President Trump's 19th Wave of Nominations

Today, the White House announced its 19th batch of judicial nominations, the first of 2019 and the 116th Congress. It included 6 district court nominees, many to courts with judicial emergencies, as defined by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The nominees include:

• Greg G. Guidry, a Justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court, to the Eastern District of Louisiana. While ordinarily it could be considered a demotion for state supreme court justices to get nominated to federal district courts, the Trump administration has made some sort of habit out of it, nominating Justice Patrick Wyrick to the Western District of Oklahoma last year. Before joining the state bench, Guidry was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana. If confirmed, Guidry would fill 1 of the 2 vacancies on the district court's bench, with Wendy Vitter already waiting to be confirmed for the other seat.
• Wes Hendrix, an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, to be a judge of the same court. Before becoming a prosecutor, he worked at Baker Botts. Hendrix was previously nominated to serve on the district court by President Obama in 2016, but wasn't confirmed under the Thurmond Rule. It's surprising he wasn't renominated in the last Congress if the Texas senators supported his nomination, as he would only have required a vote in committee and on the floor since he already had a hearing. Now, he might need to restart the process entirely since the hearing occurred more than 2 years ago.
• Sean D. Jordan, a partner at Jackson Walker, for the Eastern District of Texas. Jordan is a somewhat interesting nominee for a number of reasons. To begin with, the only seat open in the Eastern District is currently slotted in Plano, and Jordan works in Austin, which is actually part of the Western District of Texas. Jordan is also an Army veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division, and continues the tradition of Texas court nominees having worked for the state attorney general's office, following in the steps of fellow Eastern District nominee Cam Barker, Southern District nominee David Morales, and circuit judges Don Willett, Jim Ho, and Andy Oldham. Jordan is the second Trump nominee to this seat, with the first, Jeff Mateer, having withdrawn before receiving a hearing.
• Michael T. Liburdi, a partner at Greenburg Traurig, to be a judge of the District of Arizona. Liburdi was previously general counsel to Governor Doug Ducey, and teaches at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. His nomination, in particular, is intriguing, as neither of the state's senators have been on the job for more than 2 weeks, and nominations don't move that fast before being announced. It's probable that he and others were being considered for Arizona judgeships over the last 2 years (see this post by David Lat) and had blue slip issues with former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), so the White House is moving forward with his name now with the hope that he can get confirmed with bipartisan support. Liburdi would fill 1 of the court's 3 existing vacancies.
• Mark T. Pittman, a Justice on Texas's Second Court of Appeals, for the Northern District. Prior to becoming a state court judge, Pittman was a SEC lawyer and worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. If confirmed, Wes Hendrix and Mark Pittman would fill 2 of the Northern District's 5 vacancies, and would leave only one opening in the Dallas/Fort Worth division.
• Peter D. Welte, a shareholder of the Vogel Law Firm, for the District of North Dakota. Welte was previously the State's Attorney of Grand Forks County for 12 years. He teaches at the University of North Dakota School of Law. Welte's nomination is particularly urgent as the district court only has two judgeships, with 1 already vacant and the other opening up later this year.

Another candidate who likely was included in this batch of nominations but withdrew last minute, is Louisiana State Representative Alan Seabaugh, for the Western District of Louisiana.  

This batch only has nominations from states with 2 Republican senators, except for Arizona, so I don't expect any of the nominees to have blue slip issues. There could be general conflicts related to jurisprudence, but I don't think that that would kill any of these 6 nominees.

Correction # 1 (1/16/2019): The post previously stated that Hendrix would fill a vacancy in the Fort Worth division of the Northern District of Texas, but this press release from Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn (R-TX) states that he would fill the Lubbock vacancy, meaning that 2 vacancies would still remain in the DFW area. I regret the error.

Correction # 2 (1/17/2019): This tweet authored by Sen. McSally's office implies that Liburdi had support from Sen. Flake, along with Sens. McCain and Kyl. It helps to provide some context regarding how long his nomination has been in the pipeline.