The former prosecutor whose nomination to become Chicago’s first female U.S. attorney was blocked by Vice President-elect JD Vance has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate instead as a federal district court judge.
President Joe Biden nominated April Perry in July 2023 to become Chicago’s top federal prosecutor. She would have replaced John Lausch, who left office in March 2023 after five years in that role.
But her confirmation was blocked by Vance, an Ohio Republican, who said he did it to protest the prosecution of Donald Trump, who is now president-elect. Vance made the move long before Trump chose him to be his running mate in this year’s presidential election.
Senate rules allow any senator to hold up a nominee. Perry’s nomination wound up languishing for nine months until Biden announced he would nominate her for a seat on the bench instead.
The Senate voted to confirm Perry 51-44 on Tuesday evening as the first vote of the lame-duck session.
No one else has been nominated to fill Lausch’s role in Chicago, who left office in March 2023. The U.S. attorney’s office has been led by Acting U.S. Attorney Morris “Sonny” Pasqual for the last 20 months. It’s unlikely any nominee will be forthcoming until after Trump takes office in January — leading to one of the longest vacancies in the history of the office.
Perry’s vote kicked off a plan by Democrats to confirm as many of Biden’s judiciary picks as possible before losing power in the Senate next month. There are 16 other judicial nominees who have already been advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee and are ready for a floor vote.
In a Truth Social post Sunday, President-Elect Donald Trump wrote that “no Judges should be approved during this period of time [the lame-duck session] because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin, shared on X that 213 Biden-Harris judges had been confirmed as of Tuesday morning, “and we’re laser-focused on confirming every possible remaining nominee.”
During his first term, the Senate confirmed 234 Trump-nominated federal judges. With Republicans winning at least 52 seats in the Senate last week, with some other races too close to call, they’ll be able to confirm judges and justices with simple majorities beginning next year.