J. Nicholas Ranjan
J. Nicholas Ranjan is a judge on theUnited States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He was nominated to the court by PresidentDonald Trump (R) on July 24, 2018, and confirmed by theUnited States Senate on July 10, 2019, by a vote of 80-14.[1][2] He received commission on July 12, 2019. To see a full list of judges appointed byDonald Trump,click here.
TheUnited States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania is one of 94U.S. District Courts. They are the generaltrial courts of theUnited States federal courts. To learn more about the court,click here.
Ranjan was an equity partner in the Pittsburgh office of K&L Gates LLP from 2013 to 2019.[3]
Judicial nominations and appointments
United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
On July 24, 2018, PresidentDonald Trump (R) nominated Ranjan to a seat on theUnited States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.[1] TheUnited States Senate confirmed Ranjan on July 10, 2019, by a vote of 80-14.[2] To read more about the federal nominations process,click here.
 |
| Nominee Information |
| Name: J. Nicholas Ranjan |
| Court:United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania |
| Progress |
| Confirmed 352 days after nomination. |
 ANominated: July 24, 2018 |
| AABA Rating:Substantial majority well qualified / Minority qualified |
| Questionnaire:Questionnaire |
| AHearing: November 13, 2018 |
| QFRs:(Hover over QFRs to read more) |
| AReported: February 7, 2019 |
| AConfirmed: July 11, 2019 |
| AVote: 80-14 |
Confirmation vote
The U.S. Senate confirmed Ranjan on July 10, 2019, on a vote of 80-14.[2] To see a full breakdown of the vote on the official U.S. Senate website,click here.
| Ranjan confirmation vote (July 10, 2019) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Yea | Nay | No vote | ||||||
 Democratic | 27 | 14 | 4 | ||||||
 Republican | 52 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
 Independent | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| Total | 80 | 14 | 6 | ||||||
Change in Senate rules
Ranjan was confirmed to a U.S. District Court under a new precedent the Senate established.
On April 3, 2019, theU.S. Senate voted 51-48 in favor of a change to chamber precedent lowering the maximum time allowed for debate on executive nominees to posts below the Cabinet level and on nominees todistrict court judgeships from 30 hours after invokingcloture to two.[4]
The change was passed under a procedure, often referred to as thenuclear option, that requires 51 votes rather than 60.[5]
It was the third use of thenuclear option in Senate history. In 2013, it was used to eliminate the 60-vote threshold to confirm presidential nominees, except those to theSupreme Court. In 2017, it was used to eliminate the 60-vote threshold required to confirm Supreme Court nominees.[6] For more, seeFilibuster and reconciliation in the United States Congress.
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
TheSenate Judiciary Committee held hearings on Ranjan's nomination on November 13, 2018.[7]
TheSenate Judiciary Committee favorably reported Ranjan's nomination on February 7, 2019.[8]Click here to see how the committee voted. Ranjan's nomination was one of 44 that Sen.Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) reported that day.
Nomination
Ranjan was nominated by PresidentDonald Trump (R) on July 24, 2018, to a seat on theUnited States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Ranjan was nominated to succeed JudgeKim Gibson, who assumedsenior status on June 3, 2016.[1]
At thesine die adjournment of the115th Congress on January 3, 2019, the Senate returned Ranjan's nomination to President Trump.[9] Ranjan was one of 51 individuals the president re-nominated on January 23, 2019.[10]
TheAmerican Bar Association rated Ranjanwell qualified by a substantial majority andqualified by a minority.[11] To read more about ABA ratings,click here.
Education
Ranjan received a bachelor's degree,summa cum laude, from Grove City College in 2000 and aJ.D.,cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 2003. During his legal studies, Ranjan he was a note editor ofThe Michigan Law Review.Cite error: Invalid<ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many[12]
Professional career
- 2019-present: Judge,United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
- 2005-2019: K&L Gates LLP
- 2013-2019: Partner
- 2005-2012: Associate
- 2004-2005: Law clerk to JudgeDeborah Cook,United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
- 2003-2004: Simon Karas Fellow,Ohio Attorney General’s office[3][12]
About the court
| Western District of Pennsylvania |
|---|
| Third Circuit |
 |
| Judgeships |
| Posts: 10 |
| Judges: 10 |
| Vacancies: 0 |
| Judges |
| Chief:Cathy Bissoon |
| Active judges: Susan Baxter,Cathy Bissoon,Robert J. Colville,Stephanie Haines,William Scott Hardy,Marilyn J. Horan,Mark Raymond Hornak,J. Nicholas Ranjan,William Shaw Stickman IV,Christy Wiegand Senior judges: |
TheUnited States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania is one of 94United States district courts.
When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit based in downtownPhiladelphia at the James Byrne Courthouse.
The Western District of Pennsylvania hasoriginal jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.
The geographic jurisdiction of the Western District of Pennsylvania consists of all the followingcounties in the western part of the state ofPennsylvania.
- Allegheny County
- Armstrong County
- Beaver County
- Bedford County
- Blair County
- Butler County
- Cambria County
- Clarion County
- Clearfield County
- Crawford County
- Elk County
- Erie County
- Fayette County
- Forest County
- Greene County
- Indiana County
- Jefferson County
- Lawrence County
- McKean County
- Mercer County
- Somerset County
- Venango County
- Warren County
- Washington County
- Westmoreland County
The federal nomination process
Federal judges are nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. There are multiple steps to the process:
- The president nominates an individual for a judicial seat.
