Four of President Joseph R. Biden’s judicial nominees were approved by a Senate committee Thursday, including one for the federal district court in Denver.
Members of the Judiciary Committee approved Nina Nin-Yueng Wang’s nomination as a U.S. district judge for the District of Colorado by a 14-8 vote along with candidates for two federal appeals courts and the federal district court in Seattle.
Wang, a federal magistrate, is a former assistant U.S. attorney and partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath. She is an immigrant from the Republic of China.
Sarah A.L. Merriam, who sits on the federal district court in Connecticut, was approved for the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on a 12-10 vote.
Merriam is a former assistant federal public defender. She became a federal magistrate in 2015 and was confirmed to the U.S. District Court in Hartford in 2021.
Lara E. Montecalvo received the committee’s endorsement for a seat on the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals by the same margin.
The chief public defender for Rhode Island’s state courts, Montecalvo is a former Department of Justice trial attorney. She joined the Ocean State’s public defender’s office in 2004.
Panel members approved Tiffany M. Cartwright’s nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, 12-10.
Cartwright is a partner at MacDonald Hoague & Bayless, a Seattle firm that focuses on civil rights law, and was an associate at Jenner & Block. She has also worked as an assistant federal public defender and for the Justice Department. Before entering practice Cartwright clerked for a judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and for an Alaska Supreme Court justice.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was the only Republican to join with all the Judiciary Committee’s Democrats to support the nominations of Merriam, Montecalvo, and Cartwright.
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