Washington gets a new U.S. federal judge: David Estudillo wins Senate confirmation

David Estudil­lo, the Sun­ny­side-born son of Mex­i­can immi­grants, was con­firmed by the U.S. Sen­ate on Tues­day as a Unit­ed States Dis­trict Judge for the West­ern Dis­trict of Wash­ing­ton. Estudil­lo has worked as a Grant Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court judge, appoint­ed in 2015 by Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee as the first Lati­no to serve as a judge on any court in East­ern Washington.

“Judge Estudil­lo is a great exam­ple of the suc­cess­es and con­tri­bu­tions that many immi­grant fam­i­lies make to our great nation,” Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, D‑Washington, said in a Sen­ate floor speech.

Cantwell and Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, D‑Washington, put for­ward Estudillo’s name and he was nom­i­nat­ed to the fed­er­al bench in April by Pres­i­dent Biden.

A sec­ond West­ern Dis­trict nom­i­na­tion, of Seat­tle lawyer Tana Lin, is pend­ing in the Sen­ate with con­fir­ma­tion likely.

The state’s sen­a­tors have moved to give much-need­ed help to the fed­er­al bench in Seat­tle and Taco­ma, which has just two active U.S. Dis­trict Court judges.

Sev­en judges with senior sta­tus, their appoint­ments dat­ing to the Carter and Rea­gan admin­is­tra­tions, con­tin­ue to fill heavy caseloads.

Judge Estudil­lo has enjoyed wide, bipar­ti­san sup­port in con­ser­v­a­tive Grant Coun­ty, and cur­rent­ly heads the Wash­ing­ton State Supe­ri­or Court Judges Assocation.

Still, the Sen­ate vote to con­firm him was 54–41, with 41 of 50 Repub­li­cans in the U.S. Sen­ate vot­ing against confirmation.

The “no” votes includ­ed Sen­ate Repub­li­can Leader Mitch McConnell and even Sen. Rob Port­man, R‑Ohio, often tout­ed in the press as one of the upper chamber’s most “rea­son­able” and col­le­gial Repub­li­cans. The “yea” Repub­li­can votes includ­ed Sen­a­tor John Cornyn, R‑Texas, a mem­ber of GOP lead­er­ship, Sen­a­tor Susan Collins, R‑Maine, and Iowa’s Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Chuck Grass­ley and Joni Ernst. Ernst ini­tial­ly vot­ed No but switched her vote with Grass­ley stand­ing beside her.

Judge Estudil­lo built a prac­tice as an immi­gra­tion lawyer before being named to the supe­ri­or court bench by Gov­er­nor Inslee.

“He rep­re­sent­ed clients in tough removal pro­ceed­ings, suc­cess­ful­ly pre­sent­ing and try­ing claims for asy­lum, can­cel­la­tion of removal and oth­er forms of relief from depor­ta­tion,” Mur­ray said in a Sen­ate speech sup­port­ing the nomination.

“He also con­sis­tent­ly pro­vid­ed pro bono ser­vices at immi­gra­tion legal clin­ics to help immi­grants apply­ing for cit­i­zen­ship and often pre­sent­ed infor­ma­tion in Span­ish about immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy and pro­ce­dure all around the community.”

After his appoint­ment by Inslee, Judge Estudil­lo was twice reelect­ed to his Supe­ri­or Court seat, the sec­ond time unopposed.

After Don­ald Trump sent a parade of white con­ser­v­a­tives to the fed­er­al bench vet­ted by the Fed­er­al­ist Soci­ety, Pres­i­dent Biden pledged to diver­si­ty the make­up of the U.S. Dis­trict and Appel­late Courts. He has also pledged to put an African Amer­i­can woman on the U.S. Supreme Court when there is a vacancy.