The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Thursday two of President Joseph R. Biden’s nominees for seats on federal appeals courts, including a Washington jurist slated for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Salvador Mendoza, Jr., a federal trial court judge in Richland, Wash., was endorsed on an 11-9-2 vote. A U.S. District Court judge since 2014, Mendoza previously served as an Evergreen State judge. He was in private practice for about 14 years, mostly focusing on representation of criminal defendants, and was also a prosecutor before being appointed to the bench.
Of the GOP senators on the committee, only South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham voted for Mendoza’s nomination. One of the panel’s 11 Republicans did not vote.
Mendoza was confirmed by an overwhelming bipartisan vote, 92-4, after President Barack Obama nominated him to the district court about eight years ago.
Among the cases that Mendoza has overseen during his service as a federal district judge is a significant environmental law dispute involving the pollution of the Spokane River. The city of Spokane sued Monsanto Co., among other defendants, for discharging PCBs into that waterway. In 2016 Mendoza rejected an effort to secure dismissal of the complaint.
Mendoza also presided over the James Henrikson murder case. Henrikson was accused of hiring two other individuals to murder two business associates. After Henrikson was convicted on multiple counts, Mendoza sentenced him to two life terms in federal prison.
The California native, who moved to Washington as a child, is the son of immigrants from Mexico.
If confirmed, he would replace Judge Margaret McKeown, who has announced her intention to assume senior status.
The Judiciary Committee also recommended confirmation of John Z. Lee to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lee, a federal district judge in Illinois for more than a decade, practiced law at three law firms and was an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice before becoming a judge.
If confirmed, Lee would become the first Asian-American judge to sit on Chicago-based appeals court.
The panel also endorsed confirmation of three nominees to federal district courts: Stephen H. Locher for the Southern District of Iowa, Nancy L. Maldonado for the Northern District of Illinois, and Gregory B. Williams for the District of Delaware.
Locher is a federal magistrate and a former partner at Belin McCormick in Des Moines. He was also an assistant U.S. attorney for about five years.
The committee endorsed Locher’s nomination by voice vote.
Maldonado is a partner at Miner, Barnhill & Galland in Chicago. She also sits on the Illinois State Police Merit Board and on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.
Williams, a veteran of the U.S. Army Reserve, has been with Fox Rothschild in Wilmington since 1995. He has also served as a special master for the federal court in Delaware.
Senators on the Judiciary Committee also greenlighted Biden’s choice of Joshua D. Hurwit to be U.S. Attorney for Idaho.
Hurwit has been an assistant U.S. attorney for about a decade. During his time as a prosecutor he has prosecuted white supremacists.
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