Sarah F. Russell

Sarah F. Russell
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
Incumbent
Assumed office
November 26, 2024
Appointed byJoe Biden
Preceded bySarah A. L. Merriam
Personal details
Born1976 (age 48–49)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
EducationYale University (BA, JD)

Sarah French Russell[1] (born 1976)[2] is an American lawyer and academic who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

Education

Russell received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale College in 1998 and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2002.[3]

Career

From 2002 to 2003, she served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Michael Mukasey on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and for Judge Chester J. Straub on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 2003 to 2005. From 2005 to 2007, Russell was an assistant federal defender in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Connecticut. From 2007 to 2010, she was a lecturer in law and director of the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School,[3] where she taught criminal defense, prison legal services, and Supreme Court advocacy clinics.[4] From 2011 to 2024, she was a law professor and director of the Civil Justice Clinic at Quinnipiac University School of Law.[2][3]

Federal judicial service

On October 4, 2023, President Joe Biden nominated Russell to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.[3] President Biden nominated Russell to the seat vacated by Judge Sarah A. L. Merriam, who was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on September 28, 2022.[5] On November 1, 2023, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[6] During her confirmation hearing, she was questioned over a letter she had signed in March 2020 urging Connecticut's governor to free people from the state's prisons and declare a moratorium on incarcerating anyone else due to COVID-19. Russell did not include the letter in background materials she compiled for the committee.[7] On November 30, 2023, her nomination was reported out of committee by a party line 11–10 vote.[8] On January 3, 2024, her nomination was returned to the president under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate[9] and she was renominated on January 8, 2024.[10] On January 18, 2024, her nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–10 party-line vote.[11][12] On November 19, 2024, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 50–45 vote, with Senator Joe Manchin voting against the motion.[13] Later that day, her nomination was confirmed by a 50–44 vote, with Senator Manchin voting against confirmation.[14] She received her judicial commission on November 26, 2024.[15] She was sworn in on December 20, 2024.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Sarah Russell". www.qu.edu. October 5, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved October 30, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d "President Biden Names Thirty-Ninth Round of Judicial Nominees" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ "Liman Center Looks Back: Sarah F. Russell '02". law.yale.edu. March 5, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  5. ^ "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. October 4, 2023.
  6. ^ "Nominations". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. October 30, 2023.
  7. ^ "COVID-era Letter Shouldn't Derail Sarah Russell Nomination". Connecticut Law Tribune. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  8. ^ "Results of Executive Business Meeting – November 30, 2023" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
  9. ^ "PN1067 — Sarah French Russell — The Judiciary". congress.gov. January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 9, 2024.
  10. ^ "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. January 8, 2024.
  11. ^ "Results of Executive Business Meeting – January 18, 2024" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  12. ^ "Senate Judiciary Committee Advances Twenty Judicial Nominations, One Executive Nomination to the Full Senate" (Press release). United States Senate Judiciary Committee. January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  13. ^ "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture: Sarah French Russell to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Connecticut)". United States Senate. November 19, 2024. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
  14. ^ "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Sarah French Russell, of Connecticut, to be United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut)". United States Senate. November 19, 2024. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
  15. ^ Sarah F. Russell at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
  16. ^ "NEW JUDGE APPOINTED TO THE DISTRICT COURT" (PDF). ctd.uscourts.gov (Press release). January 6, 2025. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
2024–present 		Incumbent
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