Senate returns Sarah French Russell judicial nomination to White House.

Quinnipiac University Law professor Sarah French Russell was one of four judicial nominees the Senate returned to President Biden to begin again in 2024, according to law.com. She was nominated for a seat on the Judicial District of Connecticut bench.

Russell had a car crash of an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 1st, notable for her failure to recall a letter she signed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The letter condemned the nation’s justice system and called for the release of most inmates. Russell had neglected to provide the letter to the committee as part of the confirmation process. in post-hearing written responses to the committee, Russell sought to distance herself from the content of that and two other letters by writing that she neither wrote nor edited the missives.

Russell also backed away from a 2018 letter opposing the nomination of then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Russell, who was a federal public defender for a brief time early in her career, may be one of the only federal judicial nominees to include a state small claims court case as one of the ten most significant litigation matters she has handled in her career.

The White House will have to decide if there is any reason to think the Senate will confirm Russell in 2024 if it resubmits her nomination.

Published December 29, 2023.