WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden plans to nominate a Green Bay personal injury attorney to fill a longtime vacancy in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the White House said Wednesday.
Byron Browning Conway, an attorney with the Green Bay-based firm Habush, Habush & Rottier, would fill the federal court vacancy created by the 2019 retirement of Judge William C. Griesbach if confirmed by the Senate. Wisconsin Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson recommended Conway and Brown County Circuit Judge Marc Aaron Hammer to be considered for nomination to the post last summer.
Biden's decision to nominate Conway comes more than a year after the White House decide not to renominate Milwaukee County Circuit Judge William Pocan to federal court after Johnson, an Oshkosh Republican, blocked Pocan's nomination despite originally supporting him.
Johnson announced his opposition to Pocan the night before Pocan was due to appear for a confirmation hearing in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Johnson at the time said he had been "hearing concerns from the Green Bay legal community that they needed a judge who is locally based and actively involved in their community," though Pocan signaled he planned to relocate to Green Bay.
He also also linked Pocan, the brother of Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, to a previous bail decision given to the suspect in the November 2021 Waukesha Christmas parade tragedy. But Pocan was not involved in that case, and Johnson’s office later pointed to another case.
The episode contributed in part to calls to do away with the “blue slip” — a Senate procedure that allows individual senators to effectively block judicial picks from their home states. Still, there is no indication that process will change.
Conway has been with his current firm for 18 years and was previously an associate at the Milwaukee-based firm Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLP from 2002 to 2006. He graduated from Santa Clara University in 1998 and received his law degree from Marquette University Law School in 2002.
The White House's announcement Wednesday marked the 52nd round of nominees for federal judicial positions under the Biden administration.
As of late May, Biden had overseen the confirmation of more than 200 federal judges.
To be confirmed, Conway will need to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If approved by the committee, he will need to support of the majority of the Senate for final confirmation.
Most Popular
Comments / 0