President Biden resubmits Sarah French Russell nomination to Senate Judiciary Committee.

Quinnipiac law professor Sarah French Russell’s nomination to a seat on the District of Connecticut bench was revived Monday when President Biden resubmitted her nomination to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Russell created some stiff headwinds for herself when she failed to submit and could not remember signing a 2020 letter to Governor Ned Lamont condemning the state’s criminal justice system and calling for the release of inmates at the start of the COVID-19 panic.

Russell added to her troubles with committee Republicans with written responses to post-hearing questions. The Yale law graduate sought to distance herself from letters she signed criticizing the nomination of then Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018 and the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions to serve as Attorney General the year before. Russell responded that she neither wrote nor edited any of the three letters and they no longer reflected her views. A lifetime nomination to the federal bench will do that in a closely divided Senate.

Russell is one of eighteen nominees resubmitted Monday after failing to win Senate confirmation in 2023. Five nominees whose nominations were returned to the White House in December were not resubmitted.

Published January 10, 2024.