WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate made history Tuesday as it voted to approve the nomination of Sara Hill, former attorney general for the Cherokee Nation, for a vacancy on Oklahoma’s northern federal district court.
The upper chamber voted 52-14 to confirm Hill, who became the fourth Indigenous woman to be appointed to the federal bench by the Biden administration — and the first ever in Oklahoma. She is only the eighth Indigenous person in U.S. history to receive a lifetime judicial appointment.
Hill’s nomination had the support of the Sooner State’s all-Republican Senate delegation, who backed her appointment despite calls to reconsider from Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt.
During a confirmation hearing last month, Senator James Lankford thanked the White House for working alongside Oklahoma Republicans to reach a compromise.
“Oklahoma and the White House don’t agree on a lot of things,” the lawmaker said, “but we can find common ground and we are able to work on things together.
Carl Tobias, chair of the University of Richmond School of Law, said Tuesday that Senator Lankford and fellow Oklahoma Republican Markwayne Mullin “deserve much credit” for supporting Hill’s nomination and for their bipartisan compromise. Tobias projected that a second Northern District of Oklahoma nominee, John Russell, will be confirmed in the new year.
Meanwhile, advocacy groups sounded off Tuesday evening to applaud Hill’s confirmation.Civil rights coalition the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights said in a statement that the jurist’s appointment was a “critically important step toward ensuring that our federal courts truly reflect and represent the rich diversity of our nation.
”In a separate statement, The Native American Rights Fund pointed to what they said was Hill’s breadth of experience, “including a depth of understanding of tribal sovereignty that is far too often lacking on the judicial bench.”
While she had the support of her Republican senators, Hill’s appointment became the subject of scrutiny for some GOP lawmakers. During her confirmation hearing, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled the nominee about, among other things, her time as the Cherokee Nation’s natural resources secretary from 2015 to 2019.
Lawmakers including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham needled her for participating in a tribal delegation to North Dakota’s Standing Rock Reservation in 2016, during protests opposing the rerouted Dakota Access oil pipeline.
Although Graham appeared to suggest that her involvement with the protest would bias her against the fossil fuel industry, Hill assured lawmakers that her record also included work with energy companies.
“Working directly with those pipeline companies to make sure that they’re in compliance with the law is something that I’ve done,” she said.
Hill also brushed off Republican questioning about a migrant youth holding facility operated by a Cherokee Nation contracting company, arguing that the firm operates independently of the tribal government and that the facility in question was not located within her jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, the Senate Tuesday afternoon also voted to confirm Christopher Fonzone as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. It’s Fonzone’s second job as a top federal lawyer — he previously served as general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Fonzone, whose nomination was approved on a 50-17 vote, also faced tough questions from lawmakers during a confirmation hearing in early November. Republicans dialed in on his private practice work at law firm Sidley Austin — particularly legal work he did for Chinese telecommunications company Huawei and Beijing’s commerce ministry.
The nominee told lawmakers that he had done only “a small amount of work” for those clients at the request of the law firm’s other partners, and that it had not affected his ability to impartially represent the ODNI.
Tobias observed that Fonzone, who also worked as a deputy assistant and counsel to former President Barack Obama, “knows his way around D.C. … so [he] brings much relevant experience.”
The Senate continued its work Tuesday as lawmakers languish in Washington, their holiday recess delayed while Democrats and Republicans struggle to work through their differences on a proposed White House aid package for Ukraine and Israel.
The GOP has demanded that the legislation include language strengthening U.S. border security — it is unclear whether negotiations have made enough progress to allow lawmakers to hold a vote this week, possibly forcing the Senate to take things up again in the new year.
from Courthouse News
