On a voice vote, the U.S. Senate today confirmed Stuart Nash to be an associate judge on the D.C. Superior Court, breaking a year-long deadlock on his nomination.
Nash is a high-ranking career lawyer in the Department of Justice, most recently serving as associate deputy attorney general and director of the department’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces. He was first picked for the District’s local trial court by President George W. Bush toward the end of Bush’s second term, and President Barack Obama re-nominated Nash in June 2009.
There was no controversy over Nash, but his nomination was paired with that of Marisa Demeo, also for D.C. Superior Court. Republicans have opposed Demeo — in part because of her past advocacy work for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund — and Nash’s nomination was held up, too.
The Senate is set to vote this afternoon on whether to cut off debate on Demeo’s nomination. She is currently a D.C. magistrate judge.
Though the D.C. Superior Court handles local matters of criminal and civil law, the judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Nash, 44, was an associate at Williams & Connolly from 1993 to 1997, and since then he’s worked for the Justice Department. He started as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District and then went on detail to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he advised Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). He has been an associate deputy attorney general since 2005.
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