Senate Confirms Jody Hunt to Head DOJ Civil Division
Senators voted 72-23 to approve Joseph “Jody” Hunt on Tuesday as the assistant attorney general of the Civil Division, the DOJ's largest litigating division.
August 28, 2018 at 05:57 PM
3 minute read
There is a Senate-confirmed head of the Justice Department's Civil Division.
Senators voted 72-23 to approve Joseph “Jody” Hunt on Tuesday as the assistant attorney general of the Civil Division, the DOJ's largest litigating division. Hunt will oversee the staff of over 1,000 lawyers representing federal agencies and administrative policies in civil litigation.
Hunt was tapped by President Donald Trump to head the division nearly a year ago. A career Justice Department attorney, he previously served as chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions from January to September 2017, when he was nominated. Before that, he was director of the Civil Division's Federal Programs Branch, a job he assumed in 2002.
“I am deeply indebted to Jody for his outstanding service as my Chief of Staff,” Sessions said in a statement. “He is a man of great integrity, energy, and legal skill. He is uniquely qualified to lead the Department's largest litigation division, where I am confident he will ably advocate this administration's legal agenda.”
Hunt worked in private practice before joining the DOJ in 1999. He spent five years at the firm White & Case in Washington, D.C., before moving to King & Spalding's Atlanta office.
Chad Readler, the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Civil Division, has filled in as acting head since Trump's inauguration last year. Readler was nominated in June for a seat on the court of appeals in the Sixth Circuit.
The Senate also voted on seven Trump trial court nominees Tuesday. Among the names confirmed by voice vote were Susan Baxter, Trump's choice for a district court seat in the Western District of Pennsylvania, and R. Stan Baker, for the Southern District of Georgia.
Senators also confirmed by voice vote Terry Moorer to the Southern District of Alabama, Barry Ashe to the Eastern District of Louisiana, James Sweeney II to the Southern District of Indiana, and Nancy Brasel to the District of Minnesota.
Charles Goodwin, a federal magistrate judge, was confirmed, 52-42, as a district judge for the Western District of Oklahoma. The American Bar Association rated Goodwin as “not qualified” for the seat, making Goodwin one of four Trump nominees to receive that rating from the group.
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