Committee recommends confirmation for two Western Pa. judicial nominees

The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday unanimously recommended that the full Senate confirm the president's nomination of two people to federal judge positions in Western Pennsylvania.

The bipartisan support makes their confirmation mainly a question of when rather than if, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who researches the judicial confirmation process.

After an unrelated hour-long “knock-down drag out over blue slips and everything else in the world,” the committee took up the nominations of U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Paradise Baxter and Butler County Judge Marilyn Jean Horan, he said.

The committee approved them in a voice vote with no debate.

“It's bipartisan. It's on track,” he said. “The problem is that they're behind 29 people on the floor. There's no question they're going to be confirmed. The question is when.”

The best guess is in a couple of months because they Senate requires a 30-hour period between each nomination coming to the floor and the final vote.

“It takes a week to get three or four people through,” Tobias said.

Brian Bowling is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1218, bbowling@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TribBrian.