Senate Republicans gave President Trump another victory in the form of judicial appointments.
On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Thomas Kirsch II, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana, by a vote of 51-44 to replace a vacancy left by Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.
The White House announced that Kirsch, an Indiana University and Harvard Law graduate, was Trump’s pick for the vacancy months ago but sent notice about his nomination last month.
After graduating from Harvard Law, Kirsch worked as a law clerk for Judge John Tinder in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. He was a partner in the Winston & Strawn law firm and worked in multiple roles at the Justice Department. He then went on to work as an assistant U.S. attorney in Indiana from 2001 to 2008, focusing on white-collar crime.
“Mr. Kirsch led numerous complex high-profile white collar investigations and has prosecuted offenses in numerous areas, including mail and wire fraud, honest services fraud, tax fraud, bank fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, racketeering, obstruction of justice, perjury, and gangs and narcotics,” according to his biography on the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Indiana website.
“Mr. Kirsch has received numerous local and national awards, including the Department of Justice Director’s Award for Superior Performance and awards from The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, Law360, and Benchmark Litigation. Mr. Kirsch is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers,” the biography says.
“Thomas Kirsch is a lifelong Hoosier, who has worked to take on public corruption in Indiana, and has led a diverse and exemplary career. I am proud the U.S. Senate has confirmed Mr. Kirsch for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit,” Sen. Mike Braun said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Trump, now a lame-duck president, often prided himself on his appointments in the federal judiciary. According to Pew Research data released this summer, Trump “appointed almost a quarter of all active federal judges in the United States,” including three seats on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republicans currently hold a slight majority in the upper chamber of Congress, but special elections in Georgia leave the party’s future majority uncertain. Democrats are hoping for a victory in Georgia to secure 48 seats for their party in the Senate. Along with two liberal independent senators, Bernie Sanders and Angus King, a victory in the Georgia Senate runoffs would give Democrats leverage to force Republicans to compromise on policy and judges.