- The nominee fills out a questionnaire and is reviewed by theSenate Judiciary Committee.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing with the nominee, questioning them about things like their judicial philosophy, past rulings or opinions, etc.
- As part of this process, the committee sends ablue slip to senators from the home state in which the judicial nomination was received, allowing them to express their approval or disapproval of the nominee.
- After the hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote to approve or return the nominee.
- If approved, the nominee is voted on by the full Senate.
- If the Committee votes to return the nominee to the president, the president has the opportunity to re-nominate the individual.
- The Senate holds a vote on the candidate.
- If the Senate confirms the nomination, the nominee receives a commission to serve a lifelong position as a federal judge.
- If the Senate does not confirm the nomination, that nominee does not become a judge.
See also
- United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
- United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit
External links
Officeholder United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania |
- Biography from theFederal Judicial Center
- J. Nicholas Ranjan biography from K&L Gates LLP (archived March 2019)
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit
Footnotes
- ↑1.01.11.2Congress.gov, "PN2342 — J. Nicholas Ranjan — The Judiciary," accessed July 11, 2019
- ↑2.02.12.2Congress.gov, "PN246 — J. Nicholas Ranjan — The Judiciary," accessed July 11, 2019
- ↑3.03.1Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedque - ↑The Hill, "GOP triggers 'nuclear option' to speed up Trump picks," April 3, 2019
- ↑Axios, "Senate GOP invokes 'nuclear option' to speed up confirmations of Trump nominees," April 3, 2019
- ↑NBC News, "McConnell to use 'nuclear option' to confirm lower-level nominees," April 2, 2019
- ↑Committee on the Judiciary, "Nominations," November 13, 2018
- ↑U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, "Results of Executive Business Meeting," February 7, 2019
- ↑Under Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6 of the Standing Rules of the Senate, pending nominations are returned to the president if the Senate adjournssine die or recesses for more than 30 days.Congressional Research Service, "Senate Consideration of Presidential Nominations: Committee and Floor Procedure," April 11, 2017
- ↑WhiteHouse.gov, "Nominations Sent to the Senate," January 23, 2019
- ↑American Bar Association, "Ratings of Article III and Article IV judicial nominees," accessed July 11, 2019
- ↑12.012.1WhiteHouse.gov, "President Donald J. Trump Announces Sixteenth Wave of Judicial Nominees, Sixteenth Wave of United States Attorney Nominees, and Eleventh Wave of United States Marshal Nominees," July 13, 2018
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - | United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania 2019-Present | Succeeded by - |
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Active judges | Chief Judge: Cathy Bissoon • Susan Baxter • Robert J. Colville • Marilyn J. Horan • Mark Raymond Hornak • J. Nicholas Ranjan • Stephanie Haines • William Shaw Stickman • Scott Hardy • Christy Wiegand | ||
| Senior judges | |||
| Magistrate judges | Keith Pesto • Maureen Kelly • Patricia Dodge • Richard Lanzillo • Kezia Taylor • Christopher Brown (Pennsylvania) • | ||
| Former Article III judges | William Knox • Jonathan Hoge Walker • William Wilkins • Thomas Irwin • Wilson McCandless • Winthrop Welles Ketcham • Marcus Wilson Acheson • Joseph Weis (Third Circuit) • Brooks Smith • Thomas Hardiman • Joseph Buffington • Timothy Lewis (Pennsylvania) • James Hay Reed • Nathaniel Ewing • James Scott Young • Charles Prentiss Orr • W. H. Seward Thomson • Robert Murray Gibson • Alan Bloch • Maurice Cohill • Gustave Diamond • William Standish • Gary Lancaster • Terrence McVerry • Sean McLaughlin • Frederic Palen Schoonmaker • Nelson McVicar • Frederick Follmer • Carol Mansmann • Owen Burns • Robert Cindrich • Edward Dumbauld • Wallace Gourley • Rabe Marsh • Barron McCune • John McIlvaine • Glenn Mencer • John Lester Miller • Louis Rosenberg • Ralph Scalera • Daniel Snyder • Herbert Sorg • William Stewart (Pennsylvania) • Hubert Teitelbaum • Gerald Weber • Joseph Willson • Donald Ziegler • Donald Lee • Paul Simmons • Peter Phipps • | ||
| Former Chief judges | Robert Murray Gibson • Donetta Ambrose • Maurice Cohill • Gustave Diamond • Gary Lancaster • Nelson McVicar • Wallace Gourley • Rabe Marsh • Herbert Sorg • Hubert Teitelbaum • Gerald Weber • Donald Ziegler • Mark Raymond Hornak • | ||
Federal courts:
Third Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court:Eastern District of Pennsylvania,Middle District of Pennsylvania,Western District of Pennsylvania • U.S. Bankruptcy Court:Eastern District of Pennsylvania,Middle District of Pennsylvania,Western District of Pennsylvania
State courts:
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania•Pennsylvania Superior Court•Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court•Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas•Pennsylvania Magisterial Districts
State resources:
Courts in Pennsylvania •Pennsylvania judicial elections •Judicial selection in Pennsylvania
