A longtime federal prosecutor in Tennessee won confirmation to an appellate court seat despite substantial objections from his home state’s Republican senators.
The U.S. Senate voted 48-46 on Monday to confirm Kevin Ritz, who is currently serving as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The vote saw Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) crossing party lines to vote against the confirmation, while Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who had previously indicated that he would not support judicial nominees lacking bipartisan approval, was notably absent from the vote. Manchin had earlier voted to invoke cloture on Ritz.
Ritz’s confirmation underscores ongoing tensions in the judicial nomination process, particularly in scenarios where nominees face opposition from their own state senators. For further reading, the original article can be accessed here.