Floridians to Meet With White House Monday on Judicial Vacancy Crisis

Five Florida community leaders, advocates and legal experts are set to travel to Washington, D.C., Monday for a meeting with Obama White House officials on the vacancy crisis in Americas federal courts.

Floridas District Courts are reeling from four judicial emergencies, while nominees for these seats, Brian Davis, Mark Walker, and Robin Rosenbaum, wait in the wings to be confirmed.

Nationwide, one in nine federal judgeships is vacant. Nearly one out of every 10 federal judgeships remains vacant, and 250 million Americans live in a community with a courtroom vacancy.

Despite the delays, the overwhelming majority of President Obamas nominees have received strong bipartisan support, such as Adalberto Jordan, who was confirmed by a 94-5 vote in February to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit after months of partisan wrangling.

Floridians attending the White House meeting are --

Daryl Parks, president, National Bar Association.
William (Bill) Simonitsch, board member, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.
Richard Rosenthal, member, American Constitution Society Judicial Nominations Task Force.
Stephen Rosenthal, member, American Constitution Society Judicial Nominations Task Force.
Ediberto Roman, professor, Florida International University College of Law
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They will join approximately 150 people from 27 states in a day of discussions with White House staff. A deal between Senate Republicans and Democrats to allow judicial nominations to proceed in the Senate expires May 7. Advocates are urging the Senate to hold final up-or-down votes on all pending nominees.

According to publicist Scott Westbrook Simpson at Simpson@civilrights.org, after the White House meeting participants will visit the offices of Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio to urge them to help end the delays that have plagued the Senate confirmation process since the beginning of the Obama presidency.