras Allison Eid is a justice on the Colorado Supreme Court:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H._Eid Joan Larsen is a justice on the Michigan Supreme Court.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Larsen Steven Colloton is a federal judge who has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Colloton Raymond Gruender is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Gruender Thomas Hardiman is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardiman Raymond M. Kethledge is a federal judge...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court justices he plans to vet to fill the seat of late Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump's picks include Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado and Raymond Gruender of Missouri. Also on the list are: Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas. Trump said in March he planned to release the list to ease concerns about his conservative credentials...

Trump's picks include Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado and Raymond Gruender of Missouri. Also on the list are: Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas. Trump had previously named Pryor and Sykes as examples of kind of justices he would choose.

The names are at the link.

...Mr. Lord is at pains to note that, although Judge Smith is less known than other judicial nominees who have come under "borking" assault -- think of William Pryor, Miguel Estrada, Janice Rogers Brown and Charles Pickering -- his experience offers a kind of template of abuse: Activist groups unearth whatever harmful details they can find, no matter how dubious; they gin them up into screaming charges; the charges in turn get picked up by reporters, eager to keep pace with a potential "controversy," and by politicians, eager to find any stick with which to beat a "dangerous" nominee from...

Senate deal is done: Three judges are confirmed The Associated Press June 10, 2005 6:01AM WASHINGTON - The GOP-controlled Senate approved former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor and Michigan nominees David McKeague and Richard Griffin Thursday for seats on the U.S. Appeals Court, completing an unprecedented run of long-delayed judicial confirmations. With a vote of 53-45, Pryor was approved for 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Atlanta-based court that handles federal appeals from Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Griffin was confirmed 95-0 and McKeague 96-0, both for seats on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. ''These three nominees...

-snip- William H. Pryor Jr., now 43, grew up to become the straight-talking attorney general of Alabama, a man who once called the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history." On Thursday, the Senate voted 53 to 45 to confirm Judge Pryor to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, covering Alabama, Florida and Georgia, 16 months after Mr. Bush installed him on the bench temporarily while Congress was in recess. To his detractors, Judge Pryor, the last of three judges whose confirmations were assured by a bipartisan agreement,...

A Different Timpanist WASHINGTON, June 9 - On the day in 1973 that the Supreme Court made abortion legal, the Pryor family of Mobile, Ala., discussed it at the dinner table. Laura Pryor recalls that she and her husband, both teachers in Roman Catholic schools, were "very upset." But they had little idea what an impression the talk made on their 10-year-old son, William. -snip-- "We did not realize until later in life," she said, "until he was much older, how much we had influenced him on that." -- snip -- His father, William H. Pryor Sr., was the band...

Twelve Democrats were among the 67 votes in support of cloture on Bill Pryor’s nomination to the 11th Circuit. These twelve included the seven Democratic signatories to the Gang of Fourteen’s anti-cloture reform agreement (Byrd, Inouye, Landrieu, Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Pryor, and Salazar). Of the five additional Democratic votes for cloture, four — Bingaman, Carper, Conrad, and Bill Nelson — are up for re-election in 2006, and the fifth, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, has a tenuous hold on his seat. This would seem to provide an encouraging read on how the politics of judicial confirmation are playing out among...

Good Thursday morning, fellow political junkies. Today's cloture vote on the Pryor nomination is scheduled at 4:PM. Follow along with us, here, and comment...

Pryor a shoo-in for appeals court > By BILL RANKIN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution > Published on: 06/09/05 The bitter two-year fight over the nomination of William Pryor to the federal appeals court in Atlanta is about to end. In a 67-32 vote Wednesday, the U.S. Senate decided to cut off debate on President Bush's appointment of the former Alabama attorney general to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A vote on his confirmation is expected today. The Republican majority in the Senate virtually guarantees Pryor's appointment to the lifetime post. But until a recent compromise between Republicans and Democrats,...

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday confirmed California judge Janice Rogers Brown for the federal appeals court, ending a two-year battle filled with accusations of racism and sexism and shadowed by a dispute over Democratic blocking tactics. Senators quickly followed by ending another long-term filibuster, clearing the way for a vote Thursday on former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor as outlined in an agreement last month that averted a showdown that could have brought Senate action to a halt.After giving Pryor a final vote and confirming two Michigan nominees to other appeals court posts, senators plan to leave President Bush's...

Not only is there a bright side for conservatives in the recent Senate “compromise” on Presidential appointments, but it’s hard to find any reason at all to justify celebration by liberal Democrats. President Bush’s long-stalled 5th Circuit nominee, Priscilla Owen, now sits on that federal bench, and confirmations of capable conservatives Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor are soon to follow. Even the prospective nominations of William Meyers and Henry Saad have been sidetracked in thought only. Make no mistake – the dam has cracked and its eventual collapse is as easy as ever to see. The seven Republican signatories...

Conservatives have good reason to be unhappy with the agreement announced last night concerning the Senate’s judicial-confirmation process. The agreement does not guarantee up-or-down votes on all of President Bush’s judicial nominees, nor does it restore the Senate’s unswerving 214-year tradition of majority vote for all judicial nominees. In addition, the agreement attempts to rewrite Article II of the Constitution, by giving the Senate an advise-and-consent role in the nomination, as well as the appointment, of judges (see here and here for more). Our objectives are still within reach, however. As one of the signatories to the agreement made clear...

The Senate fight over President Bush's judicial nominees isn't just about their opinions -- it is also about their destinations. The contentious choices would tip the balance in some evenly split appellate courts, or could challenge the prevailing views of other panels on issues such as civil rights or environmental policy.... Democrats say the seven blocked Bush nominees could start a conservative shift in courts that aren't already tilted that way. "Balance on the court matters to us," said Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. "I've always felt a good court would have one [Justice Antonin] Scalia and one [former...